Later Years
During the American Civil War, Morgan was active in raising and equipping regiments from New York, for which he received the title of colonel.
In the postwar period he became active with colleges. He was a trustee of Cornell University from 1865 until 1874. Working with his friend Henry Wells to found a college for women, he was a charter trustee of Wells College from 1868 until 1881, where he served as president of the board from 1878 onward. He was also a trustee of the Auburn Theological Seminary from 1870 to 1881. He supported the secondary school of Cayuga Lake Academy in Aurora as well.
Morgan was a director of Wells Fargo until the beginning of 1867. After a brief retirement, he was elected to the board in 1868 and served until 1870.
An original shareholder of The New York Times, Morgan came to the paper's rescue in the midst of its fight against William Marcy Tweed in 1871. George Jones, the editor, feared that ownership of the paper would pass into unfriendly hands. For $375,000, Morgan purchased enough stock to avert this, and contributed materially to Tweed's eventual downfall.
Morgan was physically and mentally quick-moving and incessantly active, even in old age. He died at Aurora on October 13, 1881, at the age of 75. Interment was at Oak Glen Cemetery in Aurora.
Read more about this topic: Edwin B. Morgan
Famous quotes containing the word years:
“After us they’ll fly in hot air balloons, coat styles will change, perhaps they’ll discover a sixth sense and cultivate it, but life will remain the same, a hard life full of secrets, but happy. And a thousand years from now man will still be sighing, “Oh! Life is so hard!” and will still, like now, be afraid of death and not want to die.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“In most nineteenth-century cities, both large and small, more than 50 percent—and often up to 75 percent—of the residents in any given year were no longer there ten years later. People born in the twentieth century are much more likely to live near their birthplace than were people born in the nineteenth century.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)