Charles Henry Morrill was born on July 14, 1843, in Concord, New Hampshire, to Ephraim and Mahala Morrill. His father was a farmer who owned $1,200 of real estate and $1,050 of personal property by 1870. His mother died of consumption around 1854, and he spent the next few years living with his aunt in New London, New Hampshire. He married Harriet Z. Currier on August 8, 1862, and they had at least five children: Lilla, born around 1867; Charles, born around 1868; Charles, born around 1872; Edgar, born around 1874; and Minnie, born around 1881.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 9, 1862, and he mustered in as a musician in Company I of the 11^th New Hampshire Infantry on September 2. The regiment took part in the Battle of Fredericksburg, the siege of Vicksburg, the Overland Campaign, and the siege of Petersburg. He mustered out on June 4, 1865.

 

He settled in Nashua, New Hampshire, after the war, and he earned 75 cents per day working at a machine shop. As he later recalled, “I realized that it would be impossible to provide a comfortable home for a family on so small a wage,” so he moved to Rockford, Illinois, around 1866 and “found work in a soap factory at $50.00 a month.” Soon afterward, he moved to Marion, Iowa, and began working as a farmer. By 1870, he owned $1,500 of real estate and $1,100 of personal property. He confessed that he initially “did a poor job of farming,” and his crops failed several years in a row. By the early 1870s, however, he had achieved a measure of success. He moved to Stromsburg, Nebraska, in 1873, and he worked as Governor Albinus Nance’s private secretary from 1880 until 1883.

 

He helped organize a bank in Stromsburg and served as president of several land and investment companies. He also served on the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska. He supported the Republican Party, and he became chairman of the Republican State Central Committee in 1894. He moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, in the late 1800s, but he returned to Stromsburg in the 1910s. He died there on December 14, 1928.

 

Image: Charles H. Morrill (The Morrills and Reminiscences)

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