Isaiah Lafayette Morton

ISAIAH LAFAYETTE MORTON. - A man of good business judgment and tact, energetic and enterprising, Isaiah Lafayette Morton is intimately associated with the mercantile affairs of Wyandotte county, being one of the leading furniture dealers of Kansas City. He was born in Cedar county, Missouri, June 11, 1869, of honored pioneer ancestry.

His father, Isaiah L. Morton, Sr., was born and bred in Virginia. He was for several years engaged in agricultural pursuits in Cedar county, Missouri, from there moving in 1884 to Osborne county, Kansas, where he continued a resident until his death, in 1890. He married Nancy Ann Jones, who was born in Cedar county, Missouri, of which her father, Thomas Jones, was the organizer. Mr. Jones was one of the prominent pioneer settlers of that section of Missouri, influential in public affairs, and served as the first judge of the Cedar county court. In 1849 he joined the gold seekers, making a trip across the plains with an ox-wagon train, and died a short time later, his death being due to an accident. Mrs. Nancy Ann Morton survived her husband eight years, passing away in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1898. To her and her husband five children were born, as follows: Louisa, wife of T. J. Stewart, of West Rumney, New Hampshire; Isaiah Lafayette, the subject of this brief personal record; James H., of Kansas City, Kansas; Corda, wife of James H. White, of Wetmore, Kansas; and Sarah Nellie, wife of Thomas J. Ralph, of Plymouth, New Hampshire.

Educated in the district schools, Isaiah Lafayette Morton remained beneath the parental roof-tree until after the death of his father, when he settled on a farm in Clay county, Kansas, where he resided nine years. Coming then to Kansas City, Kansas, he was for three years engaged in the furniture business at No. 408 Kansas avenue. He then sold at an advantage, and a year later established himself at the corner of Osage and Mill streets, where he remained for some time. In the spring of 1908 Mr. Morton formed a copartnership with Dr. Foster, and opened his present store at the corner of Central avenue and Eighteenth street. Six months later, in the fall of 1908, Mr. Morton purchased the doctor's interests in the concern, and has since carried on business alone, having by his straightforward and systematic methods built up an extensive and lucrative trade, in the selection of his ample stock of furniture of all descriptions catering to the needs and tastes of his many patrons.

Mr. Morton married, in November, 1895, Sallie Younkin, who was born in southern Pennsylvania, a daughter of Silas Younkin, and they have one child, Francis Arthur, born in October, 1900. In his political relations Mr. Morton is a Republican. Fraternally he belongs to the Kansas City Kansas Lodge, Modern Woodmen of America. Religiously he is a member of the Central Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has been a trustee since 1910.