Gazlay Family History
 

FamilyJohn Gerow Gazley

DIRECT DESCENDANT OF JOHN GAZLAY (from England c.1715)
John Gerow Gazley7 (George Gazley,6 Orlando Gazley,5 Elnathan Gazley,4 Joseph Gazlay,3 John Gazlay,2 John Gazlay1)

Parents

FatherGeorge Henry Gazley (19 October 1868 - 19 January 1937)
MotherElizabeth Rosilla ‘Bessie’ Gerow (5 September 1872 - 16 September 1961)

Personal Information

Record Created: 16 November 2012; Last Edited: 3 February 2022 
Person ID4407
NameJohn Gerow Gazley
GenderMale
Born 6 April 1895 in Patterson, Putnam County, New York1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Married 2 September 1922 in Rutland County, Vermont to Lois Cassidy5, 8
Married to Elizabeth G. Tinsley9
Died 20 August 1991 in Hanover, Grafton County, New Hampshire1, 7

Biography

In a letter to Lee Gazlay dated 28 January 1987, John provided interesting details about himself and his family:9

“Thanks you so much for your recent letter about the Gazley clan. All I know about the genealogy of my branch of the family is summarized in the chart above [not shown here]. I am sorry I do not know earlier generations. I think our branch of the family have consistently spelled the name with an e rather than an a. Once when I was in England I met Sir Stephen Gaselee who helped me with some research. Did you know that there is a tiny village in Suffolk county in England named Gazely? I visited it in 1938. It is a charming place, just a crossroads. There are no Gazleys living there.

My branch of the family had their homestead in Dutchess County, New York. The village where the homestead was located was Staatsburgh. It is a thoroughly delightful little house, very unpretentious, with severe classical lines. It is located near Hyde Park where F. D. R. was brought up. My uncle by marriage knew the Roosevelt family. He was a cousin also of Alf Landon. His name was Sextus Landon.

My father and his two brothers, Elnathan and Raymond, were all hotel men. Uncle Raymond was manager of a large hotel in Clarksburg, W. Virginia. My father started the Small Palantine Hotel in Newburgh, N.Y. He became room clerk at the Waldorf in N.Y. City and then became manager of the St. Regis, and later at the Chicago Lafatte Hotel. For some years he was in Dallas. My sister and I had great thrills at having lunch at the St. Regis with my father. He died in his early ’sixties from heart and bladder trouble.

My sister Madeline Gazley Wood married Orla Wood, an engineer with the G. E. in Schenectady, N.Y., where she lived most of her life. She is now 86 years old and in a retirement home. She has had much tragedy in her life. Her oldest daughter, Joann Wood Sayles, developed multiple sclerosis as a young woman. Her younger daughter, Joyce Van Patten, died of a heart attack in the church where she was attending the funeral of her father, still a relatively young man. My sister has six grandchildren and one great grandchild.

As a young child, I was brought up in Harlem, New York City. Then we moved to White Plains, New York, where I attended high school. I attended Amherst College and graduated in 1917. After a short period of service in World War I, I took courses in the Columbia University Graduate School in the Department of History.

I taught European History for three years at Columbia, and then came to Dartmouth in 1923 and taught Modern Europe and World History and International Relations until my retirement in 1962. I have published two large books and several pamphlets and articles. My first book was “American Opinion of German Unification, 1848-1871,” published in 1926 by the Columbia University Press. The second book was “The Life of Arthur Young,” published in 1973 by the American Philosophical Society. During the last few years I have developed Parkinson’s Disease. The progress of the disease has been arrested, but I have trouble walking, eating, writing (as you can see), getting into and out of cars, etc. I am 91 years old.

I have made five trips to western and central Europe. In 1950 I was on the civilian faculty at the National War College in Washington. In the academic year 1964-65 I was a visiting professor in English History at the University of Illinois in Champagne, Illinois.

In your letter you mentioned talking with my two sons, Richard Harold and Lawrence John Gazley. Richard has one child, a son, Richard H. Gazley, Jr. Lawrence has three children, a son, John Vincent Gazley, and two daughters, Barbara Gazley and Pamela Gazley.”

Person/Family

Spouse 1FamilyLois Cassidy
Born ca. 1896 in Vermont
Married 2 September 1922 in Rutland County, Vermont to John Gerow Gazley
Died 30 January 1957
  
Children of John Gerow Gazley and Lois Cassidy:
  
+1.FamilyRichard Harold Gazley
Born 31 July 1932 in New York
Adopted(child of unidentified parents, adopted by John Gerow Gazley and Lois Cassidy)
Married to Mary O’Brien
Died 25 May 2011
  
+2.FamilyLawrence John Gazley
Born 7 April 1938 in New York
Adopted(child of unidentified parents, adopted by John Gerow Gazley and Lois Cassidy)
Married to Elizabeth ‘Abby’ Koch
Died 7 November 2002
  
Spouse 2FamilyElizabeth G. Tinsley (daughter of Roy Edward Tinsley and Frances Woods)
Born 20 December 1912 in Pearisburg, Giles County, Virginia
Married to Samuel Ardinger Bassett
Married to John Gerow Gazley
Died 22 June 2003 in Windsor, Windsor County, Vermont
  

Sources

  1. Social Security Death Index (SSDI), Rootsweb (website). Gazley, John G., no. 002-24-2154; born 6 April 1895; died 20 August 1991; last residence: New Hampshire.
  2. U.S. Federal Census, 1900, New York, New York County, Manhattan, Enumeration District 845, Sheet No. 5B, family of George H. Gazley (31, New York, Oct 1868, hotel clerk; wife of 7 years Elezebeth [sic] J. Gazley (22, New York, Sept. 1872, 1 child, 1 living); son John J. Gazley (5, New York, Apr. 1895).
  3. U.S. Federal Census, 1910, Illinois, Cook County, Chicago, Enumeration District 974, Sheet No. 8B, family of Elizabeth Gazley (37, New York, divorced); son John Gazley (15, New York); daughter Madeline Gazley (9, New York).
  4. U.S. Federal Census, 1920, New York, Westchester County, White Plains City, Enumeration District 201, Sheet No. 4A and 4B, family of Elizabeth Gazley (47, New York, divorced); son John G. Gazley (24, New York, teacher); daughter Madeline Gazley (19, New York, clerical, government); mother Frances P. Gerow (74, New York, widow); plus 2 lodgers.
  5. U.S. Federal Census, 1930, New Hampshire, Grafton County, Hanover Village, Enumeration District 5-17, Sheet No. 18B, family of John G. Gazley (35, New York, professor, Dart. College [Dartmouth]); wife Lois c. Gazley (34, Vermont).
  6. U.S. Federal Census, 1940, New Hampshire, Grafton County, Hanover, Enumeration District 5-24, Sheet No. 62A, family of John Gazley (45, New York, professor, college); wife Lois Gazley (44, Vermont); son Richard Gazley (7, New York); son Lawrence (2, New York); mother-in-law Lucinda Cassidy (77, Vermont, widow).
  7. Obituary, The New York Times, 25 August 1991, John Gerow Gazley, died 20 August 2012. The article provides vital and biographical details, and names his first and second wives, sons, and stepsons.
  8. Amherst Graduates Quarterly, Volume 12, November 1922 to August 1923; Published by the Alumni Council of Amherst College. Page 46. Married, at Rutland, VT., on 2 September 1922, John G. Gazley and Miss Lois Cassidy.
  9. Letter, from John Gerow Gazley to Lee Gazlay, 28 January 1987, as a follow-up to a lengthy phone conversation. In the letter, John provides substantial biographical details and vital statistics of his branch of the family originating with Orlando Gazley.