Gideon Hawley was an American lawyer and educational administrator. He served as a director of the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad and treasurer of the Utica & Schenectady Railroad, and was appointed to the first Smithsonian Board of Regents in 1846.
Background
Gideon Hawley was born on September 26, 1785 in Huntington, Connecticut, United States. He was the son of Gideon Hawley and Sarah (Curtiss) Hawley and a descendant of Joseph Hawley who came to America in 1629 and later settled in Stratford, Connecticut. He moved with his parents to Ballston, New York, in 1794 and in 1798 to Charlton, New York.
Education
Hawley graduated from Ballston Academy, entered Union College, graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1809, and was appointed tutor in the college for the following year. He also studied law with Henry Yates in Schenectady and in the office of Bleecker & Sedgwick, Albany.
Career
Hawley was admitted to the Albany bar in May 1812, and was also master in chancery from 1812 to 1830. As director of the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad and treasurer of the Utica & Schenectady Railroad, he shared in the pioneer work of railroad development in New York State. From 1819 to 1853 he was secretary of the Albany Insurance Company.
His most notable service to the state, however, was in the field of education. In 1812, the year of his admission to the bar, he was chosen the first superintendent of public instruction for the state of New York, and between 1812 and 1821, when the office was abolished, he laid the foundations for the public elementary schools of the state. The Board of Regents, who were guiding the development of the private academies, appointed him secretary in 1814, an office which he held until 1841. In his dual capacity as secretary of the Board of Regents and superintendent of public instruction he became the dominant figure in state education.
He created the executive functions of the official variously known as superintendent and commissioner of education and gave especial significance to the judicial functions of the educational executive.
In 1842 he became a member of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York and continued in that office until his death twenty-eight years later.
From 1846 to 1861 he was a member of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Aside from official reports, his only publication of any consequence seems to have been Essays on Truth and Knowledge (1856), containing an essay previously issued under the title, Definitions of Knowledge and Truth.
Achievements
Connections
On October 19, 1814, Hawley married Margarita Lansing, a member of an Albany family of social, political, and financial distinction. Two children were born to them.