Biography:

George Wolf (1777-1840) was Pennsylvania's seventh governor under the 1790 Constitution. Wolf was born in Northampton County to George and Maria Wolf. He attended Allen Township Classical Academy, worked in several county offices, and formed a private law practice in Easton, Pennsylvania. With his election to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1824, he broke into national politics and later joined the Jacksonian Democratic Party. He won the Pennsylvania governor's race in 1829. Among his most notable achievements was the establishment of a statewide school system that ensured a proper education to all children regardless of financial or social status. In 1836, after losing the 1835 governor's race to Anti-Mason candidate Joseph Ritner, Wolf was appointed the nation's first comptroller of the U. S. Treasury by President Andrew Jackson. Wolf married Mary Erb in 1798 and the couple had at least eight sons and one daughter. Wolf died in Philadelphia in 1840.