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George H. Thacher, the subject of the present sketch, obtained his earlier instruction at a private school in Albany kept by Professor Whitbeck. At the age of thirteen he went to Williamstown, Mass., where he was placed under the tuition of Professor Griffin, an able and successful teacher, and by him was carefully prepared for college. In 1868, at the age of sixteen, he entered Williams College in the class of '72, the celebrated Mark Hopkins being the then president of that institution. After leaving college Mr. Thacher took a short business course in Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College, and then entered the car-wheel manufactory of his father as an apprentice and clerk. He afterwards acted as foreman of the establishment. Always of an inventive and progressive turn of mind he was ever on the alert for ways and means by which he might cultivate as well as qualify his tastes in the mechanical arts. In 1880 he struck out for Colorado in the early and stirring days of Leadville, as the representative of some eastern stockholders in the mining business, and there his native born energy was not idle. He entered with great zest and alacrity into the mining operations himself, remaining in this field of labor during the years 1881, 1882 and 1883.
Returning to Albany in the autumn of 1883, a short time after the death of D. S. Lathrop, one of the partners in the firm of Thacher, Lathrop & Co., he was made a partner in the concern, and since the death of his father in 1887 he has, in connection with his brother, John Boyd Thacher, conducted the business under the old name of George H. Thacher & Co. In 1887 he succeeded his father as a director in the Albany City National Bank, becoming vice-president of that institution in 1889. Mr. Thacher is a trustee of the Albany City Savings Institution, trustee of the First Reformed Dutch church, trustee of the Fort Orange Club, a member of the Albany Canoe, Camera, and Country Clubs, and in the Masonic Fraternity has attained to the 32°. In May, 1892. he was appointed a water commissioner of the city of Albany by Mayor Manning, but after vigorous though futile efforts to give to the city a new and abundant supply of pure and wholesome water, he resigned the office December 1, 1894.
Of a rather slender physique, but inheriting a vigorous constitution, Mr. Thacher is a gentlemen of pleasing address, easy in his manners, cordial in his friendships, generous in his impulses, with a happy faculty of conducting successfully business matters, and a supreme and lasting love for outdoor sports and pastimes of the present day.
In college Mr. Thacher was a skillful boxer, oarsman, ball-player, swimmer, and skater, and to this day retains much of his athletic excellence. He has also attained high rank as an amateur musician, playing the cello with rare taste and ability, and some of his musical compositions are of great merit. His knowledge of banking as well as of business matters is extensive and deep. His judgment is sound and discriminating, and among the industrious, useful and progressive citizens of Albany, in whose welfare he has taken a lively interest, no name shines with fairer luster than than that of George H. Thacher.
In 1880 Mr. Thacher married Emma Louise Bennett, of Albany. They have five children living: George H., Jr., John Boyd, 2d, Thomas Oxenbridge, Kenelm Roland, and Edwin Throckmorton. The family reside at 111 Washington avenue.
George Hornell Thacher, vice-president of the Albany City National Bank, and one of the proprietors of the extensive car-wheel manufactory of the city, was born in Albany on the 20th of November, 1851. He comes from a genuine New England ancestry, many of whose members were influential and noted personages in the history of the old Bay State. He is a son of the late Hon. George Hornell Thacher, who was born in Hornellsville, Steuben county, N. Y., on the 4th of June, 1818, and whose mother was a daughter of Judge Hornell of Hornellsville, after whom the town is named. The elder Mr. Thacher married Ursula Jane Boyd, and they were the parents of the Hon. John Boyd Thacher and George H. Thacher. Mr. Thacher's ancestors, extending back in a direct line from his father, were Samuel Olney Thacher, born February 9, 1789, who married Martha, daughter of the Hon. George Hornell, 1814; Nathaniel Thacher, who was born in 1767, and who married Lydia Place, of Gloucester, R. I., in 1787; Samuel Thacher, born at Middleboro, Mass., in 1717, who married Mrs. Sarah Kent in 1758; Peter Thacher, of Middleboro, Mass., born in 1688, who married in 1711, Margaret Mary, daughter of Samuel Prince, of Boston, a minister who was graduated from Harvard College in 1796; Peter Thacher, born at Salem, Mass., in 1651, who married Theodora, daughter of Rev. John Oxen bridge, of Boston, who was also a graduate of Harvard College in 1671, and a minister; and Rev. Thomas Thacher, born in England in 1620, married Elizabeth Partridge, 1643, the original member of this branch of the Thacher family in America, who became a distinguished divine and first pastor of the Old South church of Boston.
