Jackson MORTON, Congress, FL (1794-1874)

MORTON, Jackson, (brother of Jeremiah Morton), a Senator from Florida; born near Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania County, Va., August 10, 1794; attended the common schools and graduated from Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), Lexington, Va., in 1814, and from William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va., in 1815; moved to Pensacola, Fla., in 1820 and engaged in the lumber business; member, Florida legislative council 1836-1837, serving as president in 1837; delegate to the constitutional convention of Florida in 1838; Navy agent at Pensacola 1841-1845; presidential elector on the Whig ticket in 1848; elected as a Whig to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1849, to March 3, 1855; was not a candidate for reelection; again engaged in the lumber business; deputy to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States in Montgomery, Ala., in 1861; member of the Confederate congress 1862-1865; died at his country home, “Mortonia,” near Milton, Santa Rosa County, Fla., November 20, 1874; interment in the private cemetery at “Mortonia.”

Bibliography

Rucker, Brian R. Jackson Morton: West Florida’s Soldier, Senator, and Secessionist. Milton, FL: Patagonia Press, 1990.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present