One of the Greatest Secretaries In History. GEORGE W. ELY was born January 6, 1840, in West Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1857, at 17, he enlisted in the Seventh Regiment of the New York National Guard. George William Ely was a soldier in the Civil War and watchdog of the New York Stock Exchange, a towering figure in both fields. George W. Ely, as Secretary of the Stock Exchange, was designated generally in outer circles of Wall Street as the man...