Stuyvesant Fish Morris

Stuyvesant Fish Morris (August 3, 1843 – May 10, 1928) was an American physician and the progenitor of Manhattan's prominent family of physicians.[1]

Stuyvesant Fish Morris
Born(1843-08-03)August 3, 1843
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedMay 10, 1928(1928-05-10) (aged 84)
New York City, New York, U.S.
EducationColumbia Grammar School
Alma materColumbia University
Columbia Medical School
OccupationPhysician
Spouse(s)
Ellen James Van Buren
​
​
(m. 1868; his death 1928)​
Children6
Parent(s)Richard Lewis Morris
Elizabeth Sarah Fish
RelativesNicholas Fish (grandfather)
Hamilton Fish (uncle)
Stuyvesant Fish (cousin)
A. Newbold Morris (cousin)

Early life

Morris was born in Manhattan on August 3, 1843. He was a son of Richard Lewis Morris (1805–1880) and Elizabeth Sarah Fish (1810–1881). His siblings included Richard Lewis Morris Jr., Elizabeth Stuyvesant Morris, and James Morris.[2]

His maternal grandparents were Nicholas Fish (1758–1833), Adjutant General of New York and Revolutionary War soldier, and Elizabeth (née Stuyvesant) Fish (1775–1854), a descendant of both the Livingston family and Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch director-general of New Amsterdam. He was also a nephew of Hamilton Fish, the Governor of New York, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Secretary of State.[3] His paternal grandparents were Helen (née Van Cortlandt) Morris (1768–1812) and James Morris (1764–1827), High Sheriff of New York. His grandfather was a son of Lewis Morris (1726–1798), signor of the Declaration of Independence, from the prominent Colonial-era Morris family of the Morrisania section of the Bronx.[4][5]

Education and training

Morris was educated at Columbia College Grammar School.[6] He graduated from Columbia University in 1863, earning an A.B. degree, and in 1866, earning an A.M. degree.[7] He earned his medical degree from Columbia Medical School in 1867.[7] He trained as the acting Assistant Surgeon, United States, house surgeon for the New York Hospital, and as a sanitary inspector.[6]

Career

During the U.S. Civil War, Morris enlisted as a private in the Union Army, Company K, 7th Infantry, New York Regiment on June 1, 1862 and he mustered out on September 5, 1862.[8] The regiment was known as a "Silk Stocking" regiment and "Blue-Bloods" due to the disproportionate number of its members who were part of New York City's social elite,[9] In 1864, he was acting Medical Cadet at Sand's Island and in 1866, he served as acting Assistant Surgeon at Hart and David's Islands during the fourth cholera pandemic.[6]

Morris practiced medicine in New York City for more than 40 years. His office was located at 16 East 30th Street in Manhattan.[10] Dr. Morris was published in The New York Times,[11] the New York Medical Journal and the Brooklyn Medical Journal.[12]

He retired in 1913, and in 1920 was living at 16 East 30th Street in Manhattan.[1] Dr. Morris was a member of the Century Club and the Saint Nicholas Society.[13] He also served as a member of the board of trustees of the Parochial Fund of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New York.[14]

Personal life

On December 10, 1868, he married Ellen James "Elly" Van Buren (1844–1929) at Saint Mark's Church in New York City. Elly's paternal grandfather was the 8th U.S. President Martin Van Buren (1782-1862).[15] They owned a house located in Quogue (a village within Southampton, New York) at the SE corner of Quogue Street and Post Lane,[16] where he was president of the Quogue Field Golf Club.[17] Together, they were the parents of the six children:[18]

  • Elizabeth Marshall Morris (1869–1919) who made her debut in 1888.[19] She married Benjamin Woolsey Rogers in 1906.[18][20]
  • Van Buren Morris (1871–1872), who died young.[18]
  • Ellen Van Buren Morris (1873–1954)[21] who married Francis Livingston Pell (1873–1945),[22] a descendant of James Duane,[18] in 1899.[23]
  • Stuyvesant Morris, who also died young.[18]
  • Richard Lewis Morris III (1875–1954),[24] who married Carolyn Whitney Fellowes (b. 1882), a daughter of Cornelius Fellowes, in 1908.[25][26]
  • Stuyvesant Fish Morris Jr. (1877–1925),[27] a stock broker who married Elizabeth Hillis Wynkoop (1878–1930), daughter of Dr. Gerardus Hilles Wynkoop, in 1900.[28] They were the parents of Stuyvesant Fish Morris III (d. 1948).[29]

Morris died at his residence, 116 East 58th Street in Manhattan, on May 10, 1928.[1][7] His funeral was held at Calvary Church in New York City and was buried at Quogue Cemetery.[1]

Writings about Morris family

Jeffrey Thomas writes:

In 1864 Henry James wrote of [Ellen Van Buren] in a letter, 'Miss Ellen Van Buren is here -- pale, thin, and drooping. We taunt her facetiously with being in love ... whereat she smiles languidly.' Four years later Henry James commented in a letter to William James, 'We heard from Elly Van Buren that she is engaged to one Dr. Morris of New Rochelle, a young physician who has cared for her for 4 years and never has been attentive to any girl in the interval. I should think Elly's own conscience should sting her.' About this time Alice James remarked acidly that Elly's flustered carryings - on about her engagement were likely to exasperate her fiancé beyond endurance. In 1913, Henry, writing to his acolyte Howard Sturgis about the relatives he had mentioned in his memoir A Small Boy and Others, explained enigmatically, 'Yes, my Father's two other sisters were my Van Buren and my Temple aunts. I should have liked to drag in the former's daughter, the intimate of our childhood, or of mine, later Mrs. Stuyvesant Morris, but forebore.' In January 1902 William James wrote to Henry during a visit to the United States, 'I also saw Elly Van Buren, old looking but unaltered in manner.'

Philanthropy

In 1907, Morris donated 860 letters addressed to President Van Buren, printed circulars and broadsides, 1,700 other letters and political items to the Library of Congress.[30] His donation, along with that of Mrs. Smith Thompson Van Buren, his mother-in-law, rendered the Library "a remarkably full one of political documents bearing upon the middle period [as of 1907] of the history of the United States."[30]

References
  1. "Dr. Stuyvesant F. Morris. Physician Who Practiced for Four Decades Dies in 85th Year". New York Times. May 11, 1928. Retrieved 2011-12-15. Dr. Stuyvesant Fish Morris, who I retired in 1913 after practicing medicine here for more than forty years, died yesterday at his residence, ...
  2. Moffat, R. Burnham (1904). The Barclays of New York: Who They Are and Who They Are Not,--And Some Other Barclays. R. G. Cooke. p. 179. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  3. Reynolds, Cuyler (1914). Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 1409. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  4. "The Commercial and Financial Chronicle". National News Service, Incorporated. 1906: 542. Retrieved 15 October 2017. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. Huberdeau, Jennifer (July 21, 2016). "The Cottager | Brookhurst: Modern art finds a home on former estate's property". The Berkshire Eagle. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  6. Leonard, John William; Mohr, William Frederick; Holmes, Frank R.; Knox, Herman Warren; Downs, 0infield Scott (1905). Who's who in New York City and State. L.R. Hamersly Company. p. 639. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  7. "Stuyvesant Fish Morris | Archives and Special Collections". library-archives.cumc.columbia.edu. Columbia University. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  8. Clark, Emmons (1890). History of the Seventh Regiment of New York, 1806-1889. Seventh Regiment. p. 517. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  9. Lukasik, Sebastian Hubert (2008). Military Service, Combat, and American Identity in the Progressive Era | Ph.D. dissertation. Duke University. p. 84. ISBN 9780549869931. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  10. Rackham's Poultry Directory. Chamberlain Publishing Company. 1900. p. 93. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  11. Morris, Dr. Stuyvesant Fish (16 August 1898). "Hygienic Conditions at Montauk". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  12. Museum of the City of New York (1995). Hives of Sickness: Public Health and Epidemics in New York City. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813521589. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  13. The American Historical Magazine. Publishing Society of New York. 1906. p. 432. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  14. Convention, Episcopal Church Diocese of New York (1905). New York Journal of Convention. The Diocese. p. 92. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  15. "Grand-daughter of Former President Dies". Associated Press. March 14, 1929. Retrieved 2011-12-15. Mrs. Ellen James Morris, widow of Dr. Stuyvesant Fish Morris and grand daughter of Martin Van Buren. eighth president of tho United States,.....
  16. "Volunteer Opportunities". quoguehistory.org. Quogue Historical Society. 25 April 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  17. Harper's Official Golf Guide. Harper & Brothers. 1901. p. 235. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  18. Aitken, William Benford (1912). Distinguished Families in America, Descended from Wilhelmus Beekman and Jan Thomasse Van Dyke. Knickerbocker Press. p. 149. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  19. "Autumn Society". New York Amusement Gazette. F. T. Low.: 92 1888. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  20. "Weddings of a Day.; Rogers--Morris". The New York Times. 1 November 1906. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  21. "Mrs. Francis L. Pell". The New York Times. 11 March 1954. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  22. "Francis L. Pell, 71, Architect 50 Years". The New York Times. 8 September 1945. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  23. "WEDDING OF A DAY.; Pell--Morris". The New York Times. 10 October 1899. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  24. "RICHARD MORRIS, STOOKBROKER, 78; Descendant of Declaration of Independence Signer Dies Partner in Hayden, Stone". The New York Times. 5 July 1954. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  25. "WEDDING PLANS; Arrangements Completed for the Morris Fellowes Nuptials on June 9". The New York Times. 9 May 1908. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  26. "Married --MORRIS--FELLOWES". The New York Times. 11 June 1908. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  27. "STUYVESANT F. MORRIS JR. Broker, Great Grandson of President Van Buren, Dies at 46". The New York Times. 10 April 1925. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  28. "Morris -- Wynkoop". The New York Times. 28 December 1900. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  29. "Stuyvesant F. Morris, Van Buren Relative". The New York Times. 23 March 1948. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  30. Cutter, Charles Ammi (1907). Library Journal. R. R. Bowker Company. p. 21. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
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