James Gerry

James Gerry Jr. (August 14, 1796 – July 19, 1873) was an American politician and physician who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1839 to 1843, representing the 11th congressional district of Pennsylvania as a Democrat in the 26th and 27th United States Congresses. He was born near Rising Sun, Cecil County, Maryland, on August 14, 1796, to James Gerry Sr. and Florah Low, in a region where Maryland and Pennsylvania agricultural communities were closely connected socially and economically.

Gerry received his early education at West Nottingham Academy, a noted preparatory school in Maryland that served many young men from the Mid-Atlantic states in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. After completing his studies there, he pursued medical training at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, one of the leading medical institutions of the period. Upon completion of his medical education, he relocated to Pennsylvania and, in 1824, commenced the practice of medicine in Shrewsbury, York County, where he would remain professionally and personally rooted for the rest of his life.

In his personal life, Gerry married Sarah Salome Hoffman in 1830. Their marriage took place during the years in which he was establishing himself as a physician in Shrewsbury, and his growing professional reputation in the community provided the foundation for his later entry into public life. As a practicing physician in a small but developing town, he would have been closely acquainted with the daily concerns of his neighbors, a perspective that informed his subsequent political career.

Gerry entered national politics as a member of the Democratic Party at a time of intense partisan conflict and significant national change. He was elected as a Democrat to the 26th United States Congress and was reelected to the 27th United States Congress, serving from March 4, 1839, to March 3, 1843, as the representative of Pennsylvania’s 11th congressional district. As a member of the Democratic Party representing Pennsylvania, James Gerry contributed to the legislative process during two terms in office. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, marked by debates over economic policy, the role of the federal government, and territorial expansion, and he participated in the democratic process by representing the interests of his constituents in these national deliberations.

At the conclusion of his second term, Gerry did not continue in national office and returned to private life in Shrewsbury. Following his tenure in Congress, he resumed the practice of medicine, again serving the local community as a physician. He continued in active medical practice until his retirement in 1870, closing a professional career in medicine that had spanned nearly half a century and had been punctuated by his four years of congressional service.

James Gerry Jr. died in Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania, on July 19, 1873, at the age of 76. He was interred in Lutheran Cemetery in Shrewsbury, reflecting his long-standing ties to the town where he had practiced medicine, raised a family, and to which he had returned after serving in the national legislature. His life combined professional medical service with a period of federal legislative activity during a formative era in the history of the United States.