George Geddes was a prominent engineer and agricultural expert, and a New York state senator

New York State Senate

The New York State Senate is one of two houses in the New York State Legislature and has members each elected to two-year terms. There are no limits on the number of terms one may serve...

. He was born at Fairmount, New York

Fairmount, New York

Fairmount is a hamlet in Onondaga County, New York, United States. The Fairmount area was originally part of the New York State Salt Reservation, but was annexed to the Town of Camillus in 1834. Prior to that date, census enumerations for Fairmount were included in the Town of Onondaga census...

 on February 14, 1809. He died there October 8, 1883. He was the son of engineer, surveyor and U.S. Congressman James Geddes.

Geddes studied engineering and surveying in Middletown, Connecticut

Middletown, Connecticut

Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles south of Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated as a town under its original Indian name, Mattabeseck. It received its present name in 1653. In 1784, the central...

, and law in Skaneateles, New York

Skaneateles, New York

Skaneateles, New York may refer to:*Skaneateles, New York *Skaneateles, New York...

. He was a member of the state Senate for two terms from 1847 to 1851, and was one of three state senators instrumental in the passage of the 1848 New York State law permitting women to hold property independently of their husbands, the first of its kind in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. He served on the New York State Senate's Indian Affairs committee and wrote articles about Iroquois

Iroquois

The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...

 history and archaeology. Originally a Whig

Whig Party (United States)

The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...

, he later joined the Republican Party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

. He was an abolitionist, although his views on abolition were considered politically moderate by local standards of the time.

Geddes was well-known nationally in agricultural circles for his model farm at Fairmount, and was an early mentor to Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...

. He also built the first plank road

Plank road

A plank road or puncheon is a dirt path or road covered with a series of planks, similar to the wooden sidewalks one would see in a Western movie. Plank roads were very popular in Ontario, the U.S. Northeast and U.S. Midwest in the first half of the 19th century...

 in America, at North Syracuse, New York, in 1846.

His son, James Geddes (born 1831) was a civil engineer and agriculturist.