HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes,
Lewis Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912.  Common version, Vol. III,
pp. 1154-55-56.  [Full page photograph of Mr. Belknap included with bio.]
[Jefferson Co.]

MORRIS B. BELKNAP--The life of Colonel Belknap was marked by valuable
accomplishment along practical and productive lines, and his success as a
man of affairs was large; but more to be prized that this were his loyalty
to principle, a kindly human sympathy, a broad intellectual development
and a gracious personality that characterized the man as he was.  His
career in the business world was such as to advance the welfare of others
as well as his own, and though ever free from self-seeking and ostentation,
his qualifications for leadership in thought and action brought him into
prominence, the while he retained an enviable place in the confidence and
esteem of his fellow men.  He was an important factor in the business life
of his native city, where his interests were wide and important and where
it was given him to add new laurels to a name that has been honorably
linked with the annals of Louisville for more than seventy years.
Concerning the family genealogy and the career of his father, the late
William Burke Belknap, ample details are given in the memoir dedicated to
the latter on preceding pages, and to that memoir the reader is referred
for such information.
     Colonel Morris Burke Belknap was born in the city of Louisville,
Kentucky, on the 7th of June, 1856, and at his home 1322 South Fourth
avenue, this city, his death occurred on the afternoon of the 13th of
April, 1910.  Colonel Belknap gained his early education in the private
school of B. B. Huntoon, there continuing his studies until he was
seventeen years of age, when he found himself well prepared for his
collegiate course.  However, he was favored in being able at this time
1873, to avail himself of the advantages of foreign travel, and in company
with his elder brother, William R. Belknap, he passed a year in Europe.
Upon his return he was matriculated in the Sheffield Scientific School
of Yale University, where he was in his freshman year a classmate of
William H. Taft.  He was graduated in the year 1877 and passed the ensuing
year in the same institution, where he took a post-graduate course in
chemistry.  In 1879 Colonel Belknap began his independent business career
by becoming one of the interested principals in a company engaged in the
manufacture of plows and other agricultural implements in Louisville.  He
continued with this concern for four years, at the expiration of which,
in 1883, he became a member of the wholesale hardware firm of B. W. Belknap
& Company.  His father, the senior member of the firm, died in 1889, and
after the incorporation of the Belknap Hardware a& Manufacturing Company,
which succeeded the business of the original firm, Colonel Belknap became
vice-president of the company, an office which he retained throughout his
life.  An appreciative estimate appeared in a Louisville daily paper at
the time of his death, and in the reproduction only such minor changes are
made as to bring the article in keeping with the features of this memoir.
     For many years Colonel Belknap had stood in the forefront of the
South's commercial world and had been closely identified with the great
business interests of Louisville.  He was recognized everywhere as an
important factor in promoting the leading commercial interests of the city,
and for several years he was president of the Louisville Board of Trade,
having had the distinction of being the youngest man ever elected to this
office.
     Although constantly absorbed in the intricacies of the large
mercantile corporation of which he formed so important a part, he never
lost his fondness for books and always found time to devote to literary and
scientific pursuits.  Colonel Belknap kept notably well informed along
lines of commercial progress.  In 1895 he read a carefully prepared paper
before the National Hardware Association at Pittsburg [sic].  The paper
dealt with some points of the general business interests that challenged
the attention and invoked the approval of a critical and much interested
body.  He was a delegate to the international congress of Chambers of
Commerce at Liege, in 1905, and in other conventions, at home or elsewhere,
his voice was always heard with respect.
     Colonel Belknap early manifested an interest in military affairs, in
which connection he became prominent and influential in the Kentucky
National Guard.  In 1879 he enlisted as private in Captain W. O. Harris'
company of the Louisville Legion, and he took great pride in his
association with this military body.  In 1890 he was elected captain of
Company A, First Regiment of the Kentucky National Guard, and three years
later he was chosen lieutenant colonel of the same regiment.  Prior to
this service, in 1887, he was honored by appointment as a member of the
military staff of Governor Simon B. Buckner, with the rank of Colonel.
Colonel Belknap called the first meeting of officers in his home upon
receiving news of the declaration of war between the United States and
Spain.  He served as lieutenant colonel and later as colonel of the First
Kentucky Volunteer Infantry in the Spanish-American war in 1898, and saw
service around Ponce and Mayaguez, in Porto Rico.  The first Kentucky
Volunteer Infantry was duly mustered into the United States service on the
13th of May, 1898, and Colonel Belknap was forthwith commissioned its
lieutenant colonel.  The regiment left Louisville on May 13th and after
spending some weeks at Lexington, Ky., and at Chickamauga, arrived at
Newport News, Virginia, on the 28th of July.  On the 1st of August orders
were received from General Frederick D. Grant, who instructed Colonel
Belknap to take six companies and embark on the transport "Hudson" for
Porto Rico.  The command reached Ponce on the 11th of August, and upon
reporting to General Nelson A. Miles was ordered to proceed on the
transport to Mayaguez, where Colonel Belknap reported to General Schwan
the 12th of August.  THis officer gave orders for Colonel BElknap to
disembark his command and, as soon as transportation could be secured, to
follow the Eleventh Infantry to Los Maria.  The next day, however, was
received news of the signing of the protocol, a special messenger having
been sent by General Miles, and this brought an end to the hostilities.
Colonel Belknap and his command remained at Mayaguez until the 26th of
August, when he received orders to proceed to Ponce and join General
Castleman and the other six companies of the regiment. The was accomplished
on the 29th and 30th of August.  On December 12, 1898, the regiment
returned to Louisville, where General Castleman, Colonel Belknap and their
comrades received their honorable discharge.  It is not unlikely that the
death of Colonel Belknap was largely a result of his services in Porto
Rico, as he never entirely regained his former vigor after his return.
     Colonel Belknap was a man of firm convictions and his opinions
concerning matters of public import were practical and steadfast.  He was
numbered among the leaders in the ranks of the Republican party in his
native state and that he was a prominent factor in its councils needs no
further voucher than that afforded by the fact that in 1903 he was made the
Republican candidate for governor in Kentucky.  He made a spirited and
effective campaign, which won him over 203,000 votes.  He twice served as
chairman of the Board of Park Commissioners of Louisville, and ever showed
a most loyal interest in all that touched the welfare of his native city.
     Colonel Belknap was a professed Presbyterian, and his religious faith
was shown forth in all the relations and associations of his life, though
never with ostentation or intolerance.  He was a deacon of the Warren
Memorial church at the time of his death and was one of the most liberal
supporters of the various departments of its work, as was he also of
philanthropies and benevolences of a general order.  He was for many years
chairman of the board of trustees of his church, but resigned this office
about a year prior to his death, as his want of strength made it
impossible for him to give to the organization the attention which he
deemed necessary.  He assisted most generously in the upbuilding of the
local Young Men's Christian Association and was one of the directors.
His genial personality made him a favorite in both business and social
circles, and he was identified with various civic organizations of
representative order.  He was a member of the Pendennis and Country Clubs
of Louisville, and also of the Salmagundi (literary) Club, and for some years
prior to his demise he was president of the Yale Alumni Association of
Kentucky.  Loyal in all the relations of life, kindly and tolerant in his
judgment of his fellow men, a devoted husband and father, Colonel Belknap
played well his part in life, and now that he has passed away his memory is
held in lasting honor by all who came within the sphere of his influence.
     On the 14th of June, 1883, were married Colonel Belknap and Miss Lily
Buckner, only daughter of General Simon B. Buckner, governor of Kentucky
and always one of the state's most distinguished citizens.  Mrs. Belknap
died in the year 1893, survived by four children, Gertrude, Walter
Kingsbury (who was graduated in Yale University, 1908), Lily, and Morris
B., Jr.  To the memory of his wife, Colonel Belknap erected a massive and
beautiful stone bridge in Cherokee Park, and this is known as the Belknap
Bridge.  On the 16th of July, 1900, was solemnized the marriage of Colonel
Belknap to Miss Marion S. Dumont, of Plainfield, New Jersey, where she was
born and reared.  She is a daughter of John B. Dumont, a representative
citizen of that city.  Mrs. Belknap survives her honored husband and
resides with his children in the family home. In addition to the Louisville
home the Colonel owned a summer residence at "Black Hall," on Long Island
Sound, in the state of Connecticut.

Belknap Huntoon Buckner Dumont Taft Castleman
=
PA NJ CT

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/belknap.mb.txt