MORTON FAMILY HISTORY

Webmaster note: The following is a compilation of two items submitted by Judy Brueneman in September 2020. Some content has been edited for brevity.

Morton, Ebenezer (1776-1861)

Ebenezer Morton moved from New Castle County (Wilmington) Delaware to Darrtown, Ohio in 1827, with his wife, Rebecca Hinsey and seven children.

The Morton family, from this part of Delaware, is related to the John Morton who signed the Declaration of Independence for the State of Pennsylvania. In that time period, delegates could represent both Delaware and Pennsylvania. New Castle is only 12 miles south of the Pennsylvania border.

In Delaware history, Ebenezer Morton was known to be prosperous and involved in community affairs. Ebenezer and his brother Andrew Morton were trustees in the Bethel Baptist Church, also known as the Welsh Tract Baptist Church in New Castle County, Delaware.

Before his move to Darrtown, Ebenezer served in the War of 1812

Ebenezer first purchased 78 acres of land in Section 27 of Milford Township from Joseph and Sarah Haines for $1,000. (Section 27 is located onthe north side of Scott Road, one mile east of Darrtown.) Ebenezer eventually owned about 226 acres in Section 32 of Darrtown, located below the Kyger farm. (Section 32 is located on the south side of Schollenbarger Road, immediately west of Darrtown.)

Ebenezer is buried in Darrtown the Cemetery and his headstone reads “native of Delaware.” Ebenezer and Ebenezer’s wife, Rebecca Hinsey Morton, and five of their seven children are buried in Darrtown Cemetery.

Children of Ebenezer and Rebecca

The second child of Ebenezer and Rebecca Hinsey Morton was William W. Morton.

• His first wife, Eliza Walden, was the daughter of James Walden and Kitturah Rees Walden, both buried in Darrtown Cemetery. This James Walden was the son of Benjamin Walden and Hannah Cooley Walden. Waldens and Cooleys were both Darrtown families.

• William W. Morton’s second wife, Elzina Allread,was the daughter of Isaac and Lucy Emerson Allread, both buried in Darrtown Cemetery.

The seventh and youngest child of Ebenezer and Rebecca Hinsey Morton was Martha (1820-1847) who married Seth Cook on Feb. 27, 1844. Martha is buried on the Cook lot in Darrtown Cemetery. This couple had at least one child, a daughter Mary who married Nathaniel Sewell.

Morton, Rebecca Jane (Welsh) (1765-1844)

Rebecca Welsh, born in New Castle County, Delaware was the daughter of Cpt. William Welsh and Ann (Mary Ann) Justis Morton.

Rebecca Jane Welsh Morton and her sister Mary Morton Welsh Irwin were the granddaughters of an equally famous person, John Welsh, who was a wealthy and philanthropic resident of Philadelphia. He was a shipping magnate who owned ship yards on the Delaware River, not too far north of New Castle County, Delaware.

Rebecca’s sister, Mary Morton Welsh married John C. Irwin. The Irwins were already established in Darrtown before Rebecca and her family moved to Darrtown, in 1831-32.

Rebecca first married William Ozier and had two sons, Wm., Jr. and Francis. William, Sr. died in 1790.

In 1800, Rebecca married David Morton, son of Andrew Morton and Rachel Walraven in Delaware. David’s father Andrew served in the Revolutionary War for Delaware. These Mortons are related to the John Morton who signed the Declaration of Independence.

David Morton and Rebecca Welsh Morton had four children, three sons(John, Joseph and Benjamin) and one daughter (Anna Welsh Morton).

David died between 1829-1831. After his death, Rebecca and their children sold their remaining property in New Castle County and moved to Milford Township, Butler County, Ohio.

Rebecca’s two children that moved with her to Butler County were Benjamin Morton and Anna Welsh Morton Meridith.

• Benjamin Morton and his wife Mary Jane Clifton Morton had one infant son, John, when they moved to Butler County. They had nine more children, after the move. Benjamin Morton is listed on the census as being a tenant farmer in Milford Township, the exact location is not identified.

• Anna Welsh Morton Meredith was married to James Meredith in Delaware. This couple had three children before leaving Delaware and ten more children thereafter. The Merediths settled in Oxford, Ohio where they remained till 1851, then moved to the State of Indiana.

Rebecca Welsh Morton died in 1844. Where she lived is unknown, presumably with one of her children. Rebecca is buried in Darrtown Cemetery with her son Benjamin and grandchildren.

Benjamin Morton was born May 2, 1805 in New Castle County, Delaware, to David Morton (1751 to 1831 in Delaware) and Rebecca Jane Welsh (Morton, 1765 in Delaware to 1844 in Butler Co., Ohio), and died on January 28, 1858, in Butler County, Ohio. Father David Morton is the son of Rachel Walraven Morton and of Andrew Morton who served in the Delaware militia during the American Revolutionary War. Benjamin Morton’s first ancestor to reside in North America was Martti Marttinen who was born in 1616 at Rautalampi in what is now central eastern Finland. He emigrated to Warmeland, Sweden, in 1650 and from there in 1654 to the Colony of New Sweden on the Delaware River. On May 31, 1706, Martti Marttinen (who had meanwhile Anglicized his name to Morton Mortonson) died in New Castle County, Delaware.

On June 17, 1830, in New Castle County, Delaware, Benjamin Morton wed Mary Jane Clifton. This marriage took place only after Benjamin had been obliged by Delaware law to post a $200.00 bond refundable after the marriage ceremony had occurred. This bond was typically required not only to discourage interracial marriage but also any marriage between persons likely to become indigent and thereby in need of public or charitable financial assistance. Another possible goal of requiring Benjamin to post bond was perhaps to insure that he would compensate the Shepardson family for any years remaining on Mary Jane’s contract of employment with them. (Whether or not this contract of employment was the approximate equivalent of an 18th century contract of indentured servitude has not yet been determined). Benjamin’s brother-in-law, James Meredith, loaned Benjamin enough money to help him post the $200.00 bond.

Benjamin’s wife, Mary Jane Clifton, was born on March 4, 1805, in Bridlington, Yorkshire, immigrated circa 1821 to the state of Delaware as an orphan employed as a domestic servant by the Shepardson family. A year after Mary Jane Clifton and Benjamin Morton wed on June 17, 1830, their first child, John William Morton was born on April 6, 1831, in New Castle County, Delaware. Benjamin, Mary Jane, and infant John traveled to Butler County, Ohio, in 1831 with James Meredith, Anna Welsh Morton Meredith and their three small children and also with Rebecca Jane Welsh Morton, Anna’s and Benjamin’s mother. Benjamin and Mary Jane Clifton Morton settled down to farm a rental property in Milford Township of Butler County, Ohio, where they had nine more children. From oldest to youngest, their ten children are: John William Morton (1831-1904, interred at Darrtown), Rebecca Jane Morton (1832-33, at Darrtown), Joseph Hinsey Morton (1833-1914, Oxford), David Morton (1835-1857, Darrtown), Sarah Anne Morton Johnson (1836-1929, Darrtown), Andrew J. Morton (1838-1899, at Darrtown), Mary Ann Morton York (1840-1864, gravesite unknown), Martha Morton Glasgow (1842 -1930, at Darrtown), Abraham Morton (1844-1849, at Darrtown), and Elizabeth ("Liz") Morton (1847-1933, at Somerville). Designated immediately above in parentheses is the location of the Butler County cemetery in which each of the ten Morton siblings is buried: seven in Darrtown, one in Oxford, one in Somerville, and one at a place still unidentified. Mary Jane (Clifton) Morton died in Butler County, Ohio, on Sept. 9, 1898, and was interred at the Darrtown Pioneer Cemetery in Darrtown, Butler County, Ohio, close by the grave of her husband, Benjamin Morton, who had died on January 28, 1858, at the age of “52 years, 8 months, 26 days”.

Perhaps the makingof this large tintype (circa 1856-1857) of Benjamin Morton may have been prompted by some sense of his mortality (or even in anticipation of his impending death) as well as by the fact that the brand new process of making tintypes enabled ordinary people for the first time to obtain affordable portraits of excellent quality. Whenever this JPEG photo is distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and “the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection” at Lane Public Library in Hamilton, Ohio.

A professional photographer made this photograph of Mary Jane Clifton Morton around 1876 at a photographic studio in Butler County, Ohio. Daughter and tenth-born child, Elizabeth (Morton) Morton and three of Elizabeth’s and George Reynolds Morton’s children were photographed in the same studio at the same time.

Mary Jane Clifton was born on March 4, 1805, at Bridlington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, came to Delaware as an orphan in 1821, and died on September 9, 1898, in Ohio.

She married Benjamin Morton on June 17, 1830, in New Castle County, Delaware.

Mary Jane and Benjamin raised ten children of whom John William Morton was born in Delaware on April 6, 1831, and the nine others inButler County, Ohio, including the tenth child, Elizabeth Morton —bornSept. 29, 1847 -- who is the great grandmother of James William (“Jim”) Morton, Lois Jean Morton Ernst, Judith Ann (“Judy”) Morton Brueneman, Kenneth David (“Ken”) Morton, Bruce Morton Garver, Ann Clifton Garver Bell, William Morton (“Billy”) Strasser, Donald Paul (“Don”) Strasser, and Robert Jacob (“Bo”) Strasser.

Bruce Morton Garver wrote this caption. Additional information about Mary Jane Clifton Morton may be found in Bruce's caption to a circa 1859-1861 photo of Mary Jane Clifton Morton and her youngest daughter Elizabeth Morton (1847-1933).

Whenever the JPEG photograph show here is distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and “the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection” at the Lane Public Library in Hamilton,Ohio.

Mary Jane (Clifton) Morton (March 4, 1805 to Sept. 9, 1898) and her youngest daughter, Elizabeth (“Liz”) Morton (Morton, Sept. 29, 1847, in Butler County, Ohio, to April 14, 1933, at Elmwood Place, Hamilton County, Ohio), are depicted in this JPEG produced by MacNaughton Graphics from a small daguerrotype photo, circa 1859 to 1861, probably made in Butler County, Ohio. This daguerrotype is encased behind a glass plate and within a fancy pressed-copper frame whose dimensions are 2 3/4" wide and 3 3/8" high.

Elizabeth (“Liz”) (Morton) Morton and Mary Jane (Clifton) Morton are respectively the great grandmother and great-great grandmother of Bruce Morton Garver; Ann Clifton Garver Bell; Judy Ann Morton Brueneman; and Kenneth David Morton; among others.

Mary Jane Clifton was born on March 4, 1805, at Bridlington inthe East Riding of Yorkshire, England, and immigrated as an orphan to the state of Delaware in 1821 or 1822 with the Shepherdson family, who probably paid for her trans-Atlantic journey in exchange for her signing a contract of domestic employment with them for a specified number of years.

Bruce Morton Garver has calculated that from 1819 to 1823 the least expensive journey from eastern Yorkshire to the state of Delaware would have required travel via the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to the port of Liverpool in order to board a sailing ship bound for either the port of Philadelphia or the port of New York.

In a letter of March 26, 1978, to Edith Morton Bippus (1905-1988), Ruth Irene Collum (Mrs. Daniel) Bauer, Edith’s second cousin once removed, reported that Mary Jane Clifton appears in Yorkshire records, as an orphan whose parents, Edward Clifton and Jane Wiley Clifton, had died shortly after her birth in 1805.

Ruth Bauer also wrote that her grandmother, Mary Ann Morton Jewell, had told her that "Edward Clifton and Jane Wiles Clifton had died together in Yorkshire "in some kind of 'accident.'" The Clifton couple or their ancestors had perhaps earlier resided in or near Castle Clifton, now within the city of York, Yorkshire.

Another question concerning Mary Jane Clifton Morton arises from the fact that that she appears in the 1850 and 1860 U. S. censuses but not in those of 1870 and 1880.

With the approval of employees of the Darrtown Pioneer Cemetery and the government of Milford Township, Butler County, Judy Ann Morton Brueneman and Bruce Morton Garver have jointly purchased a headstone for Mary Jane’s unmarked grave and those of two of her and Benjamin Morton’s ten children — RebeccaJane Morton (1832-1833) and Abraham Morton (1844-1849).

On June 17, 1830, in New Castle County, Delaware, Mary Jane Clifton wed Benjamin Morton, of Finnish and, to a lesser extent, of Swedish descent, who was born on May 2, 1805, in New Castle County, Delaware. Before this marriage could take place, Benjamin was required by Delaware law to post a $200.00 bond refundable only after the marriage had been approved and the marriage ceremony had been performed.

The principal objective in requiring such a substantial bond was to discourage not only inter-racial marriage but also any marriage of persons who were indigent and likely to require financial assistance from state funds. Moreover, this bond may also have been required in order to insure that Benjamin Morton would compensate the Shepardson family for any years remaining on Mary Jane Clifton’s contractof employment with them. (Whether or not this contract of employment was the approximate equivalent of an 18th century contract of indentured servitude has not yet been established).

During the early autumn of 1831 or spring of 1832, Benjamin and Mary Jane Morton moved from the slave state of Delaware to Butler County in the free state of Ohio, with their infant son, (1) John William Morton, who had been born in New Castle County, Delaware, on April 6th of that year.

Benjamin and Mary Jane raised nine more children, all of whom were born in Butler County, Ohio. From oldest to youngest, they were: Rebecca Jane, Joseph Hinsey, David, Sarah Anne, Andrew J., Mary Ann, Martha, Abraham, and Elizabeth.

Mary Jane Clifton Morton died on September 9, 1898, in Butler County, Ohio. Her husband, Benjamin Morton, had died on January 28, 1858, at the age of “52 years, 8 months, and 26 days”, according to the records of the Darrtown Pioneer Cemetery of Darrtown, Ohio. Additional information about Benjamin Morton accompanies his photo seen elsewhere on this page.

Bruce Garver remembers that his mother — Ruth E. (Morton) Garver (1907-2004) commented on the fact that Elizabeth Morton (“Liz”) Morton (1847-1933) was not only blessed by excellent health into an usually old age -- much as her mother, Mary Jane Clifton Morton, had been -- but had also experienced the sadness of having outlived her four children and her husband.

Elizabeth Morton’s grandchildren -- Edith, Ruth, Mary, Bill, and Paul Morton, and Leonard (Lee) Cross -- provided great joy and consolation to her.

Bruce Morton Garver wrote this caption and invites suggestions for its improvement. Whenever this photographis distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and to “the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection” at Lane Public Library in Hamilton, Ohio.

Elizabeth Morton, was born on Sept. 29, 1847, in Milford Township of Butler County, Ohio, and died on April 14, 1933, in Elmwood Place, Hamilton County, Ohio. Elizabeth, the tenth-born child of Benjamin and Mary Jane Clifton Morton, wed George Reynolds Morton, her fourth cousin, on Sept. 28, 1865, in Hamilton, Ohio.

Elizabeth and George raised four children:

(1) Cornelia (“Nellie”) Morton - wife of Frank Cross and the mother of Leonard (“Lee”) Cross).

(2) Mary Ann Morton - wife of Frank E. Denius,

(3) William Welsh Lewis Morton (1871-1931), husband of Anna Schultheiss Morton and paternal grandfather of Jim, Lois, Judy, and Ken Morton, and of William, Donald, and Robert Strasser.

(4) David Hinsey Morton (1878-1914), husband of Emma Lotz Morton and maternal grandfather of Bruce Morton Garver and Ann Clifton Garver Bell.

Elizabeth (Morton) Morton [aka Mrs. George Reynolds Morton] posed for this circa 1876 photograph made in Butler County by a professional photographer.

Whenever this JPEG photograph is distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and “the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection” at Lane Public Library in Hamilton, Ohio.

Portrayed, circa November 1861 in his U. S. Army uniform, is John William Morton (April 6, 1831, in New Castle County, Delaware, to October 21, 1904, in Union County, Indiana), the eldest – and only Delaware-born -- of the ten children of Benjamin Morton (1805-1858) and Mary Jane Clifton Morton (1805-1898). The painted backdrop of this daguerreotype indicates that it was made by a professional photographer, probably at a studio in Butler County, Ohio. John William Morton’s daguerreotype portrait is encased behind a glass plate and within a fancy pressed-copper frame whose dimensions from edge to edge are 2 ¾” wide & 3 3/8” high. On the back of this framed daguerrotype, Ruth Ernestine Morton Garver (1907-2004), a great-niece of John William Morton, pasted a strip of paper on which she wrote "John Morton, brother of Elizabeth” (Morton). Ruth almost certainly obtained this information from her mother, Emma Lotz Morton (1877-1962), whose husband -- and Ruth’s father -- David Hinsey Morton (1878-1914), was the youngest of the four children of George Reynolds Morton (1845-1920) and Elizabeth (Morton) Morton (1847-1933), who was the youngest of John William Morton’s five sisters.

Civil War U. S. Army records indicate that John William Morton served in Company "K" of the 22nd Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry on a three-year enlistment from November 18, 1861, until his discharge at St. Louis, Missouri, on January 23, 1863, for reasons unknown to us. John William Morton was at least ten years older than the average age of U.S. Army enlisted privates during the Civil War. A fellow volunteer in Company “K” of the 22nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry was Jason Johnson (1835-1908), a cousin-in-law whom John W. Morton certainly knew well. John's eldest sister, Sarah Anne Morton (1836-1929), had on Sept. 17, 1856, wed Thomas Johnson (1829-1908), one of Jason's older brothers. Perhaps John William Morton and Jason Johnson even enlisted together in Company “K” of the 22nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Relations between the family of Jason Johnson and that of John William Morton grew closer immediately after the Civil War when Jason on July 27, 1865, wed Lydia Griffin Meredith (1838-1908), the seventh-born of the thirteen children of James Meredith and Anna Welsh Morton Meredith (1808-1880) whose brother, Benjamin Morton (1805-1858) was John William Morton’s father. Lydia’s father, James Meredith, had even co-signed the $200 bond that the state of Delaware had required Benjamin Morton to post in order to obtain permission in 1830 to marry Mary Jane Clifton, whom he wed on June 17, 1830, at Immanuel Church in New Castle County, Delaware. I concur with cousin Judy Morton Brueneman that the family of Benjamin and Mary-Jane Clifton Morton and the family of James and Anna Welsh Morton Meredith probably traveled together with Anna’s and Benjamin’s mother, Rebecca Jane Welsh Morton from Delaware to Butler County, Ohio, in 1831 or perhaps as late as early 1832.

Within nine months of his discharge from the 22nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, John William Morton wed Eliza J. Stevens (1844-1871) on Oct. 20, 1864, in Preble County, Ohio,. Four daughters were born to them at Darrtown in Butler County, Ohio: Emma (1866), Nancy Elizabeth (1867), Cynthia (1869, who married Charles Huntington), and Mary Jane (1870). After Eliza’s early death on Feb. 5, 1871, John William Morton wed Elizabeth E. Maddox (1836-1917). They had one child, David Morton (July 24 to Sept 8, 1875), and raised John and Eliza’s four daughters. John William Morton and Elizabeth E. Maddox Morton are buried in the Darrtown Pioneer Cemetery.

Other relatives of Elizabeth Morton (Morton) and her husband, George Reynolds Morton, served in the U. S. Army, although George did not. The most decorated such relative was George’s brother, James Willis Morton (1844-1918), who, during the Civil War, served more than three years in Company "C" of the 93rd Ohio Infantry Regiment within the Union Army of the Cumberland. Whenever this JPEG photo is distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and to “the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection” at Lane Public Library in Hamilton, Ohio.

This small photographic studio card portrays George Reynolds Morton (August 13, 1846 to April 26, 1920) wearing a formal frock coat, circa 1865, at a professional photography studio in Butler County, Ohio. George is the second-born son of William Wack Morton (1809-1859) and Eliza (Walden) Morton (1823-1847).

Because George Reynolds Morton stands alone in a frock count in this circa 1865 photograph, his great-grandson, Bruce Morton Garver, estimates that this photo was made shortly before his marriage at the age of twenty-one on September 28, 1866 to Elizabeth Morton (1847-1933), his fourth cousin, who was descended from a collateral branch of the large Morton family, both families having ascertained that their earliest documented ancestor is Martti Marttinen (Morton Mortonson) who was born in 1616 at Rautalaupi, Finland, and died during 1706in New Castle County, Delaware.

Whenever this JPEG photo is distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and “the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection” at Lane Public Library in Hamilton, Ohio.

Cornelia (“Nellie”) Morton posed for this portrait, circa 1876, at a professional photography studio in Butler County, Ohio. Cornelia was born on August 6, 1867, and died at the age of nineteen on March 23, 1887, thirteen months after her marriage on February 28, 1886, to Frank Cross and four months after the birth of their son, Leonard (Lee) Cross on Nov. 26, 1886, in Butler County, Ohio.

Cornelia (“Nellie”) Morton was the oldest of the four children of George Reynolds Morton (1846-1920) and Elizabeth (Morton) Morton (1847-1933). Cornelia married Frank Cross on February 28, 1886. Their son, Leonard (Lee) Cross, wed Rhoda (Ross) Cross (1887–1958) and died on May 30, 1954, in Hamilton, Ohio. The couple had no children.

Emma Lotz Morton (1877-1962) introduced her grandson Bruce Morton Garver to her nephew Lee Cross in Hamilton during 1949 or 1950 at the Saturday morning farmers’ market around the Butler County Court House. Cornelia Morton’s parents kept several pieces of her costume jewelry in remembrance of her. This jewelry has been passed down through five generations of young ladies closely related to Cornelia (“Nellie”) Morton.

This JPEG is a digital copy of Ruth Ernestine Morton Garver’s photo copy of the original photograph whose whereabouts is unknown. Portrayed in portraits by the same professional studio, ca. 1876, are the eldest two of Nellie’s three younger siblings:

(1) Mary Ann Morton (Denius) was born on Sept. 26, 1869, in Butler County, Ohio, and died on February 2, 1892, at Somerville, Butler County, Ohio, one year and ten and a half months of her marriage to Frank Denius on May 13, 1890.

(2) William Welsh Lewis Morton was born on September 9, 1871, at Darrtown, Butler County, Ohio, raised three children — Mary, Bill, and Paul — with his wife, Ann Schultheiss Morton, and died on Nov. 9, 1931, at Elmwood Place in Hamilton County, Ohio.

(3) David Hinsey (“Dave”) Morton was born on July 1, 1878, in Preble Co., Ohio, raised two daughters — Edith and Ruth — with his wife, Emma Lotz Morton, and died on February 11, 1914, at Denver, Colorado.

This is the only known photograph of Cornelia ("Nellie") Morton Cross (1867-1887).

Whenever this JPEG photo is distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and “the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection” at the Lane Public Library in Hamilton, Ohio.

William Welsh Lewis (“Will”) Morton (1871-1931) and Anna Schultheiss Morton (1879-1950) celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on October 10, 1925, at Elmwood Place in Hamilton County, Ohio.

Will and Anna had wed on October 10, 1900, at Zion Lutheran Church in Hamilton, Ohio.

Anna had been born on September 8, 1879, at Hattenhofen bei Göttingen in the Kingdom of Wűrttemberg within the Second German Empire. During the mid 1880s, Anna immigrated with her siblings and parents, Georg Schultheiss and Barbara Hartlieb Schultheiss to Hamilton, Ohio, along with her father Georg's three Schultheiss brothers and their families.

William Welsh Lewis (“Will”) Morton & Anna Schultheiss Morton raised three children: (1) Mary Elizabeth Morton (Strasser, April 21, 1901, to Dec. 9, 1968), (2) William David (“Bill”) Morton (June 4, 1903, to March 11, 1955), and (3) Paul Morton (Dec. 2, 1904, to Feb. 19, 1987).

Will and Anna (Schultheiss) Morton are the grandparents of James William (“Jim”) Morton, Lois Jean Morton Ernst, Judith Ann (“Judy”) Morton Brueneman, Kenneth David (”Ken”) Morton, William Morton (“Billy”) Strasser, Donald Paul (“Don”) Strasser, and Robert Jacob (“Bo”) Strasser.

William Welsh Lewis Morton is also the brother of David Hinsey (“Dave”) Morton (1878-1914), grandfather of Bruce Morton Garver and Ann Clifton Garver Bell.

Will’s brother, David Hinsey (“Dave”) Morton (1878-1914) also wed a daughter of German immigrants, Emma Lotz (Morton, 1877-1962), daughter of Henry Lotz (1835-1906) and Elizabeth Catherine (Donges) Lotz (1838-1916) whose “bios” and twenty related photos have been posted to their Find a Grave Memorials by their great-grandson, Bruce Morton Garver, and great-great grandson, Lee Albert Garver.

Whenever this JPEG photo is distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and “the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection” at Lane Public Library in Hamilton, Ohio.

Mary Ann Morton posed for this portrait circa 1876, at the same professional photography studio in Butler County, Ohio, where photographs were made of her siblings Cornelia (“Nelllie”) and William Welsh Lewis (“Will”) and their mother Elizabeth and grandmother Mary Jane Clifton Morton.

Mary Ann Morton was born on September 26, 1869, wed Frank Elmer Denius (1864-1943) on May 13, 1890, and died on February 2, 1892, at Somerville in Butler County, Ohio. The couple had no children and are interred at Somerville Cemetery.

Frank Elmer Denius and his second wife, Margaret (Waters) Denius (1890-1919), raised one son, Joseph Leonard Denius (1917-1943) who served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II.

This JPEG of Mary Ann Morton was made from the original card stock photograph of Mary Ann Morton Denius that her mother Elizabeth (Morton) Morton gave to her youngest granddaughter Ruth Ernestine (Morton) Garver (1907-2004).

Mary Ann Morton is the second-born of the four children of George Reynolds Morton (1846-1920) and Elizabeth (Morton) Morton (1847-1933) whose first-born child was Cornelia (“Nellie") Morton (Cross, August 6, 1867, to March 23, 1887) who wed Frank E. Cross on February 28, 1886, and with him had one son, Leonard (“Lee") Cross (1886-1954) who wed Rhoda (Ross) Cross (1887–1958) and died on May 30, 1954, in Hamilton, Ohio.

Third-born William Welsh Lewis Morton was born on Sept. 9, 1871, at Darrtown in Butler County, Ohio, raised three children — Mary, Bill, and Paul — with his wife, Anna Schultheiss Morton (1879-1950), and died on Nov. 9, 1931, at Elmwood Place in Hamilton County, Ohio.

Fourth-born David Hinsey Morton was born on July 1, 1878, in Preble County, Ohio, raised two daughters — Edith and Ruth — with his wife, Emma Lotz Morton (1877-1962), and died on February 11, 1914, at Denver, Colorado.

Whenever this JPEG photo is distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and “the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection” at the Lane Public Library in Hamilton, Ohio.

David Hinsey (”Dave”) Morton (July 1, 1878, in Preble County, Ohio, to February 11, 1914, in Denver, Colorado) posed for this photograph at the age of twenty-one in 1900, the year before his marriage to Emma Lotz on June 27, 1901, at the German Methodist Church on 320 South Front Street in Hamilton, Ohio.

David was named after his and brother Will’s great-grandfather David Morton (1752-1831).

Brother William Welsh Lewis (“Will”) Morton (1871-1931) was named after his and brother Dave’s paternal grandfather, William Welsh Morton (1809-1859).

According to David’ Hinsey Morton's and Emma (Lotz) Morton’s youngest daughter, Ruth Ernestine Morton Garver, (1907-2004), David Hinsey Morton and his brother William Welsh Lewis Morton (1871-1931) were respectively named in honor of their great-grandmothers - Rebecca Hinsey Morton and Rebecca Jane Welsh Morton.

Rebecca Hinsey Morton (1781 to circa 1850) was the wife of Ebenezer Morton, Sr. (December 25, 1776, in Delaware, to May 20, 1861, in Milford Township of Butler County, Ohio).

Rebecca Jane Welsh Morton (August 4, 1765, in Delaware to December 18, 1844, in Milford Township of Butler County, Ohio), was the daughter of William Captain Welsh and Ann (Mary Ann) Justis Morton. On October 7, 1800, in Delaware, Rebecca Jane Welsh wed David Morton (1752-1831), a son of Rachel Walraven (born on July 25, 1852) and Andrew Morton (1749-1825) who was among the soldiers from Delaware who fought in the American Revolution to achieve the independence of the UnitedStates.

Whenever this JPEG photo is distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and “the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection” at Lane Public Library in Hamilton, Ohio.

On May 13, 1890, Mary Ann Morton married Frank Elmer Denius (June 3, 1864, in Butler County, Ohio, to Sept 26, 1943, in Eaton, Ohio), the son of Joseph G. Denius and Sarah Jane Thomas Denius. Frank and Mary Ann had no children.

Given Mary Ann Morton’s youthful appearance and the style of her dress, this photo was likely made shortly before her marriage on May 13, 1890. This photo is mounted on hard card stock and, as ornate printing on the back of this card indicates, was made professionally by "Toler, Instantaneous Photographs, Oxford, Ohio." Also on the back of this photo, Ruth Ernestine Morton Garver wrote: "Mary Ann Morton, sister of David Morton."

Mary Ann Morton (Denius) was born on Sept. 26, 1869, in Butler County, Ohio, and died on February 2, 1892, in Somerville, Butler County, Ohio. Mary Ann Morton was the second-born daughter and second oldest of the four children of George Reynolds Morton (1846-1920) and Elizabeth (Liz) Morton Morton (1847-1933). Their eldest child, Cornelia (“Nellie”) Morton (Cross, born on August 6, 1867, in Butler County, Ohio, died at the age of nineteen on March 23, 1887, thirteen months after her marriage on Feb. 28, 1886, to Frank Cross and four months after the birth of their son, Leonard (Lee) Cross on Nov. 26, 1986. Perhaps Cornelia’s death at such a young age prompted parents George Reynolds Morton and Elizabeth Morton Morton (1847-1933) to have their three living children professionally photographed.

Given the size (6.5" x 4.25") and high resolution of this professionally prepared photograph of "Mary Ann Morton, sister of David Morton," it obviously became a treasured possession of her parents and brothers. So far as I (Bruce Morton) know, this is the only one of two surviving portraits of Mary Ann Morton Denius, who was a beloved daughter, sister, young wife, and mother, and also one of the granddaughters of Benjamin Morton (1805 -1858) and Mary Jane Clifton Morton (1805-1898).

Mary Ann Morton’s niece, Ruth Ernestine Morton Garver obtained both photos of Mary Ann Morton from Mary Ann’s mother (and Ruth’s grandmother), Elizabeth Morton Morton (1847-1933). Ruth, in turn gave both photos to her son, Bruce Morton Garver, who remembers his mother having commented on the fact that Elizabeth Morton Morton (1847-1933) was not only blessed by good health into an extraordinarily old age but also had experienced the sadness of having outlived her four children as well as her husband. Her grandchildren -- Ruth, Edith, Mary, Bill, and Paul Morton -- were a great joy and consolation to her. Elizabeth (Morton) Morton is buried with her husband Georgein Collinsville, Ohio. Her great-grandson — Mary Ann Morton’s ’s great nephew --Bruce Morton Garver, wrote this caption. Whenever this JPEG photo is distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and “the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection” at the Lane Public Library in Hamilton, Ohio.

The family of William Welsh Lewis ("Will") Morton (Sept. 9, 1871, in Preble County, Ohio, to Nov. 9, 1931, at Elmwood Place, Hamilton County, Ohio) and Anna Schultheiss Morton (Sept. 8, 1879, at Hattenhoppen, Kreis Göppingen, in the Kingdom of Württemberg within the German Empire, to July 21, 1950, at Cincinnati, Ohio) posed for this formal photograph in the spring or summer of 1905 at Hamilton, seat of Butler County, Ohio, where Will and Anna wed on Oct. 10, 1900, at Zion Lutheran Church. Left to right are children William David Morton (June 4, 1903, to March 11, 1955), Paul Morton (Dec. 2, 1904, to Feb. 19, 1987), and Mary Elizabeth Morton (April 21, 1901, to Dec. 9, 1968).

Will and Anna (Schultheiss) Morton are the grandparents of James William (“Jim”) Morton, Lois Jean Morton Ernst, Judith Ann (“Judy”) Morton Brueneman, Kenneth David (”Ken”) Morton, William Morton (“Billy”) Strasser, Donald Paul (“Don”) Strasser, and Robert Jacob (“B”) Strasser.

William Welsh Lewis Morton is also the brother of David Hinsey (“Dave”) Morton (1878-1914), grandfather of Bruce Morton Garver and Ann Clifton Garver Bell.

Whenever this JPEG photo is distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and “the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection” at Lane Public Library in Hamilton, Ohio.

In the photograph at the left, distant (DNA linked) cousins and history professors Auvo Kostiainen and Bruce Morton Garver posed for photographer Karen Louise King Garver in June 2007 at the Finnish Maritime Museum in Turku, Finland, where Auvo serves as a Professor of history at the University of Turku. Bruce met Auvo thanks to the participation of Bill Morton — Bruce’s second cousin once removed — in the Finnish DNA project. This participation was facilitated by Bill Morton's employment by Nokia, Finland’s best-known corporation internationally.

Auvo is one of the historians in charge of mapping Finnish DNA worldwide — from north of Manchuria through Finland to Minnesota — and is the author of the most comprehensive scholarly history of Finns in the Communist Party of the United States. Auvo is a few years younger than Bruce and has similar scholarly interests, having published works on Finnish immigrants in the United States comparable to Bruce’s work on Czech immigrants.

Upon receiving this image, in July 2007, Bruce’s & Karen’s children, Lee Albert Garver & Valerie Louise Garver, immediately perceived the striking physical resemblance of Auvo to that of their father, Bruce, and the fact that each professor had naturally assumed the same posture in front of Karen Garver's camera on a windy early summer day. Both Auvo and Bruce have the typically high cheekbones and blue eyes characteristic of Finns and, once upon a time, had the blonde hair typical of many Finns.

Bruce’s first documented maternal ancestor to arrive in North America was Martti Marttinen who was born at Rautalaupi, Finland, in 1616, and immigrated in 1654 to New Sweden on the Delaware River, a colony founded by Swedes in 1638, seized by the Dutch in 1655, and ultimately acquired by England from the Dutch Republic in 1664. Martti Marttinen anglicized his name to Morton Mortonson before he died on May 31, 1706, in New Castle County of the English Colony of Delaware. His son, Morton Mortonson, Jr. (1645-1719) shortened the spelling of his surname to Morton.

The photograph of Professors Bruce Morton Garver & Auvo Kostiainen at Turku, Finland, in June 2007 is pertinent to DNA research as a helpful supplement to documented genealogical research, particularly— with regard to the Morton family — in confirming that Finland is the principal place of origin of the 17th century ancestors of today’s extended Morton family.

Morton marriages to colonists of Finnish, Swedish, and English origin occurred during the 18th century in Delaware Colony and Pennsylvania until 1776 and thereafter in the states of Delaware and Pennsylvania. At some point, our Morton ancestors lost all sense of being of Finnish — and even of Swedish ancestry — clearly an indication of rapid “acculturation”.

Marriages of Morton family members to German immigrants, or the descendants of German immigrants, occurred during the 19th and early to mid 20th century in Ohio.

Two World Wars initiated by Germany accelerated the already rapid acculturation of German immigrants in the United States and Canada. Thus a sense of ethnicity — often subjective — usually was supplanted by religious, social, and / or occupational identity. Extended family friendship and solidarity continued to be cultivated.

FOOTNOTE: The Y-DNA test of William (“Bill”) Morton, son of James William (“Jim”) Morton (1929-2010) and Rosemary (Danner) Morton (1930-2016), provides evidence to confirm descent from some — and relationship to other — persons born in what is now Finland or in what is now Karelia (a predominantly Finnish-speaking and religiously Eastern Orthodox region in today’s Russian Federation). Bill is a third great-grandson of Benjamin Morton (1805-1858) and has an uncannily close physical resemblance to his second great-grandfather, George Reynolds Morton, who is also a direct descendant of Martti Marttinen (Morton Mortonson).

Bruce Morton Garver is descended from Finns through his mother Ruth E. Morton Garver’s father, David Hinsey (“Dave”) Morton (1878-1914), the youngest son of George Reynolds Morton (1846-1920). Data from Bruce’s mtDNA (maternal DNA) is compatible with — but provided no leads to — the archival and printed sources which reveal his earliest documented direct maternal ancestor to be his third-great-grandmother, Katherine Dorothea Jakob (1773-1839), born at Erda 35644 Hohenahr, Hessen, Germany.Erda was within the Duchy of Hessen-Kassel at the time of Katherine’s birth and within the Kingdom of Prussia at the time of her death. Katherine Dorothea Jakob wed Konrad Brűck (1765-1814). Their daughter — and Bruce’s great-great grandmother, Elizabeth (Brűck) Donges (1805-1896) immigrated to Ohio with her children after the death of her husband Johann Friedrich Donges (1804-1843) in Kreis Wetzlar, Prussia.

Mildred Morton (October 15, 1875, to April 11, 1924) posed for this photograph circa 1905 in Butler County, Ohio. She was the only daughter and the first born of the two children of James Willis Morton (October 19, 1844, to May 14, 1918) and Martha Markle Morton (March 8, 1837, to June 9, 1924) of Somerville, Ohio.

Mildred's brother, William Thomas (Wills) Morton was born on October 5, 1877, in Collinsville, Ohio, and died on February 1, 1900.

From circa 1897 to 1924, Mildred Morton taught in one of the public schools of Butler County, Ohio, probably in the vicinity of Collinsville or perhaps Somerville or, eventually, Hamilton.

Ruth Ernestine Morton Garver (1907-2004) well remembered Mildred Morton and her parents who were Ruth’s and Edith’s great uncle “Willis" and great aunt “Matt”.

After the death of Mildred's father, James Willis Morton on May 14, 1918, Mildred gave her young first cousins-once-removed, Ruth Ernestine Morton (Garver) and Edith Elizabeth Morton (Bippus, 1905-1988), each an opportunity to select one book from her father's personal library. Ten-year-old Ruth selected "The French Revolution, 1789-1815" (1904) by Shailer Mathews, a Professor of history at Columbia University. Surprised at Ruth's apparently sophisticated reading tastes, Mildred asked her why she had chosen this particular book. Ruth replied that she did so because the book contained a five dollar bill. Mildred, impressed by Ruth's honesty, allowed her to keep not only the book but also the five dollar bill, quite a large sum of money in 1918. Circa 1975, Ruth gave this Shailer Mathews book to her son, Bruce Morton Garver, and his wife, Karen Louise King Garver, who had earned a PhD. in modern French history from UCLA in 1974.

Mildred was one of the first descendants of her great grandparents, Ebenezer Morton, Sr. (1776-1861) and Rebecca Hinsey Morton (1781-1850), to earn a college degree, in Mildred’s case a teaching certificate in elementary education from Miami University. Mildred’s successful career in public education helped to inspire her first cousins once-removed, Ruth Ernestine Morton (Garver) and Edith Elizabeth Morton (Bippus) to attend Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, in order to obtain an elementary school teaching certificate, a goal achieved by Edith in 1925 and by Ruth in 1927.

Whenever this captioned JPEG photo is distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and “the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection” at the Lane Public Library in Hamilton, Ohio.