58 Facts About Morgan Bulkeley

Morgan Gardner Bulkeley was an American politician of the Republican Party, businessman, and insurance executive.

Morgan Bulkeley's father was Judge Eliphalet Adams Bulkeley, a prominent local lawyer and businessman, who became the first president of the Aetna Life Insurance Company.

The family moved to Hartford, where Morgan Bulkeley was educated, before he took a job in the city of Brooklyn, New York.

Morgan Bulkeley served briefly in the American Civil War, where he saw no combat.

Morgan Bulkeley served one season, while most of the work was done by Chicago White Stockings owner William Hulbert.

Morgan Bulkeley served on the Hartford Common Council and in 1880 was elected to the first of four two-year terms as mayor of Hartford.

Morgan Bulkeley was elected Governor of Connecticut, taking office in 1889.

Morgan Bulkeley was not renominated by the Republicans, but served a second two-year term because the houses of the state legislature could not agree on the outcome of the 1890 election.

Morgan Bulkeley left office in 1893, and served one term as US senator from Connecticut from 1905 to 1911.

Morgan Gardner Bulkeley was born on December 26,1837, in East Haddam, Connecticut, to an old local family; both his parents descended from passengers of the Mayflower more than 200 years prior.

Morgan Bulkeley was the third of six children and the second son.

Unlike his older brother Charles, who attended three private schools before securing a degree from Yale College in 1856, Morgan Bulkeley was not a gifted student, attending Centre School in Hartford, and Bacon Academy but apparently did not graduate from Bacon.

William saw no combat; then, in May 1862, Morgan Bulkeley joined for a ninety-day term.

The 13th returned to the city of Brooklyn in September 1862 and Morgan Bulkeley returned to his employment, where he remained another ten years.

When Judge Bulkeley died in 1872, Morgan returned to Hartford to look after his father's estate and was made a board member of Aetna.

In Hartford, Morgan Bulkeley helped form the United States Bank of Hartford, becoming its president.

In 1874, Hartford entered a team; Morgan Bulkeley was a shareholder in and president of the team, the Hartford Dark Blues.

The stately Morgan Bulkeley, 39-year-old president of the Hartford Dark Blues, the portrait of quiet elegance, was an obvious choice.

Always dressed immaculately, Morgan Bulkeley cut a figure of conservative calm.

Morgan Bulkeley's sweeping, steer-horn mustache, erect soldier-straight posture and serious, stoic countenance made him, on appearance alone, the ideal candidate for almost any presidency.

Albert Spalding later remembered that Morgan Bulkeley was reluctant, but was persuaded by Hulbert, who said it was a tribute to the East, where baseball had its origin and early development.

Morgan Bulkeley stated he would only serve for one year, and, in practice, Hulbert did most of the work while Morgan Bulkeley was president.

The reasons for the appointment of Morgan Bulkeley, who had no deep connection to baseball, are unclear.

Morgan Bulkeley was one of the seven members of the 1905 Mills Commission formed by Spalding, the group that gave credence to the story that Abner Doubleday invented baseball.

When Thomas O Enders resigned as president of Aetna due to ill health in 1879, Morgan Bulkeley became the company's third president.

Morgan Bulkeley would serve in that capacity for forty-three years and as a director for almost half a century.

The techniques it used under Morgan Bulkeley to reach the minimum required return on investment of 4 percent included loaning to farmers on the developing frontier, and, as they repaid and the areas they were in became more stable, investing in the municipal bonds of Western towns.

In 1878, Morgan Bulkeley ran as a Republican for mayor of Hartford.

Morgan Bulkeley worked to increase his popularity, supplying the illuminations for the opening of the Connecticut State Capitol in 1879.

The excursion did not occur in 1884 as Morgan Bulkeley was in Europe, and lapsed after that.

In 1886, Morgan Bulkeley sought the Republican nomination for a two-year term as governor of Connecticut, but was defeated at the state convention by Phineas Lounsbury.

The party custom of rotation in office meant that Governor Lounsbury would not seek a second term, and in 1888, Morgan Bulkeley was nominated by the Republicans, with Democrats choosing Luzon Morris as their nominee.

Morgan Bulkeley devoted much of his day as governor to his duties as president of Aetna, and found time to benefit the corporation during his official duties, getting the legislature to pass an act raising taxes on insurance companies from outside Connecticut.

Morgan Bulkeley performed ceremonial duties outside the state, attending the inauguration of Republican President Benjamin Harrison and riding in the parade in New York to mark the centennial of the inauguration of George Washington as president.

The stalemate meant that the Republican incumbents, including Morgan Bulkeley, continued in office.

On March 21,1891, Morgan Bulkeley found the door locked against him, and he had it opened with a crowbar, thus gaining the nickname "the Crowbar Governor".

The Senate refused to pass appropriation bills; Morgan Bulkeley financed the government with loans from Aetna.

However, after the Supreme Court of Connecticut in January 1892 ruled that Morgan Bulkeley was legally governor, Staub agreed to pay some of the state's bills.

In November of that year, Morris was elected with a clear majority and Morgan Bulkeley left office in January 1893.

In 1893 and 1899, Morgan Bulkeley attempted to deny Hawley renomination by the Republican legislative caucus and get the seat for himself, but both times threw his support to Hawley out of fear that a younger political rival, Samuel Fessenden, would take the seat.

At the 1896 Republican National Convention, Morgan Bulkeley was Connecticut's favorite son candidate for vice president, and finished third in the balloting to become former Ohio governor William McKinley's running mate, losing to Garret Hobart of New Jersey.

When Republican legislators caucused in November 1904, Morgan Bulkeley got 248 votes to Fessenden's 42.

Morgan Bulkeley was sworn in as a senator on March 4,1905, at the special session of the Senate called by President Theodore Roosevelt.

Morgan Bulkeley was as wealthy as many of them, and when in 1906, Cosmopolitan listed fifty senators who were part of "the interests", it included Morgan Bulkeley.

Roosevelt sought federal government spending for such programs as national parks and a Panama Canal; Morgan Bulkeley was less inclined to spend.

Morgan Bulkeley criticized Roosevelt's expansion of the federal government's powers, successfully opposing the president's attempts to regulate the insurance industry at the federal level.

Morgan Bulkeley opposed administration efforts to lower tariffs on products from the US-administered Philippine Islands, feeling importation of cheap tobacco from there would harm Connecticut's tobacco growers.

Morgan Bulkeley opposed Roosevelt over the Brownsville affair, when a battalion of African-American US soldiers were accused of shooting up the town of Brownsville, Texas, and none of them would say if any of the others were guilty.

Foraker paid for his unsuccessful battle against Roosevelt with his Senate seat; Morgan Bulkeley sat with Foraker after he left office at a meeting where the Ohioan was honored by Washington's African-American community.

Morgan Bulkeley always felt that Roosevelt and the Secretary of War at the time, William Howard Taft, had treated the soldiers badly, and asked for a year's back pay for each, but this was never done, and Taft's election as president in 1908 ensured little was done at the time.

Morgan Bulkeley devoted much of his time in his final years to other philanthropic causes, taking the lead in raising money to save Hartford's Old State House.

In 1916, Morgan Bulkeley was a guest of honor at a banquet celebrating the National League's 40th anniversary, with former president Taft the featured speaker.

Morgan Bulkeley enjoyed general good health in his final years, suffering from occasional illness.

Morgan Bulkeley died in the evening of November 6,1922, aged 84.

In 1885, Morgan Bulkeley wed Fannie Briggs Houghton, they had three children.

The middle child, Elinor Morgan Bulkeley Ingersoll, died in 1964 at age 71, leaving four children.

Morgan Bulkeley was elected as commander of the Connecticut Department of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1903.

Morgan Bulkeley was for 20 years president of Connecticut's chapter of the Sons of the Revolution.