George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.
| George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
February 14, 1859 Galesburg, Illinois |
| Died | November 22, 1896 (aged 37) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Cause of death | Typhoid fever |
| Education | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1881) |
| Known for | The original Chicago Ferris Wheel and the Ferris wheel concept |
| Parent(s) | George Washington Gale Ferris, Sr. (1818–1895) Martha Edgerton Hyde |
George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. (February 14, 1859 – November 22, 1896) was an American engineer. He is mostly known for creating the original Ferris Wheel for the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition.
Ferris was born on February 14, 1859, in Galesburg, Illinois, the town founded by his namesake, George Washington Gale. His parents were George Washington Gale Ferris Sr. and Martha Edgerton Hyde. He had an older brother named Frederick Hyde, born in 1843. In 1864, five years after Ferris was born, his family sold their dairy farm and moved to Nevada. For two years, they lived in Carson Valley.
From 1868 to 1890, his father, George Washington Gale Ferris Sr., owned the Sears–Ferris House, at 311 W. Third, Carson City, Nevada. Originally built in about 1863 by Gregory A. Sears, a pioneer Carson City businessman, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places for Carson City on February 9, 1979.
Ferris Senior was an agriculturalist/horticulturalist, noteworthy in Carson City's development for much of the city's landscaping during the 1870s, and for importing a large number of the trees from the east that were planted throughout the city.
Ferris left Nevada in 1875 to attend the California Military Academy in Oakland, where he graduated in 1876. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, in the class of 1881 with a degree in Civil Engineering. At RPI he was a charter member of the local chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity and a member of the Rensselaer Society of Engineers. He was made a member of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Alumni Hall of Fame in 1998.
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