Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/514

 MORTON

MORTON

1892, and was secretary of agriculture in the cabinet of President Cleveland, 1893-97. He received the honorary degree of A.B. from Union college in 1854, and that of LL.D. from Williams college in 1895. He established his home at Arbor Lodge, adjoining Nebraska City, on a quarter section of land which he pre-empted from the government at $1.25 per acre in 1857, having been a resident on the same from June 1, 1855. He established the Conservative in 1896 as an inde- pendent newspaper and under his editorship it soon gained a large circulation. He was also connected with nearly every manufacturing industry in his city. His wife died in 1881 at Arbor Lodge, Neb., and he died at the home of his son, Mark Morton, at Lake Forest, 111., April 27, 1902.

nORTON, Levi Parsons, Vice-President of the United States, was born at Shoreham, Vt., May 16, 1824 ; son of the Rev. Daniel Oliver and Lucretia (Parsons) Morton ; grandson of Ebenezer,

Jr., and Hannah

(Dailey) Morton ; great-grandson of Capt. Ebenezer and Mercy (Foster) Mor- ton, and of Daniel and Hannah Dailey, of Easton, Maine ; greats-grandson of John, Jr., and Mary (Ring) Morton and of John and Hannah (Stetson) Foster, and great-'grandson of the Hon. John and Lettice (Han ford) Morton of Middle- boro, Mass., and of Andrew Ring. His first an- cestor in America, George Morton (or Mourt), financial agent of the Plymouth colony, born in Yorkshire, England, 1585, married in 1612, Juliana, daughter of Alexander Carpenter ; took passage in the ship Anne, which arrived in Ply- mouth, Mass., in June, 1623, and was the author of *' Mourt'a Relation" (1622), giving the earliest account of the Pilgrim enterprise. His maternal ancestor, Joseph Parsons, was a comet in an English cavalry troop, and was father of the first child born in Northampton, Mass. Levi Parsons Morton was educated at Shoreham academy ; was employed in a country store at Enfield, Mass., 18:38-40: taught school at Boscawen, N.H., 1840- 41 ; was clerk in the general store of W. W. Ester- brook, in Concord, N.H., and in 1842 was given charge of a branch store at Hanover. Upon the failure of Mr. Esterbrook, Morton became a clerk in the employ of Mr. Beebe of New York, and in 1815, on reaching his majority, bought out Beebe's interest and engaged in the business for

/XU-Y^^^firyf^

himself. He removed to Boston, Mass., in 1849^ to accept a partnership with Mr. Beebe in the- dry goods business, and in 1854 established the dry goods house of Morton & Grinjiell, in New York city. The firm failed in 1861, and in 1862 he established the banking and brokerage house of L. P. Morton & Co., with Charles W. McCune as partner, and when Mr. McCune withdrew in 1863, Mr. Morton established the London house of Morton, Bums & Co. In 1868 George Bliss became a member of the New York house, the firm name being changed to Morton, Bliss & Co., and Sir John Rose entered the London house, which became Morton, Rose & Co., the Geneva award of $15,500,000 being paid through this house. The firm was also conspicuous for its sale of $500,000,000 of New York Central stock belonging to Cornelius Vanderbilt, to English purchasers. The firm of Morton, Bliss & Co. headed the syndicate formed to fund the national debt in 1896, and in 1899 went into voluntary liqui- dation, and was succeeded by the Morton Trust company. Mr. Morton was a Republican repre- sentative in the 46th congress, 1879-81 ; declined to accept the nomination for Vice-President from the Republican national convention in 1880, was appointed by President Garfield U.S. minister to France in 1881, having declined the position of secretary of the navy in his cabinet. He resigned the French mission in 1885, and returned to New York. He was elected Vice-President of the United States on the Republican ticket, with Benjamin Harrison for President, in 1888, serving 1889-93, but was not re-nominated in 1892. He was elected governor of the state of New York in 1894, defeating David B. Hill, the Democratic candidate, by a large plurality. While governor he signed the bill granting the charter to Greater New York. Upon the close of his term in 1896 he retired from politics, and gave his entire time to his banking interests and to beautifying his estate, " Ellerslie," at Rhinebeck-on-the-Hudson, where he also engaged in stock raising. He was twice married, first in 1866, to Lucy Kimball, of Flatlands, L.I., N.Y., who died in 1871, and secondly, in 1873, to Anna Livingston, daughter of William J. Street of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and they had five daughters. He became a member of several New York clubs, and of the Sons of the Revolution and the Mayflower Descendants. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Dartmouth in 1881, and by Middlebury in 1882. In 1885 he gave a valuable piece of property to Dartmouth college on which to erect a memorial hall ; and in 1885 he gave $10,000 to Middlebury college on condition that an equal amount of money should be raised, and the whole be used to found a professorship of modern languages.