Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 466
SILAS W. MORTON

Silas W. MORTON, a farmer residing on section 3, of Douglas Township, came to Harrison County, in the spring of 1879, and settled on the farm he now occupies, having purchased a half section of land in 1868, to which he moved in 1879. His place is now a very finely improved and valuable farm.

Mr. MORTON was born in Licking County, Ohio, April 21, 1840. He is the son of Marcus A. and Lydia (NICHOLS) MORTON; the father a native of New York and the mother of Massachusetts. In about 1852,they moved to Wood County, Ohio, where the family remained until the autumn of 1855, and then moved to Indiana, the father dying in December of that year. The following fall, our subject with his mother and the family came to Jasper County, Iowa, and settled on a farm. Silas learned the tinner's trade, and worked at the same for three years at Newton, after which he went to the mining region of Colorado. Mining one summer, returned to Newton and in the spring of 1861, with a horse team freighted across the plains to Denver. He loaded at Des Moines with hams and made two trips that season, and that fall went to Wood County, Ohio, where he leased a sawmill, operating the same until the autumn of 1864, when he returned to Jasper County, Iowa, and purchased a farm which he cultivated until he came to Harrison County.

He was united in marriage in Lorain County, Ohio, October 15, 1863, to Miss Ervinna BRONSON, daughter of Ransom BRONSON. Our subject and his wife are the parents of three children�Eva, (deceased), Edward M. and Myrtle.

Mrs. MORTON was born in Lorain County, Ohio, and there remained until the date of her marriage. She is a member of the Congregational Church. Mr. MORTON belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and politically he is a stanch Republican, and is the fall of 1889 was candidate for Sheriff, but was caught in the "land-slide" when Governor BOIES was elected.

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