Description

John Addison Gurley (b. 1813 –  d. 1863) was a U.S. Congressman from Ohio during the early part of the American Civil War. He was appointed as the first Governor of the Arizona Territory, but died on August 19, 1863 before taking office.

Gurley was born in East Hartford, Connecticut on December 9, 1813. He attended the district schools and received academic instruction before becoming an apprentice in the hatter’s trade. He studied theology and became a minister, serving as pastor of the Universalist Church in Methuen, Massachusetts, from 1835–1838. He moved west to Cincinnati in 1838 and became owner and editor of the Star and Sentinel (later called the Star in the West), and also served as a pastor there. Gurley retired from the ministry in 1850, sold his newspaper in 1854, and retired to his farm near Cincinnati. He was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for election in 1856 to the Thirty-fifth United States Congress. However, he was elected to the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1859 – March 3, 1863). He was defeated in his reelection bid in 1862 to the Thirty-eighth Congress. During the Civil War, Gurley served as colonel and aide-de-camp on the staff of General John C. Frémont in 1861 when Congress was not in session.

In 1863, Gurley was appointed Governor of the Arizona Territory by President Abraham Lincoln, but he died of a sudden attack of appendicitis in Green Township (near Cincinnati), on the eve of his departure to assume his duties. He was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati. Granite Mountain (Arizona), a prominent feature outside Prescott, Arizona was originally named Mount Gurley in his honor.