, was one the six officers who escorted him to the
First Presidential inauguration in 1789 Bleecker was born in New York City on January 1, 1800. His father, Leonard Bleecker was an
American Revolutionary War veteran, a New York assemblyman, and a personal friend and correspondent of
George Washington. He was a direct descendant of
Jan Jansen Bleecker. He then served as Major general under the
Marquis de Lafayette, and witnessed with him the surrender of British
General Cornwallis at the
Siege of Yorktown. Leonard was also one of the founders of
Wall Street, being a founder of the
New York Stock Exchange through the
Buttonwood Agreement, and was a brother of
Anthony Lispenard Bleecker. His granddaughter, Fannie Amelia Bleecker, married Frank Willey Yale (b. 1854), a relative of
Charles G. Yale and
Yale Gracey, members of the
Yale family of
Yale University. At the age of 20, George W. Bleecker joined the
United States Navy as a midshipman, serving for the next five years. He then worked in the publishing and book business. From 1833 to 1844, he served as principal to different private female seminaries and taught over 1,400 pupils from across the country. He then worked in the
New York Custom House, first as an examiner in the Appraiser's Department then as an inspector in the Collector's Department. In 1857, he was elected to the
New York State Assembly as a
Democrat, representing the Kings County 7th District. He served in the Assembly in
1858. In 1821, Bleecker married Phebe S. Jordan. She died in 1826. He then married Ann Eliza Watson. He was a
Baptist, and served as secretary of the New York Sunday School Teachers' Association. Bleecker died in Brooklyn on November 23, 1859. He was buried in
Green-Wood Cemetery. == References ==