Medary, Samuel (25 February 1801–07 November 1864), editor, politician, and territorial governor of Minnesota and Kansas, was born in Montgomery Square, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the son of Jacob Medary, a farmer, and Mercy Bennett, a member of the Society of Friends. He attended an academy in Norristown, where he wrote poetry for a local newspaper and taught intermittently in a nearby Quaker school to pay for his education. After spending five years in Montgomery County, Maryland, and Georgetown, District of Columbia, he settled in Batavia, Ohio, in 1825 and was elected county surveyor, county auditor, and a school trustee. He married Eliza Scott in 1823; they had twelve children....
