Oliver Hazard Perry Throck MORTON, Congress, IN (1823-1877)

MORTON, Oliver Hazard Perry Throck, a Senator from Indiana; born in Salisbury, Wayne County, Ind., August 4, 1823; attended a private school in Springfield, Ohio; apprenticed to a hatter and worked at the trade four years; attended Wayne County Seminary, Centerville, Ind., and Miami University, Oxford, Ohio; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1847 and commenced practice in Centerville; elected judge of the sixth judicial circuit of Indiana in 1852; unsuccessful Republican candidate for Governor in 1856; elected lieutenant governor in 1860 and upon the election of the Governor to the United States Senate became Governor of Indiana in 1861; elected Governor in 1864; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1867; reelected in 1873 and served from March 4, 1867, until his death; chairman, Committee on Manufactures (Forty-first Congress), Committee on Agriculture (Forty-second Congress), Committee on Privileges and Elections (Forty-second through Forty-fifth Congresses); appointed a member of the Electoral Commission of 1877, to decide the contests in various states in the presidential election of 1876; died in Indianapolis, Ind., November 1, 1877; interment in Crown Hill Cemetery.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Foulke, William. Life of Oliver H.P.T. Morton. 2 vols. 1899. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1976; U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses. 45th Cong., 2d sess., 1877-1878. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1878.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present