Buckner Stith Morris

Who was Buckner Stith Morris?

Buckner Stith Morris served as Mayor of Chicago, Illinois for the Whig Party.

Morris married Evelina Barker in Kentucky in 1832 and the couple moved to Chicago in 1834 where Morris established a law practice with J. Young Scammon and created the Chicago Lyceum, the city's first literary society. By 1835, however, Morris had left Scammon and was practicing law with Edward Casey. He was elected mayor of Chicago in 1838 and went on to serve terms as a city alderman. He ran for the office of Illinois Secretary of State in 1852 under the Whig ticket and served as a Lake County Circuit Court Judge from 1853-1855.

Following Evelina's death in 1847, he married Eliza Stephenson in 1850. Eliza died in 1855.

The former mayor was outspoken in his opposition the American Civil War and was suspected to sympathise with the "Copperheads". In 1864, he was arrested for aiding in a Confederate attempt to free prisoners of war from Camp Douglas. He was held for 9 months, but was then exonerated by a military court. Being unable, while so detained, to attend to his business affairs, he lost most of his assets through foreclosures. Incensed over the treatment of their ancestor, his heirs refused to permit the donation of his historical material, diaries, etc., to the Chicago Historical Society, despite urging to that end.