Alfred Morton

MORTON, MOYER, BARCLAY, FRALICK

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 3/6/2007 at 08:46:12

Biographies from the 1914 "Past and Present of O'Brien and Osceola Counties of Iowa"

ALFRED MORTON.

Few residents of Osceola County, Iowa, are better or more favorably known than the enterprising business man and representative citizen whose life history is briefly told in the following lines, and none stands higher than he in the esteem and confidence of the community in which he resides. His influence has been potent and his sympathies broad, so that he has been able to become an influential factor in the life of his locality. He is mindful of the duties he owes to the community and discharges the same as becomes a man of character and a citizen thoroughly abreast of the times.

Alfred Morton, the son of Alfred and Mary (Moyer) Morton, was born July 19, 1868, in the state of New York near Syracuse. Alfred Morton, Sr., was born in Oswego, New York, in 1836, and was married to Mary A. Moyer November 13, 1861. He enlisted in the Civil War on March 29, 1865, at Auburn, New York, in the One Hundred and Ninety-third Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry, and was commissioned as major on May 6, 1865, with his rank dating from March 29th of the same year. He was later commissioned as brevet lieutenant-colonel and with this rank was discharged January 18, 1866, at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Early in the reconstruction period President Grant appointed him circuit judge in Virginia, with headquarters at Richmond. In 1879 he removed to Iowa and settled at Sheldon. where he practiced law until his death, April 19, 1896. He was a man of great strength of character, one of the leaders of the bar in Iowa. He was a member of the Congregational church and was very much interested in the work of that denomination. Fraternally, he was a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and the Grand Army of the Republic at Sheldon. At the time of his death he was the city attorney of Sheldon. Alfred Morton, Sr., and wife were the parents of three children: Joe, of Sioux City, Iowa, and secretary of the Interstate Fair Association; Mrs. E. G. Hutchinson, of Phoenix, New York, and Alfred, with whom this narrative deals.

Alfred Morton, Jr., was educated in the schools of Sheldon, Iowa, and later graduated from Phoenix, New York, Academy in 1886. Upon returning to Iowa after graduating from the academy, he became interested in the banking profession and has been engaged in the banking business in George, Ocheyedan and Sibley, in this state. He was cashier of the Sibley State Park from 1905 to 1910, when he disposed of his interest in the bank and became interested in the real estate and automobile business.

The Sibley Auto Company was organized in 1910 and Mr. Morton has been proprietor of the company since it was established. The company occupies a building which is seventy by eighty-five feet. It is built of concrete block and contains a large show room, well equipped office, repair shop, with all of the latest machinery for automobile repairing, besides other small rooms. The original building was built by Doctor Neill and an addition was built by Morton, who took charge of the company. Besides the retailing of cars, the company does a general livery business in addition to the repair work. They handle the Chalmers and Reo automobiles and have built up an extensive business throughout this section of the state. Mr. Morton was married in 1897 to Maud Barclay, who died four years later, leaving one daughter, Elizabeth. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James T. Barclay, pioneers of Osceola County and has the honor of being the first child born in Sibley. Her death occurred in 1902. Mr. Morton was married a second time in September, 1910, to Mrs. Leona Fralick, of Syracuse, New York, who had one daughter, Muriel, by a former marriage. To this second marriage have been born two children, John and Josephine.

Politically, Mr. Morton is identified with the Republican party and in the civic affairs of his community has always taken an active interest. He is a member of the Sibley school board and for several years has been a member of the city council. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and has attained to the thirty-second Scottish-rite degree and the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias at Sibley. Mr. Morton is well known throughout the county and his many excellent qualities have won for him many loyal friends.

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