>>The Gerry 5 (pronounced with a hard G) was the built for Marblehead, MA by Hunneman & Co. of Boston, MA and delivered on July 1, 1845. The Hunneman serial number is 267. The engine was named after Elbridge Gerry, a native of Marblehead, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a delegate of the Constitutional Convention. He refused to sign the Constitution because it obligated the new federal government to assume the unpaid revolutionary war debt of the states. He held a significant amount of that debt, and his belief that the new government should not assume that debt made it less likely that he would collect what was owed to him. He later became Governor of Massachusetts, and the fifth Vice President of the United States. The political term gerrymander, constructing a legislative district to favor the election of a person from a particular political party, resulted from his action as Governor.
