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
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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.
