Levi P. Morton
Levi Parsons Morton (May 16, 1824 – May 16, 1920) was the 22nd vice president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He also served as United States ambassador to France, as a U.S. representative from New York, and as the 31st governor of New York.
Levi P. Morton
May 16, 1920 (aged 96)
Rhinebeck, New York, U.S.
Rhinebeck Cemetery, Rhinebeck, New York
Daniel O. Morton (brother)
William Morton Grinnell (nephew)
7
Daniel Oliver Morton
Lucretia Parsons Morton
Investment banker
The son of a Congregational minister, Morton was born in Vermont and educated at public schools in Vermont and Massachusetts. He trained for a business career by clerking in stores and working in mercantile establishments in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. After relocating to New York City, Morton became a successful merchant, cotton broker, and investment banker.
Active in politics as a Republican, Morton was an ally of Roscoe Conkling. He was twice elected to the United States House of Representatives, and he served one full term, and one partial one (March 4, 1879 – March 21, 1881). In 1880, Republican presidential nominee James A. Garfield offered Morton the vice presidential nomination in an effort to win over Conkling loyalists who were disappointed that their choice for president, Ulysses S. Grant, had lost the Republican nomination to Garfield. Conkling advised Morton to decline, which he did. Garfield then offered the vice presidential nomination to another Conkling ally, Chester A. Arthur, who accepted.
After Garfield and Arthur were elected, Garfield nominated Morton to be Minister Plenipotentiary to France, and Morton served in Paris until 1885. In 1888, Morton was nominated for vice president on the Republican ticket with presidential nominee Benjamin Harrison; they were elected, and Morton served as vice president from 1889 to 1893. In 1894, Morton was the successful Republican nominee for governor of New York, and he served one term, 1895 to 1896. In retirement, Morton resided in New York City and Rhinebeck, New York. He died from pneumonia on his 96th birthday in 1920, and was buried at Rhinebeck Cemetery.
Early life[edit]
Morton was born in Shoreham, Vermont, on May 16, 1824, one of six children born to the Reverend Daniel Oliver Morton, a Congregational minister, and Lucretia Parsons.[1] Morton was of entirely English ancestry, all of his immigrant ancestors came to North America from England during the Puritan migration to New England.[2] His paternal ancestors included Captain Nathaniel Morton of Plymouth Colony.[3] Morton was named for his mother's brother Reverend Levi Parsons (1792–1822), a clergyman who was also the first U.S. missionary to work in Palestine.[4] His older brother, Daniel Oliver Morton, served as the Mayor of Toledo, Ohio, from 1849 to 1850.[5] His younger sister, Mary Morton, was married to William F. Grinnell, and was the mother of William Morton Grinnell, who served as the Third Assistant Secretary of State while Morton was vice president.[6]
Morton's family moved to Springfield, Vermont, in 1832, when his father became the minister of the Congregational church there.[7] Rev. Morton headed the congregation during the construction of the brick colonial revival-style church on Main Street that is still in use.[7][8] Levi Morton was considered by his Springfield peers to be a "leader in all affairs in which schoolboys usually engage."[7]: 40, 75, 236 The Morton family later moved to Winchendon, Massachusetts, where Reverend Morton continued to serve as a church pastor.[4] In 1838, Levi Morton graduated from the academy in Shoreham, Vermont.[9]: 408
Career[edit]
Businessman[edit]
Morton decided on a business career, and in 1838 he began work as a general store clerk in Enfield, Massachusetts.[4] He taught school in Boscawen, New Hampshire, and engaged in mercantile pursuits in Hanover, New Hampshire, then moved to Boston to work in the Beebe & Co. importing business.[4] He eventually settled in New York City, where he entered the dry goods business in partnership with George Blake Grinnell and became a successful cotton broker.[4] He then established himself as one of the country's top investment bankers in a firm he founded, Morton, Bliss & Co., which was later reorganized as the Morton Trust Company.[4]
During the American Civil War, Morton supported the Union.[10] Unable to obtain cotton from the southern states because of the Union blockade, Morton suspended his cotton business for the duration of the conflict.[10] After the war, Morton and his British partner, Sir John Rose, recovered their financial positions and improved their political fortunes by using their contacts to assist the United States and England to settle the Alabama Claims.[10] When England agreed to pay a $15 million settlement (about $307 million in 2020), Morton's bank was chosen to facilitate payments to claimants in the United States.[10]
In addition to operating Morton, Bliss & Co., Morton was active in several other businesses. These included the board of directors of the New York Viaduct Railway Company,[11] Guaranty Trust Company,[12] Washington Life Insurance Company,[13] Home Insurance Company,[14] and Equitable Life Assurance Society.[15] In addition, he was an investor in numerous ventures, including the Rio Grande, Sierra Madre & Pacific Railway,[16] Virginia Iron, Coal & Coke Company,[17] and Intercontinental Rubber Company.[18] Morton also maintained a farm on his estate, where he raised prizewinning horses and cattle.[19]
In 1909, Morton received an offer from J. P. Morgan to merge the Morton company with the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company.[10] He accepted, after which he retired from most business pursuits.[10]
Republican activist[edit]
Active in politics as a Republican, in 1876, Morton was named finance chairman for the Republican National Committee.[10] Morton was also an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1876 to the 45th Congress.[10] In recognition of his service to the party, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Morton as an honorary commissioner to the Paris Exhibition of 1878.[20]
Civic leader[edit]
Morton was involved in many civic and charitable causes. In 1883, he was one of the founders of the Metropolitan Opera.[21] In 1886, he was appointed to the Hobart College board of trustees.[22] He served for several years, including a term as chairman of the board.[22] He also served on the board of trustees of the American Museum of Natural History.[23]
On October 15, 1856, Morton married Lucy Young Kimball (1836–1871), the daughter of Elijah Huntingdon Kimball and Sarah Wetmore Hinsdale, in Flatlands, Brooklyn.[40] They had one child, daughter Carrie, who died in infancy in 1857.[41]
After his first wife's death in 1871, Morton married Anna Livingston Reade Street in 1873.[42] They were the parents of five daughters and a son who died in infancy.
In 1902, Alice Morton founded "Holiday Farm" as a convalescent home for children. Children who attended were picked up at Grand Central Station and brought to the farm in Rhinebeck. Train fare, board and clothing were provided free. In 1917, Vincent Astor served as president, with Helen Dinsmore Huntington as secretary.[57] Holiday Farm later developed into the Astor Home for Children.
Honors[edit]
In 1881, Morton received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Dartmouth College.[4] In 1882, Middlebury College presented him with an honorary LL.D.[58] As an honorary alumnus, Morton frequently attended Dartmouth alumni gatherings in New York.[59]
Legacy[edit]
The Mortons lived at Ellerslie an estate near Rhinecliff, New York.[60] The manor home no longer exists, but several outbuildings survive as a local historic site.[61] Anna L. and Levi Morton erected the Morton Memorial Library in Rhinecliff in memory of their daughter Lena.[62] It was dedicated in 1908 and is listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places.[62]
The Village of Morton Grove, Illinois, a Chicago suburb founded along the path of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, was named for Morton.[63] He received the honor after he provided the financing necessary for the railway to expand its operations into Michigan and Wisconsin beginning in the 1870s.[63]
Morton spent summers in Newport, Rhode Island, at a Bellevue Avenue mansion called "Fairlawn".[64] The home is now owned by Salve Regina University and houses the Pell Center of International Relations and Public Policy.[64] Morton also left another Newport property to the city for use as a park.[64] Located at the corner of Coggeshall and Morton Avenues (formerly Brenton Road), the site was named Morton Park in Morton's honor.[64]
In 1885, Morton purchased a home and land in Hanover, New Hampshire, which he donated to Dartmouth College.[65] The college used the home until 1900, when it was torn down to make way for the school's Webster Hall.[65] Morton also endowed the Daniel O. Morton Scholarship at Dartmouth.[66] In addition, he endowed scholarships at Middlebury College, one in honor of Daniel Morton and another in honor of Levi Parsons.[67]
Morton also owned a summer retreat on Eagle Island on Upper Saranac Lake in the Adirondack Park.[68] The home's design, created by architect William L. Coulter, was done in the Great Camps style.[68] The Morton family later sold the property to banker Henry Graves.[68] In 1938, Graves donated the site to the Girl Scouts, who operated a summer camp there for seventy years.[68]
A likeness of Morton is included in the United States Senate Vice Presidential Bust Collection at the U.S. Capitol.[69] The Morton bust was sculpted by Francis Edwin Elwell and was placed on display in 1891.[69]
A portrait of Morton is included in the New York State Hall of Governors.[70] The painting was created by Albany, New York, artist George Hughes (1863–1932) in 1896 and was presented to the state in 1900.[70]