Mayor and Iowa House He was elected
mayor of Burlington in 1863
Governor He ran for governor of Iowa in 1876 and won, receiving 121,546 votes, against 79,353 for John P. Irish, 10,639 for Elias Jessup and 38,228 for D. P. Stubbs. His plurality over Irish was 42,193. He was inaugurated January 17, 1878. He was re-elected in 1879 by a vote of: Gear, 157,571; Trimble, 85,056; Campbell, 45,439; Dungan, 3,258, Gear's majority over all competitors, 23,828. His second inauguration took place in January 1880. During his tenure, he aimed to reduce the large state deficit, left by previous administrations and he secured legislation that dissolved the state's Civil War debt.
US House and Senate and Federal Appointment He was elected as a
Republican to represent
Iowa's 1st congressional district in the
U.S. House for the
Fiftieth and
Fifty-first Congresses, serving from March 4, 1887, to March 3, 1891. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890, but was appointed by President
Benjamin Harrison as
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, serving from 1892 to 1893. He returned to the U.S. House for one final term, winning the 1892 1st district election, then serving in the
Fifty-third Congress, from March 4, 1893, to March 3, 1895. In 1894, Gear was elected by the
Iowa General Assembly to the United States Senate. He was reelected in 1900. He served from March 4, 1895, until his death on July 14, 1900, before the start of his second term. He had been chairman of the
United States Senate Committee on Pacific Railroads in the
Fifty-fourth through
Fifty-Sixth Congresses. == Personal life ==