Brooks-Screven-Bulloch County GaArchives Biographies.....Morton, James Oliver 1820 - 1911
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 1, 2004, 9:54 pm

Author: William Harden
p. 1081-1082

   JAMES OLIVER MORTON. One of the notable pioneers of south Georgia was the
late James Oliver Morton, who died at his homestead in Brooks county in
November, 1911, at the age of nearly ninety-one years. He assisted in the
development of the natural resources of this region when almost the entire
country was a wilderness. He was identified with the public as well as the
industrial and business affairs of his community, and for many years as
president directed the welfare of the Bank of Quitman. He served as one of the
first four justices of the inferior court of Brooks county, and his name
deserves a permanent record in the history of this portion of the state.

   He was born in Screven county on the 20th of December, 1820, and by ancestry
represented one of the oldest American families. He was a lineal descendant of
George Morton, a native of England, who early in the seventeenth century, to
avoid religious persecution, with others fled to Leyden, Holland, and from there
in 1622 sailed on the ship Ann for America, joining the Pilgrim Fathers two
years after their landing at Plymouth Rock. The Mortons and other Pilgrim
families intermarried, and the Mortons of later generations have numerous
relationship with the descendants of other Pilgrim sires. Oliver Morton,
grandfather of the late Quitman banker, was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and
afterwards came south and was one of the early settlers of central Georgia. The
entire state was then sparsely settled, wild game abounded throughout the
forests and all the Indians had not yet departed for their western homes and
were sometimes troublesome to the settlements. Oliver Morton, like other
pioneers, acquired a large amount of land and was engaged in farming- in Jones
county until his death.

   Silas Morton, his son, was born in Jones county, and moved from there to
Screven county, and bought a tract of land near Halcyondale which had been
granted under patent from King George. There he managed a large estate with
slave labor until his death. He married Sabina Archer, of Scotch-Irish ancestry,
and so far as known she was a lifelong resident of Screven county.

   James 0. was a son of Silas and Sabina Morton, and was reared and educated in
his native county. From there he moved to Bulloch county, which was his home
until 1843, when he came to what is now Brooks county, then a part of Lowndes,
the county seat being then at Troupville. Few white settlers had yet ventured
into this region, railroads were not built for a number of years, and markets
were many miles distant. The land which he first bought was located five miles
from the present site of Quitman, but a year later he bought land a mile and a
half from town. His settlement was in the midst of heavy timber, and his first
home, occupied for several years, was a log house, in which his children were
born. He owned a large number of slaves, and when these were freed by the war
the greater part of his wealth was swept away. He was never a man to be
discouraged by obstacles and reverses, and he continued steadily at producing
the crops of the soil, employing many of his former slaves. After fifty years
have gone, one of these old slaves, now blind and feeble, is being tenderly
cared for on the old homestead. From a generous prosperity gained by the
operations of his plantation Mr. Morton extended his interests into various
other lines, especially banking, and was for a number of years president of the
Bank of Quitman. It was his custom to drive into town every day and attend to
the affairs of the bank, and he paid his last visit for this purpose just four
days before his death. For more than seventy years he was constantly active, and
his long and honorable career was associated with much disinterested service and
kindness to those about him.

   The late Mr. Morton was married on the 18th of August, 1843, to Sarah Young.
It was their unusual fortune to spend sixty-eight years of wedded companionship,
and she is still living on the old homestead, being physically frail but
mentally strong. Sarah Young was born in Bulloch county, Georgia, December 7,
1825, and was a daughter of James and Lavinia (Jones) Young. Her paternal
grandparents were William and Mary (Henderson) Young. William Young was a
Georgian who took an active part in the movements for independence, was a member
of the Council of Safety appointed at Savannah on June 22, 1775, and on the 4th
of July following represented the town and district of Savannah at the
assembling of the provincial congress. He was later a planter in Screven county,
where he spent his last years, and the remains of himself and wife now repose on
a hill overlooking the Ogeechee valley.

   Mr. and Mrs. Morton were the parents of two children. The only son, Simeon
L., in early life was a student of the Quitman Academy and when the war broke
out enlisted with the Savannah Guards. He served throughout the war,
participating in many of the most notable battles, and lost his life on one of
the last battlefields of that four years' struggle between the states. The
daughter, Lavinia Calhoun, is the widow of the late Henry G. Turner of Quitman.


Additional Comments:
From:

A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA
BY
WILLIAM HARDEN

VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1913

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