Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/445

Rh and was admitted to the New Orleans bar in 1858. He early exhibited a fondness for the game of chess, and at the age of ten was taught the moves by his father. When twelve years of age he had encountered suc- cessfully the best amateurs of his native city. Dur- ing his collegiate course he contin- ued to take an in- terest in the game and in turn defeat- ed Eugene Rous- seau, his uncle, Er- nest Morphy, and John J. Lowen- thal, the Hunga- rian player, win- ning a majority of the games. In the the first American chess congress in New York city, where he met and vanquished the best players on the continent. On returning home he issued, in January, 1858, a chal- lenge to the chess amateurs and professionals of America, offering the odds of pawn and move, but this was not accepted. During the following sea- son he first exhibited his ability to play without seeing the board, sometimes carrying on seven games at once. In June. 1858, Morphy sailed for Europe for the purpose of meeting Staunton, the chess champion. In London he again defeated Lowenthal, winning nine games out of fourteen, two being drawn. Mr. Staunton, who had fre- quently promised to meet Morphy, postponed the conflict from day to day, and, except in consulta- tion games, they never met. On 26 Aug., Morphy attended the annual meeting of the British chess association at Birmingham, where he played eight games simultaneously without seeing the boards, winning six, losing one, and drawing one. In Septemljer he went to Paris, where he first played eight games with Herr Harrwitz, winning five, losing two. and drawing one, whereupon Harrwitz resigned the match on the plea of indis- position. After defeating the best French players at the Cafe de la Regence, Morphy encountered the German chess champion, Adolph Anderssen, and won seven out of eleven games, two being drawn. He subsequently played six oif-hand games with his German competitor, winning five and losing one. Morphy also played blindfolded simultaneously against eight of the strongest Parisian players. Of these he won six games and drew two, the play gen- erally being of a more brilliant character than that at Birmingham. This feat he repeated on several occasions, both in London and in this country. In November, 1858, he offered to give any French player the odds of pawn and move in a match game, the challenge including Harrwitz and being especially intended for him, but the latter took no notice of it. On leaving Paris in April, Morphy was given a farewell banquet, at which his bust was crowned with laurel by the French players. After sojourning for a time in London, where he repeated his previous triumphs,, he sailed for home. Soon after his return to New Orleans he gave up chess- playing in order to devote himself more entirely to his profession. Several years later he was at- tacked by a mental disease that finally incapaci- tated him from all intellectual exertion and from which he never recovered.

MORRELL, Benjamin, navigator, b. in Worcester county, Mass., in 1795 ; d. in 1839. He became captain of a whaling ship, and published " A Narrative of Four Voyages to the South Sea, North and South Pacific Ocean, Chinese Sea, Ethi- opic and Southern Atlantic Ocean, Indian and Antarctic Ocean " (New York, 1832). " These," says Chancellor Kent in his " Course of English Read- ing," '• were private trading - voyages, but per- formed with admirable skill and with enthusiastic spirit and enterprise."

MORRELL, Imogene Robinson, artist, b. in Attleboro, Bristol co., Mass. Her maiden name was Robinson, and in 1869 she married Abram Morrell. She began her art education at the age of sixteen, at Newark, N. J., and subsequently con- tinued it in New York city. After teaching art at Charlestown and Auburndale, Mass., she went in 1856 to Diisseldorf, Germany, where she was a pupil of Adolf Schroedter and of Camphausen, the court painter. In 1864 she visited Paris and studied un- der Pran5ois Louis Fran^ais and Thomas Couture. Her principal productions during her sojourn in the French capital, where she resided for over ten years, were " The First Battle of the Puritans " and " Washington Welcoming the Provision Trains at Newburg, N. Y., in 1778" (1874). She has also painted a " Historical Portrait of Gen. John A. Dix," which was afterward purchased for the capi- tol at Washington (1882) ; and portraits of Howell Cobb and John C. Spencer, ex-secretaries of the U. S. treasury. She resides at present (1888) in Washington, D. C, where she devotes herself to portrait-painting, and where she teaches in the " National academy of fine arts," which was estab- lished by her in 1879. Her two large historical pictures, " Washington " and the " Battle of the Puritans." have been highly praised both in this country and in France.

MORRELL, Thomas, clergyman, b. in New York citv, 22 Nov., 1747 ; d. in Elizabethtown, N. J., 9 Aug., 1888. In 1792 the family removed to Elizabethtown, N. J., and Thomas engaged in business with his father until the beginning of the Revolutionary war. On receiving the news of the battle of Lexington a militia company was raised, of which he was chosen captain. His first military exploit was the capture, about forty miles from Sandy Hook, of the " Green Mountain Valley." of twelve guns, laden with provisions for the British army. This he accomplished without the loss of a man. His second achievement was the safe conveyance of a large quantity of powder through a hostile section of New Jersey for Gen. Washington in Boston. In June, 1776, he was made captain in the Continental army, and ordered to raise a company of seventy-five effective men. Capt. Morrell wasseverely wounded at the battle of Flatbush, and only escaped falling into the hands of the enemy by feigning death. In 1777 he was promoted major of the 4th New Jersey regiment, and was present at Brandywine and Germantown. After this he was compelled to resign on account of ill health. Returning to business in Elizabethtown, he became a member of the Methodist church in 1786, and at once began to preach. From 1787'till 1803 he labored successively in New York city, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. He then returned to Elizabethtown, where he discharged all the duties of his pastorate until 1822. Subsequently he confined himself to preaching once a day on the Sabbath until he had reached the advanced age of eighty-one. Father Morrell at his death had been fifty-three years a preacher of the gospel, and was one of the" pioneers of American Methodism.