Biographical Sketch of H. C. Morton, Johnson County, Missouri,
Warrensburg Township

>From "History of Johnson County, Missouri," by Ewing Cockrell,
Historical Publishing Company, Topeka, Cleveland, 1918.
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H. C. Morton, a prosperous and prominent farmer and Civil War veteran,
residing in Warrensburg, Missouri, is a citizen of Johnson county rich-
ly deserving of mention in a work of this character.  He was born Jan-
uary 21, 1842, in Randolph county, Missouri, the son of Josiah and
Margaret L. (Callison) Morton, both natives of Kentucky.  Josiah Morton
and his wife and family came to Missouri from Kentucky in 1842 and lo-
cated in Randolph county on a farm, where they resided two years, when
they moved to Schuyler county.  In this county, Mr. Morton died and was
buried.  His widow and children moved from Schuyler county to Johnson
county, settling on a farm, in Grover township, which was owned by John
G. Callison, the brother of Mrs. Morton.  The family later moved to
Lafayette county, where Mrs. Morton died.  Her death occurred in 1854
and burial was made in the cemetery in Lafayette county, near Mayview.
Josiah and Margaret L. (Callison) Morton were the parents of the follow-
ing children: Mrs. Mary J. Poole, deceased; Mrs. Aramenta Poole, decea-
sed; Wade, who was killed while in the Confederate service, in a battle
near Higginsville, Missouri, about 1863; H. C., the subject of this
review, and Mrs. Rebecca (Morton) McElroy, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,
who are twins; and John, deceased, and Richard Benjamin, of Marshall,
Oklahoma, who were also twins.  Educational opportunities were very
limited in the state of Missouri when H. C. Morton was a youth.  He was
but a little child four years of age, at the time his father died.  The
widowed mother needed all the assistance her boys could render in help-
ing care for the seven little ones.  There were no public schools in
Missouri before the Civil War and the "subscription schools" were open
only a few months in the year.  Since he was sixteen years of age, Mr.
Morton has made his own way in the world, shouldering a man's responsi-
bilities while still a boy.  He began life for himself as a farm hand,
in the employ of James Hutchinson in Lafayette county, working for ten
dollars a month for three years.  In 1862, he enlisted in the Civil War,
at Sedalia, Missouri, serving under Colonel John F. Phillips in Company
A, Seventh Missouri Cavalry.  He was in active and continuous service
in Missouri and Arkansas, serving at different times under Generals
Brown, Curtis, Pleasanton, Garfield and Blount.  Mr. Morton participat-
ed in the battles of Big Blue and Mine Creek.  He was also in countless
skirmishes.  From March 8, 1862 he served faithfully three years and 
six days and in 1865 received his discharge at St. Louis, Missouri. 
After the war had ended, H. C. Morton returned to Johnson county, Mo.,
and engaged once more in the peaceful pursuits of agriculture, pursuits
in which he has been engaged for the past fifty years in different 
parts of the county.  He has been the owner of several different farms,
which he would purchase to sell again.  For the past twenty-five years,
he has resided in Warrensburg township, where he now owns ninety acres
of land, besides five acres within the city limits of Warrensburg.  In
1915, he purchased the site of his present home at 116 Ming street,
where he built his beautiful, modern residence of eight rooms. February
26, 1865, H. C. Morton was united in marriage with Lucy Margaret Ezell,
of Warrensburg, the daughter of William Edward and Louisa Virginia 
Ezell, the former, a native of Virginia and the latter of Kentucky.
Both parents are now deceased and their remains rest in the Greer 
cemetery, south of Warrensburg.  Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Morton are the 
parents of six children: Charlie, Warrensburg, Missouri; Mrs. Lucy
Phillips, who resides in Post Oak township; Albert, Warrensburg, Mo.;
Emery Ezell, who is a graduate of the Warrensburg State Normal School
and is now employed as superintendent in the Clayton County Seat School
at St. Louis county, Mo.; Lola, who is a graduate and post-graduate
of the Warrensburg State Normal School and of the University of New 
York City, from which institution she will soon obtain her master's
degree and she is now the supervisor of Domestic Science and Art in
Charleston, Illinois, one of the highest salaried teachers in the coun-
ty; and Mrs. Winnie Etherton, who is the wife of Henry C. Etherton, a
prominent attorney of St. Louis, Missouri, residing in a suburb of St.
Louis.  H. C. Morton deserves much praise and commendation for the
success that has deservedly come through his own efforts.  Handicapped
as he was, by the lack of a good education, Mr. Morton struggled per-
sistently upward.  He learned to read after he was married.  No one in
Johnson county, perhaps, appreciates the value of educational advantage
surrounding the youth of the present day, as does H. C. Morton, who had
so few, when he was a lad and desired so much to learn.  He has "fought
a good fight" and Johnson county is proud to claim him as one of its
citizens.

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