Lawyer
Centurion, 1894–1934
Born 10 June 1850 in New York (Manhattan), New York
Died 30 January 1934 in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Buried Green-Wood Cemetery
, Brooklyn, New York
Proposed by Payson Merrill and William Bispham
Elected 5 May 1894 at age forty-three
Archivist’s Note: Brother of Oliver I. Lay; uncle of Charles Downing Lay; great-uncle of Oliver Ingraham Lay
Century Memorial
George Cowles Lay practiced law in New York and St. Paul during sixty-three successive years; appearing before the Minnesota probate court only a year ago, at the ripe age of eighty-three. He was a man of avocations; his long practice of the law was varied by interest in music and history. In the neighborhoods where he lived, Lay was best known as helper of the unfortunate; a quest which friends described as his ruling passion. In the belief of his intimates, he would have come to be a widely-known philanthropist had he accumulated wealth, instead of using his modest surplus for his charities as he earned it.
Alexander Dana Noyes
1935 Century Association Yearbook
