[GreenKeys] Letter from Morton

[Jim Haynes]

There is a book, "City of Scoundrels : The Twelve Days of Disaster that
Gave Birth to Modern Chicago" by Gary Krist.  Tells of some adventures of
Sterling Morton as an officer in the National Guard during rioting in
Chicago.

Another book "A Man of Salt and Trees : The Life of Joy Morton" by James
Ballow is mostly about Sterling Morton the Elder and his activities in
Nebraska and his children in Chicago.  Gives some incidents in the life
of Sterling the Younger and tells of his mechanical aptitude.

I once enquired of Princeton University about the education of Sterling
the younger.

Dear Mr. Haynes,

Thank you for your inquiry regarding Sterling Morton, Class of 1906.

I found the courses that Morton took at Princeton in the Office of the
Registrar Records-- specifically in Series 1: Student Records, 1821-1998, 
in
the Registrar's Grade Books.  (The Office of the Registrar Records' 
finding
aid is searchable online at
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/2n49t1694.)

Morton began his studies working towards a Bachelor of Science degree 
(B.S.)
in the John C. Green School of Science.  However, it seems that between 
his
junior and senior year, he switched to the Academic Department where he
focused on the study of modern languages, specifically French, English and
Spanish.  He graduated with a Bachelor of Letters degree (Litt.B.).

Freshman year 1902/1903:
Fall semester: Algebra, Trigonometry, General Chemistry, English, Hygiene,
French and German.
Spring semester: Algebra, English, General Chemistry, French, Plane and
Spherical Trigonometry.

Sophomore year 1903/1904:
Fall semester: Analytical Geometry of the Conic Sections, English, French,
Biology, Mineralogy.
Spring semester: Physics, Logic, French, English, Chemistry-Qualitative
Analysis "Th." and "Pr." (possibly theory and practice?).

Junior year 1904/1905:
Fall semester: Jurisprudence, Eng. Phil. 33, French, Theo. Chem.
Spring semester: Constitutional Government, Physical Geography, Spanish 
and
English Literature.

Department listed as "Romanic"

Senior year 1905/1906:
Fall semester: French H1, English 43, American History 43, Spanish.

Spring semester: French Literature 42, English 44, Spanish 48, French
Seminar.

According to the 1906 grade book on page 261, Morton graduated with 
"Honors
in modern languages, cum laude."

The Princeton University catalog from the year 1902/3 contains 
descriptions
for the courses in which Morton was enrolled in the John C. Green School 
of
Science.  If you wish, I could photocopy the pages of the catalog 
pertaining
to these courses, and send them to you.  Because these pages amount to 
fewer
than ten, I am able to send them to you free of charge.

I hope that this information is helpful.  If you would like me to send you
the pages mentioned above, please respond to this email with your mailing
address.

Sincerely yours,

Lynn Durgin
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library


All this is interesting because Sterling no doubt got his job with Morkrum
because of all the Morton family money invested in the company.  Yet he
turned out to be quite an able inventor.  He and Howard Krum are credited
with the patent on Model 14 and then on Model 15.