Morton McMichael

{{short description|American newspaper publisher and politician (1807-1879)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Morton McMichael

|image = Portrait of Morton McMichael from Men of the Century, 1896.png

|imagesize =

|smallimage =

|caption =

|order = Mayor of Philadelphia

|term_start = January 1, 1866

|term_end = January 1, 1869

|governor =

|predecessor = Alexander Henry

|successor = Daniel M. Fox

|term_start2 =

|term_end2 =

|governor2 =

|predecessor2 =

|successor2 =

|birth_date = {{birth date|1807|10|02}}

|birth_place = Bordentown, New Jersey, U.S.

|death_date = {{death date and age|1879|01|06|1807|10|02}}

|death_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

|resting_place = Laurel Hill Cemetery

|alma_mater = University of Pennsylvania

|party = Jacksonian Democrat
Democrat
Whig
Republican

|profession = Newspaper publisher

|spouse = Mary Estell

}}

Morton McMichael (October 2, 1807 – January 6, 1879) was an American newspaper editor, publisher, civic leader and mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1866 to 1869.

He worked as the editor of The Saturday Evening Post and Godey's Lady's Book and as editor-in-chief of the Saturday Courier. He co-founded the Saturday Gazette and was publisher of The North American. He chaired the Executive Consolidation Committee that developed the Act of Consolidation of 1854 to expand the borders of the city of Philadelphia and include all of Philadelphia County. He served as president of the Fairmount Park Commission.

McMichael Park, Morton McMichael Elementary School and the McMichael Room in the Philadelphia Union League are all named in his honor.

Early life

McMichael was born on October 2, 1807, in Burlington County, New Jersey, to John and Hannah McMichael. His father was a soldier during the War of 1812{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=John H. |title=History of the Friendly sons of St. Patrick and of the Hibernian Society for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland : March 17, 1771-March 17, 1892 |date=1892 |publisher=Hibernian Society |location=Philadelphia |page=487 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyfriendly00campgoog/page/n696/mode/2up |access-date=28 January 2023}} and worked with Joseph Bonaparte, the older brother of Napoleon Bonaparte and former King of Spain.{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=B1QAMx2idG0C&pg=PA138 |title=Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class |last=Baltzell |first=E. Digby |page=138 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |date=2011-12-31|isbn=9781412830751 }}

His family moved to Philadelphia when he was young and he attended the University of Pennsylvania. He read law under David Paul Brown and William M. Meredith{{sfn|Mordell|1921|p=12}} and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1827, but never practiced law.{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Rossiter |last2=Brown |first2=John Howard |title=The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans |date=1904 |publisher=The Biographical Society |location=Boston |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U-0UAAAAYAAJ&q=mcmichael&pg=PA1849 |access-date=29 January 2023}}

Newspaper career

McMichael became an editor of The Saturday Evening Post in 1826. From 1831 to 1836 he was editor-in-chief of the Saturday Courier. In 1836 he founded the Saturday News along with Louis A. Godey and Joseph C. Neal. He worked as the editor of Godey's Lady's Book from 1842 to 1844.{{sfn|Mordell|1921|p=12}} He published the Saturday Gazette with Joseph C. Neal from 1844 to 1847. At the age of 39, he partnered with George Rex Graham for the publication of The North American. McMichael led the merger of the United States Gazette into the North American which also brought Robert Montgomery Bird into the organization as editor. Graham left the paper in 1848 and McMichael and Bird built the North American into a success.{{sfn|Bloom|1953|p=167}}

The paper grew to prominence and McMichael became sole publisher in 1854 when co-owner Robert Montgomery Bird died. He remained publisher until his own death in 1879, though his sons took over active operations in his final years.{{cite book |title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography |date=1895 |publisher=James T. White & Company |location=New York |pages=211–212 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Td0DAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA211 |access-date=29 January 2023}}

Political career

McMichael served in a number of political positions throughout his life. He began his service as a police magistrate and then as an Alderman in the Spring Garden neighborhood of Philadelphia. As an Alderman, he also served as Justice of the peace for the County of Philadelphia.

During the 1837 anti-abolition riots in Philadelphia, McMichael helped break up a mob and prevent the burning of an African-American orphanage.{{cite book |last1=Bruce |first1=Dickson D. Jr. |title=The Kentucky Tragedy - A Story of Conflict and Change in Antebellum America |date=2006 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |location=Baton Rouge |isbn=978-0-8071-3181-7 |page=65 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8pGbhogxxfEC |access-date=1 February 2023}}

McMichael began his political career in 1838 as a Jacksonian Democrat but drifted away from that ideology and became a Democrat, a Whig in 1843{{sfn|Bloom|1953|p=165}} and a Republican in 1857.{{sfn|Bloom|1953|p=172}} McMichael was attracted to the Republicans' strong stance on high tariffs and less so on their abolitionist beliefs.{{sfn|Bloom|1953|p=173}}

In 1843 he was elected Sheriff of Philadelphia County, serving until 1846. McMichael served his three-year term as Sheriff during the Philadelphia nativist riots and helped prevent further violence.

In 1854, McMichael chaired the Executive Consolidation Committee, which developed the Consolidation Act of 1854 that merged the city of Philadelphia with many of the surrounding districts into a single political entity.{{cite web |last1=Heath |first1=Andrew |title=Consolidation Act of 1854 |url=https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/consolidation-act-of-1854/ |website=www.philadelphiaencyclopedia.org |publisher=Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia |access-date=29 January 2023}} His newspaper also argued for a new street numbering system to replace the city’s confusing address system, which often numbered houses in the order they were built rather than by location and resulted in fractional house numbers along streets.{{cite web |last1=Heath |first1=Andrew |title=Street Numbering |url=https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/street-numbering/ |website=www.philadelphiaencyclopedia.org |publisher=Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia |access-date=29 January 2023}}

Thoroughout the American Civil War, He saw the succession of the South as treason and that slavery was incompatible with re-consolidation of the Union and Confederacy. After the assassination of Lincoln, he became a strong advocate for Republicanism and anti-slavery.{{sfn|Bloom|1953|pp=174-176}}

In 1865, McMichael defeated Democrat Daniel M. Fox by 5,000 votes and was elected as the Mayor of Philadelphia.{{cite web |url= https://www.phila.gov/phils/Mayorlst.htm |title=Mayors of Philadelphia |publisher=City of Philadelphia |accessdate=2020-08-06}} While he was mayor, the Fairmount Park Commission was established. McMichael served on the board and, once his term ended in 1869, was appointed as president of the commission, serving until his death.{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=44I_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA151 |title= Potter's American Monthly: An Illustrated Magazine of History |volume=12-13 |publisher=John E. Potter |year=1879 |accessdate=2020-08-06}}

He was offered a position as minister to Great Britain by President Ulysses S. Grant but declined.

In 1873 he was appointed a delegate at large to the fourth Constitutional convention of Pennsylvania. This resulted in the establishment of the [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_Commonwealth_of_Pennsylvania_1874 Pennsylvania Constitution of 1874].{{cite book |last1=Scharf |first1=J. Thomas |last2=Westcott |first2=Thompson |title=History of Philadelphia. 1609-1884 |date=1884 |publisher=L.H. Everts & Co. |location=Philadelphia |page=1972 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8uYkAAAAYAAJ |access-date=31 January 2023}}

Personal life

File:Morton McMichael tombstone.jpg]]

McMichael married Mary Estell (1822-1877) and had four children:

Morton McMichael Jr. served as Lt. Colonel under General John Reynolds during the American Civil War. He served as a senior staff member in the Army of The Potomac under Reynolds at the Battle of Gettysburg, where Gen. Reynolds was killed in action during siege. McMichael Jr. became a prominent banker after the war, serving as President of the First National Bank,{{cite book |last1=Hively |first1=Evelyn Helmick |title=A Private Madness - The Genius of Elinor Wylie |date=2003 |publisher=The Kent State University Press |location=Kent, Ohio |isbn=0-87338-746-5 |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=etZ3uV0WMvIC |access-date=31 January 2023}} and of The Penn Club from 1888 to 1904.{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Charles J. |title=The Penn Club |date=1924 |publisher=The John C. Winston Company |location=Philadelphia |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WN5QAQAAMAAJ |access-date=31 January 2023}}

William McMichael served during the American Civil War. He was captured at the Battle of Shiloh and endured four months as a prisoner of war before being exchanged. He rose to the rank of Brevet Colonel and served as adjutant-general under Gen. Henry Halleck. After the war, he embarked on a legal career. He served as Minister to Santo Domingo, Asst. Attorney General, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and as a member of the Board of Indian Commissioners. He was also President of the Law Academy of Philadelphia.

Clayton McMichael also served in the Union Army, fought at Gettysburg, and rose to the rank of brevet Major and serving as aide-de-camp to Gen. David Birney and Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock. He later replaced his father as Editor of The North American. He also served as a US Marshall for the District of Columbia and as Philadelphia City Treasurer.

Charles McMichael, was a lawyer and served as a Judge in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.{{cite book |last1=McMichael |first1=Charles Barnsley |title=Reminiscences and essays |date=1922 |publisher=Privately Printed |location=Philadelphia |pages=7–9 |url=https://archive.org/details/reminiscencesess00mcmi/page/n9/mode/2up |access-date=30 January 2023}}

He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1867.{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1867&year-max=1867&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-21|website=search.amphilsoc.org}} He served as president of the Union League after Horace Binney.

McMichael died on January 6, 1879, as a result of inflammatory rheumatism{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1879/01/07/80741515.pdf |title= Death Of Morton M'michael. End Of A Long Period Of Severe Suffering - Sketch Of An Active Public Life |work=New York Times |date=1879-01-07}} and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.{{cite web |title=Morton McMichael |url=https://remembermyjourney.com/memorials/morton-mcmichael?id=RJZ1Ppw6 |website=remembermyjourney.com |publisher=webCemeteries |access-date=3 January 2025}}

Legacy

File:Morton McMichael Statue in Fairmount Park.jpg]]

File:US-PA(1891) p737 PHILADELPHIA, MORTON McMICHAEL MONUMENT.jpg

A statue of McMichael, unveiled in 1882, sits in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park at Sedgely Drive and Lemon Hill Drive.[http://www.phila.gov/publicart/textPages_beta/bf_mortonmcmichael.html MORTON MCMICHAEL (1882) by John H. Mahoney], phila.gov, Retrieved May 8, 2012

Several things in Philadelphia were named in his honor, including:

McMichael Park in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia{{cite web |last1=O'Neill |first1=Tom |title=4 of Philly's Best Hidden Parks |url=https://www.thegreencities.com/philly/4-of-phillys-best-hidden-parks/ |website=www.thegreencities.com |date=November 5, 2015 |publisher=Green Philly |access-date=1 February 2023}}
The Morton McMichael Elementary School in the Philadelphia public school system{{cite web |title=Morton McMichael School |url=https://catto.ushistory.org/catto_maps/morton-mcmichael-school/ |website=www.catto.ushistory.org |publisher=The Independence Hall Association |access-date=1 February 2023}}
The McMichael Room in the Union League building{{cite web |title=McMichael Room |url=https://www.unionleague.org/event-planning/mcmichael.php |website=www.unionleague.org |publisher=The Union League of Philadelphia |access-date=1 February 2023}}

References

Citations

Sources

{{cite journal |last1=Bloom |first1=Robert L. |date=April 1953 |title=Morton McMichael's North American |url=https://journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/view/31082/30837 |journal=The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography |volume=77 |pages=164–180 |access-date=31 January 2023}}
{{cite book

| last = Mordell

| first = Albert

| year = 1921

| title = In Re Morton McMichael

| publisher = Privately Printed

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=x4ttFUuBKX8C

}}

{{Succession box| before=Alexander Henry | title=Mayor of Philadelphia | years=1866–1869 | after=Daniel M. Fox}}

Category:1807 births

Category:1879 deaths

Category:19th-century American lawyers

Category:19th-century American newspaper editors