Morristown (City of Tennessee)
2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about race that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) a city of Tennessee, the county-seat of Hamblen co., on the Southern and the Knoxville and Bristol railroads. It is the center of a rich agricultural region, and has also important manufactures including flour, stoves, hosiery, furniture, concrete, wagons, etc. It is the seat of the Morristown Normal and Industrial College, and an institution for negroes. Pop. (1910) 4,007; (1920) 5,875.
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Morro Castle (Spanish fort at the entrance)
a Spanish fort at the entrance to the harbor of Havana, Cuba; its dungeons are said to have been the prisons of many convicted of political Offenses. Also an imposing fortification on the cliffs overlooking Santiago Bay, Cuba. It was in sight of this fort and under fire of its guns that Lieutenant Hobson and seven men of the United States navy, on June 3, 1898, sank the "Merrimac" at the entrance to the harbor to prevent the Spanish fleet from escaping. On their capture, while attempting to regain their vessels, the men were imprisoned for some time in Morro.
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Morrow
WILLIAM W., Judge of the United States Circuit Court; born in Milton, Ind., in 1843, and educated in the public schools of California. In 1869 he was admitted to the bar, and after serving as Assistant United States District Attorney became in 1882-1885 counsel before the Alabama Claims Commission. From 1885-1892 he served in Congress as representative from California. Prominent in the politics of the Republican party, he was appointed by President McKinley United States Circuit Judge, May 20, 1897.
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Morse
EDWARD SYLVESTER, American naturalist and Orientalist; born in Portland, Me., in 1838. Graduated from Harvard and taught zoölogy and comparative anatomy at Bowdoin, 1871-1874, and at Imperial University, Tokyo, Japan, 1877-1880. During this latter period he acquired a profound knowledge of Chinese and Japanese ceramics. Now President Boston Society of Natural History. Notable among his works are "First Book in Zoology" (1875); "Early Races of Man in Japan" (1879); "Glimpses of China and Chinese Homes" (1902); and "Mars and Its Mystery" (1906).
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Morse (II)
SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE, an American inventor; born in Charlestown, Mass., April 27, 1791. He was educated at Yale College, where he devoted special attention to chemistry and natural philosophy; but in 1811 went to England to study painting under West. In 1813 he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Academy. Returning to the United States in 1826 he established the National Academy of Design, of which he was first president. About 1832 he A SAMUEL F. B. MORSE worked on a plan to use electro-magnetism in telegraphy, and in 1835 exhibited a workable instrument. By July, 1837, this instrument was perfected, and ultimately in 1843 Congress granted him means to construct an experimental line between Washington and Baltimore. From that time Morse's instrument came into general use in the United States and Europe. In 1857 the representatives of 10 countries met at Paris, and voted him $80,000. He died in New York City, April 2, 1872.
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Morse (JOHN TORREY author born in He)
JOHN TORREY, author; born in 1840. He studied at Harvard, graduating in 1860, and then till 1880 practiced law at Boston. For three years ending 1879 he lectured on history at Harvard, and was associate editor with Henry Cabot Lodge on the "International Review." Since 1880 he has given himself over to literature, particularly in the biographical field. His works include: "Treatise on the Law Relating to Banks and Banking"; "Law of Arbitration and Award"; "Famous Trials"; "Life of Alexander Hamilton" (2 vols.); "Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes" (2 vols.); "John Quincy Adams"; "Thomas Jefferson"; "John Adams"; "Benjamin Franklin"; "Abraham Lincoln"; "Life and Letters of Colonel Henry Lee."
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Mortar
or MORTER, a vessel, generally in the form of a bell or conical frustrum, in which substances are pounded by a pestle. When large, they are made of cast-iron; a smaller size is made of bronze, and those for more delicate pharmaceutical operations are of marble, pottery, porphyry, or agate. They are used in connection with a pestle, which in the larger mortars is of iron, and in the smaller is of porcelain or agate. Also a calcareous cement. Hydraulic mortar is made from certain limestones which include in their composition so large a proportion of iron and clay as to enable them to form cements which have the property of hardening under water, and are called hydraulic limestones. Short pieces of ordnance used to force shells at high angles, generally 45°, the charge varying with the range required. They are distinguished by the diameter of the bore, such as 13-inch, 10-inch, and 8-inch, which are commonest, forms of smooth-bore mortars. They are made of cast iron or bronze; but rifled mortars, resembling short howitzers, are of wrought iron or steel. The bronze mortars are usually of small caliber.
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Morte D'Arthur
a famous compilation of romances relating to the life and death of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, made by Sir Thomas Malory and printed by Caxton (1485). It is in prose, and was translated from the French prose romances. See MALORY, THOMAS.
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Mortgage
in law, the conveyance of property as security for the payment of a debt or performance of a promise, and on the condition that if the debt be duly paid or the promises fulfilled the conveyance shall be void. The term is applied: (1) To the act of making such a conveyance; (2) to the deed by which such conveyance is made; (3) to the rights thereby conferred on the mortgagee. He who makes the mortgage is the mortgagor; he for whose benefit it is made is the mortgagee. Whatever may be sold may be mortgaged. Mortgages may therefore covert chattelstor Ing, either in one single instrument conestate. Mortgages must writtaining the whole case, or in two, one containing the conveyance, the other the condition of the conveyance, this last document being the "defeasance." A deposit of title-deeds, with a verbal agreement, creates an equitable mortgage in some States which recognize this proceeding as a mode of securing a debt. The different States regulate the time in which mortgages are to be recorded, in order to protect innocent purchasers, but an unrecorded mortgage is good as against the mortgagor, or any purchaser knowing of its existence at the time of his purchase. In those States which recognize chattel mortgages (or mortgages of personal property), a record of the same within a specified time is required, to render them valid as against other claimants.
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