George R. Lunn

George Richard Lunn (June 23, 1873 – November 27, 1948) was an American clergyman and politician from New York. He was the first Socialist mayor in the state of New York, a U.S. Representative from 1917 to 1919, and Lieutenant Governor from 1923 to 1924.

George R. Lunn was born June 23, 1873 on a farm located near the small town of Lenox, Taylor County, Iowa. His parents, Martin Adolphus Lunn and the former Martha Bratton, reared 6 surviving children, four boys and two girls, with three others dying in infancy.

The son and grandson of farmers, Lunn was raised in a conservative religious household which strictly observed the Sabbath and regarded the playing of musical instruments in church to be an unacceptable nod to secularity. The family relocated to the city of Des Moines when George was just a boy, and he quit school at the age of 12 to work there as a paperboy.

At the age of 17 Lunn left home and briefly relocated to Council Bluffs, Iowa. He then made his way further west to Omaha, Nebraska, where he worked as the driver of a delivery wagon. As a teenager, Lunn decided to enter the Christian ministry and he began three years of preparatory educational work to make up the high school education that he lacked.

He was accepted to Bellevue College in Bellevue, Nebraska, enrolling in the fall of 1892 and graduating in 1897. In 1893 the 20-year old Lunn was approached by the congregation of a small church in La Platte, Nebraska, located five miles south of Bellevue, and was asked to become their pastor. Although he had never preached before, church parishioners were not aware of this fact and Lunn accepted the position. He would retain the position for several years, paid out of the church's weekly collections.

Lunn was anxious to attend the Princeton Theological Seminary and in the fall of 1897 he enrolled there. However, near the end of his first year at Princeton the Spanish–American War erupted. He returned home to Omaha to take over a Presbyterian pastorate for the summer, where he was convinced to take a position offered him as a chaplain in the United States Army, holding the rank of Corporal as part of the Company A of the Third Nebraska Regiment. He spent the duration of the brief war stationed in Jacksonville, Florida.

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