Furman Morris was born on October 3, 1837, in Middlesex County, New Jersey, to Aaron and Sarah Morris. His father was a farmer who owned $3,500 of real estate and $700 of personal property by 1860. The family lived in Woodbridge, New Jersey, until around 1855, when they moved to Dixon, Illinois. By the early 1860s, he was working as a farmer.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 26, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company D of the 34^th Illinois Infantry on September 7, 1861. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 11¾ inches tall, with brown hair and black eyes. As he explained in his diary, “I enlisted in the United States army as a volunteer to fight for my country and the preservation of the government endangered by southern traitors and rebles.” The regiment took part in the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Perryville, and the Battle of Missionary Ridge. He eventually earned a promotion to corporal. He was discharged for disability on February 29, 1864.

 

He settled in Marion, Illinois, after leaving the army. He married Sarah Putnam on February 20, 1866, but she died on January 26, 1868. He married Sarah’s sister Ellen Putnam around 1870, and they had at least seven children: Charles, born around 1871; Louie, born around 1873; Winnie, born around 1876; Jennie, born around 1879; Roy, born around 1883; Clara, born around 1885; and Ada, born around 1889. He worked as a farmer, and by 1870, he owned $5,000 of real estate and $1,400 of personal property. They moved to Pottawattamie County, Iowa, in the 1870s. He applied for a federal pension in 1890 and eventually secured one. He died of heart failure in Laurel, Montana, on April 29, 1916.

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