Morris, William Sylvanus, 1823-1893

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William Sylvanus Morris was an executive in the Southern Telegraph Company during the Civil War.

Born in Virginia on March 17, 1823, he graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1843 and moved to Lynchburg. He received some medical training and worked as a physician, leading to his title as doctor, and served in the Virginia legislature. Morris became more prominent as a businessman involved in the American Telegraph Company.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the company broke into two corporations, and Morris was appointed president of the company’s resources in the Confederacy, under the name Southern Telegraph Company. He worked closely with Confederate officials through the war to transmit news and information through telegraph lines across the south. After the Civil War, Morris became active in the Readjuster movement in Virginia, which was a radical political effort by white and black southerners to reduce the state’s debt, invest in public education for all races, and eliminate certain racially discriminatory practices such as the poll tax.

Morris died on December 20, 1893. He was married to Laura Page Waller and had at least six children. He is buried in Presbyterian Cemetery in Lynchburg, Virginia.

(Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, VA, May 25, 1865; J. Cutler Andrews, “The Southern Telegraph Company, 1861-1865: A Chapter in the History of Wartime Communication,” The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 30, No. 3 [Aug. 1964], 319-344; Richmond Dispatch, Richmond, VA, December 21, 1893; FindaGrave)

William Sylvanus Morris belonged to the following social groups:

See also: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/85681668/william-sylvanus-morris

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