The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-03-15

Former Governor Edmund N. morrill,
of Hiawatha was born at Westbrook,
Cumberland county, Me-, February II,
1884, and came of an ancestry that for
several generations had been prominent
in New England. His education was Sc
cured in the common schools and in the
Westbrook academy and in his fathers
shop where he learned the trade Of tan
ming.
After serving for a term on the local
school board and engaging for brief
time in the nursery business, young
Morrill, at the age of %, came to Brown
county, arriving in what was then al
most a wilderness, in March, 1857.
His first bu. mess venture in Kansas
was with partner in the building of
a sawmill, but scarcely had this been
mill was destroyed by fire, leaving the
young proprietors much in debt. It
cost young Morrill, struggle to pay
this debt, but he kept rsolutely at it
until the last dollar was paid.
In Tree State Legislature.
In 1857 he was elected from Brown
and Nemaha counties as a member OF
the first free state legislature, and in
1858 he was again made representative
under the Lecompton constitution. In
1860 came the terrible drouth which af-
ficted all Kansas, and which reduced
the sturdy settlers of Brown county to
dire straits indeed. A little green corn
during the summer and little ground
corn during the winter formed the chief
food for everybody.
When the war broke out in 1851 he
answered his country's call by enlisting
as a private in company G of the ia
nous Seventh Kansas cavalry, was soon
made a sergeant and served in this ca
pacity until August. 1852, when he was
promoted to be captain and commissary
of subsistence, at the solicitation of
Vice President Hamlin, friend of the
family in Maine, though Hamlin had
h0an TPnnaSted perform a
vor.
Was a Major With Grant.
Captain Morrill, was ordered to re-
port to General Grant at Corinth, and
by this commander he was placed In
charge of government stores at Forts
Henry. Heiman and Donelson. In Oc-
tober, 1855, he was honorably dis
charged from the service with the rank
of major.
elected clerk of the district court in
1866 and in the same year was appoint
ed county clerk to fill a vacancy. In
1867 he was elected to the latter office
and 1868 was reelected to the office of
clerk of the district court. In 1859 and
again in 1871, he was reelected county
clerk and in 1872, he was elected to the
state senate, being reelected TO this or
fee in 1876.
In his second term he was president
pro tenn of the senate and chairman of
the committee on ways and means, and
during his two terms gave rise to per-
haps more important legislation than
has ever come from a single member oc
that body.
Morriu Eight Years in Congress.
In the spring of 1882 he was brought
forward by the press of the state as one
of the four candidates for congress
man-at-large. He was nominated and
elected to this office by an enormous
majority and in 1884, 1885 and 1888 he
was chosen, practically without OPP
position. as member of congress from
the First, his home district During
the eight years spent in congress he be-
came the champion of the old soldiers
in the matter of pensions.
Bv virtue of a bill bearing his name
there are now in the United States
something like a half million soldiers,