Gallaher, Rt. Rev. John N.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Rt. Rev. John N. Gallaher, bishop of the English Protestant Episcopal diocese of Louisiana, died at New Orleans, December 7, 1891. He was born in Washington, Mason county, Ky., February 17, 1839. His preliminary education was received in the private schools of his birthplace, but in 1856 be entered the University of Virginia. After a two years' course there he came to Louisiana and studied law. At the beginning of the war Mr. Gallaher entered the confederate army as a private soldier in an independent company of cavalry, Buckner's guards. He was detailed to duty at headquarters as private secretary to General Buckner, and, as acting aid-de-camp, was with that officer at the battle of Fort Donelson, where he was captured and imprisoned for several months in the North. After his exchange in the summer of 1862 he was appointed aid to General Buckner and served with him through the campaign in Tennessee successively as captain, lieutenant-colonel and assistant adjutant-general. He was transferred with General Buckner to the trans-Mississippi department and served on his staff until the close of the war. In 1885 the Bishop resumed the study of law in New Orleans, after which he went to a law school at Lexington, Va., where he graduated and was admitted to the bar of Virginia, but went into practice in Louisville, Ky., being associated with Col. B. W. Wooley. Shortly after he became a candidate for holy orders, first studying privately in Kentucky and later in the General Theological seminary of New York city. He was ordained deacon in Louisville in 1868, and was assistant pastor of Christ church. In the winter of 1868 he was elected rector of Trinity church, New Orleans. In 1871 he was called to the Memorial church of Baltimore and two years later accepted the rectorship of Zion church, New York city, where he remained until his election in 1879 to the bishopric of Louisiana, succeeding the late Bishop Wilmer. He was consecrated February 5, 1880, in Trinity church, this city. He left a wife and five children, the eldest of whom is the wife of Assistant Bishop Sessums.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 483. Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.