George Geddes (engineer)

George Geddes was a prominent engineer and agricultural expert, and a New York state senator. He was born at Fairmount, New York on February 14 1809. He died there October 8 1883. He was the son of engineer, surveyor and U.S. Congressman James Geddes.

Geddes studied engineering and surveying in Middletown, Connecticut, and law in Skaneateles, New York. He was a member of the state Senate for two terms from 1847 to 1851, and was one of three state senators instrumental in the passage of the 1848 New York State law permitting women to hold property independently of their husbands, the first of its kind in the United States. Originally a Whig, he later joined the Republican Party.

Geddes was well-known nationally in agricultural circles for his model farm at Fairmount, and was an early mentor to Frederick Law Olmsted.

His son, James Geddes (born 1831) was a civil engineer and agriculturist.

Bibliography

*Holt, Michael (1999). "The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party". Oxford: Oxford University Press.
*Mitchell, Broadus (1924). "Frederick Law Olmstead: Critic of the Old South". Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
*Stanton, Elizabeth Cady et al. (1887). "History of Woman Suffrage". Rochester: Self-published.