Governor George Edward Lounsbury

GEORGE EDWARD LOUNSBURY, brother of Connecticut Governor Phineas Chapman Lounsbury (1887-1889), was born in Poundridge, New York, on May 7, 1838. He graduated from Yale University in 1863, and in 1866 graduated from Berkeley Divinity School in Middletown, Connecticut. He partnered with his brother Phineas in launching two successful shoe factories, the Lounsbury Brothers Inc., and Lounsbury, Matthewson, and Company. Lounsbury also was an Episcopalian minister, but left the ministry when he became ill with a larynx infection. He entered politics as a member of the Connecticut State Senate, an office he held from 1894 to 1898. Lounsbury won the 1898 Republican gubernatorial nomination, and was elected Connecticut’s 41st governor. During his tenure, he vetoed several bills that helped to reduce the state deficit. One vetoed bill would have increased the school-funded commissioner’s salary, and another would have cut taxation on railroads. The legislature supported the governor on all vetoed bills. On January 9, 1901, Lounsbury left office, retiring from public service. Governor George E. Lounsbury died on August 16, 1904, and is buried at the Ridgefield Cemetery in Ridgefield, Connecticut.