EDMUND G. MORTON, Sr.

Sacramento County

Biographies

EDMUND G. MORTON, Sr.

EDMUND G. MORTON, Sr., is from “Revolutionary stock.” His father, William, a millwright and general mechanic, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, about the time of the battle of Bunker Hill. It is related of his grandmother that during the battle she had to apply to General Gates for permission to leave the city. The father, being a skilled workman, was in demand throughout New England for his services as millwright, which occupation he followed for many years. He died at Salmon Falls, New Hampshire, at an advanced age. The subject of this sketch was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, July 24, 1824; attended the common schools of his native city, and graduated at the Berwick Academy in Maine. Not inheriting the mechanical genius of his father—whose mantle in this respect seems to have fallen upon his younger brother, Albert, now a resident of Florida—Edmund went to Boston, where his uncle, Edmund R. Griffith, was a dealer in paints and oils, and with him served an apprenticeship; afterward he had charge of a portion of his uncle’s work. In 1847 he started in his business for himself, in the same line, at the corner of Bedford and Columbia streets, and continued for six years. In May, 1852, he came to California, in the clipper ship “Staffordshire,” Captain Richardson, around Cape Horn, being 101 days on the journey. Captain Richardson was afterward wrecked on Sable Island, in 1856, losing both his ship and his own life. After his arrival in San Francisco, Mr. Morton suffered from ague for a considerable time. Before the expiration of the year of 1852 he came to Sacramento, and after the fire erected a building at the corner of Seventh and J streets. The structure was hardly completed when the floods came and he lost every dollar he had. Returning to San Francisco, he engaged in the produce business for about a year. Then he went to “Indian Gulch,” in Mariposa County, where his brother, James A., —who had come to the Coast in 1849,—was located as a trader, and joined him in business. Soon afterward they engaged together in mining on the Marseilles River and in assisting on the construction of a coffer dam of 1,200 feet, which was destroyed by a storm about the time it was completed. In mining their success was varied. They then went to the San Joaquin River and engaged in quartz mining for several years. Next, for the sake of better school advantages, Mr. Morton concluded to change his locality. At this time he had three children. Accordingly he came and purchased a ranch of 300 acres on the American River, moved his family there and then engaged in farming until 1884, when he sold the place and bought a ranch of 500 acres near Hickman, five miles from Colusa. This ranch is peculiarly situated with regard to facilities for irrigation, and is devoted to the culture of alfalfa, which matures in about three weeks’ time, by irrigation, giving an average of ten tons to the acre per annum. Mr. Morton’s wife, nee Adaline Hicks, was a daughter of William Hicks, a farmer and trader of Yarmouth, Maine. Her grandfather Hicks was one of the survivors of the battle of Bunker Hill, and was present at the dedication of the Bunker Hill monument in 1848. Mr. Morton has five daughters and two sons. The second daughter is the wife of B. F. Howard, the superintendent of the schools of Sacramento County. The youngest daughter, Mollie, graduated at the high school, and is now at the State University at Berkeley, completing her education. The eldest son, Edmund, Jr., has charge of the ranch.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 615-616. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.