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Senate Years of Service: 1833-1837; 1837-1839 Party: Jacksonian; Democrat
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MORRIS, Thomas, (father of Isaac Newton Morris and Jonathan David Morris),
a Senator from Ohio; born in Berks County, Pa., January 3, 1776; settled with his
parents near Clarksburg, now West Virginia; briefly attended the common schools; enlisted as a
ranger and fought against the Indians in 1793; moved to Columbia, Ohio (now a part of Cincinnati) in
1795 and clerked in a store; moved to Bethel, Ohio, in 1800; studied law; admitted to the bar in
1804 and commenced practice in Bethel, Ohio; member, State house of representatives 1806-1808,
1810, 1820-1821; member, State senate 1813-1815, 1821-1823, 1825-1829, and 1831-1833;
elected as a Jacksonian to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1833, to March 3,
1839; was not a candidate for renomination; chairman, Committee on Engrossed Bills (Twenty-fourth
Congress), Committee on Pensions (Twenty-fifth Congress); engaged in agricultural pursuits;
unsuccessful candidate for Vice President of the United States on the Liberty ticket in 1844; died at
his home near Bethel, Clermont County, Ohio, December 7, 1844; interment in First Bethel
Cemetery.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Morris, Benjamin. The Life of Thomas Morris:
Pioneer and Long a Legislator of Ohio. Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach, Keys, and Overend,
1856; Neuenschwander, John. Senator Thomas Morris: Antagonist of the South, 1836-1839. Cincinnati Historical Society Bulletin 32 (Fall 1974): 123-39.
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