Edmund N. Morrill, Governor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_N._Morrill

Edmund Needham Morrill (February 12, 1834 – March 14, 1909) was a U.S. Congressman from Kansas and the 13th Governor of Kansas.

Edmund Needham Morrill was born in Westbrook, Maine to Rufus and Mary (Webb) Morrill. He attended the common schools at Westbrook Academy and learned the trade of tanning from his father. At the age of 23, he moved to Kansas. In 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company C, 7th Kansas Cavalry. Within a year he was promoted to captain, and by 1865 he was promoted to major.

After the Civil War, he entered the banking business and remained in that business for the rest of his life. Morrill married twice. His first wife was Elizabeth A. Brettum whom he married November 27, 1862. Elizabeth died November 1868 at Hiawatha, Kansas. Morrill's second wife was Caroline Jenkins Nash whom he married December 25, 1869. Together they had three children all born at Hiawatha.

In 1866, he was elected clerk of the district court. In 1872 he was elected to the Kansas Senate. In 1882 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, serving four two-year terms before declining another, announcing instead his retirement from politics. Nevertheless at the urging of his friends, he accepted the nomination for Governor of Kansas in 1894 and served one term, being defeated for a second term in 1896.

Morrill died March 14, 1909 in San Antonio, Texas and is buried in Hiawatha's Mount Hope Cemetery.