text:
User talk:JPX7

——— ——-

I am me.

Hello, you. It's your good friend, me! Mike H 19:49, Jul 17, 2004 (UTC)

 * You usually have to cite where you got your picture on the Image's page. For example the image information here. Mike H 22:18, Jul 17, 2004 (UTC)

Welcome!
I'd like to welcome you to Wikipedia! You seem to be off to a great start, making numerous good contributions.

You may wish to review some or all of the following pages to aid you in your editing:
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Again, welcome, and thanks for contributing. Hope to see you around. blankfaze | (беседа!)

Dylan page
Jonathan, have you seen the Dylan page, or more notably, its discussion page? It's gotten absolutely rancorous in there, especially over his current religious standing (or lack thereof): is he Christian, Jewish, agnostic, or what? Check it out, dogzeez. Tix 21:05, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm probably coming back Saturday the 24th. Is there a time when non-first years are supposed to come back? Am I even allowed to come back that day? Whatever, but yeah, I'll call you on your cell after I get into Chicago, and we can chill. Oh yeah, I might attempt to drive my car to Chicago, depending on if I can afford insurance on it and if it makes it there in one driveable piece. And now, tilde-time! Tix 17:31, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

You remember that story I read about someone throwing a silver cross on stage, and Dylan picking it up and wearing it from then on? Well, that was taken from Dylan's own words in an interview, along with lots more, including a dramatic experience. It's all on the Slow Train Coming page. You should see that shit, g. Tix 21:45, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Look what some guy said about my edit on the Dylan page: "I don't like Lulu's version nor do i like Monicasdude's complete removal. His albums since then have been more secular than those three, you can't deny that. So i think trixity's[sic] compromise is perfect, as well as easier to read than the former versions. SECProto 19:30, 24 January 2006 (UTC)" I'm probably not perfect! Tix 05:45, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Great edits
Well done for your edits to Trainspotting (novel). Keep it up. --Guinnog 00:35, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Well, since you mention it, Glue and Porno could both do with a bit of work. Maybe we could work together on them? I reread them both recently so they are fairly fresh in my mind. --Guinnog 01:04, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

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Hey!
We are organizing a Wikimania bid to be held in Atlanta if you'd like to contribute. Mike H. I did "That's hot" first! 10:20, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Sunshine / At the Drive-In

The article Sunshine / At the Drive-In has been proposed for deletion  because of the following concern:
 * Unnotable split single - cant find coverage, no references, charting, nothing.

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Nomination of Sunshine / At the Drive-In for deletion
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ArbCom elections are now open!
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Unblock Review
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Thanks, Yamla. I have used the automated system, but will provide IP address if that lags inordinately. I still have no idea why my IP was flagged in the first place.
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title: User talk:JPX7


text:
User:JPX7

I am me.

I have written this:

Notable American Women Planet Waves David Bevington ATDI / Sunshine Cancel/Sing

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:JPX7


text:
Nicolaes Maes

Nicolaes Maes (January 1634 – December 1693 (buried 24 December 1693)) was a Dutch painter known for his genre scenes, portraits, religious compositions and the occasional still life. A pupil of Rembrandt in Amsterdam, he returned to work in his native city of Dordrecht for 20 years. In the latter part of his career he returned to Amsterdam where he became the leading portrait painter of his time. Maes contributed to the development of genre painting in the Netherlands and was the most prominent portrait painter working in Amsterdam in the final three decades of the 17th century.

Life
Nicolaes Maes was born in Dordrecht as the second son of Gerrit Maes, a prosperous cloth merchant and soap boiler, and Ida Herman Claesdr.

He initially trained with a mediocre painter in his hometown. Around 1648, he went to Amsterdam, where he entered Rembrandt's studio. He remained in the studio of Rembrandt for about five years. He had returned to Dordrecht by December 1653. Here he is recorded making marriage arrangements as he posted on 28 December 1653 the bans of his marriage with Adriana Brouwers, the widow of the preacher Arnoldus de Gelder.

A signed and dated picture of 1653 shows that the artist had established himself as an independent artist by that year.

In the middle or end of the 1650s, Maes traveled to Antwerp where he studied the work of Flemish artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens. During his stay in Antwerp Maes is said to have paid a visit to Jordaens' studio and conversed with the artist at length about painting. From the 1660s, he dedicated himself almost exclusively to portrait painting. He continued to live and work in Dordrecht until 1673. He was clearly successful as attested by the fact that he paid municipal taxes on capital of 3,000 and 4,000 guilders. His high social status is demonstrated by his membership of the local civic guard, in which he reached the rank of lieutenant.

Maes moved to Amsterdam in 1673, where he resided until his death. The move was likely related to the ready market for portrait specialists after the death of the leading Amsterdam portrait painters Abraham van den Tempel and Bartholomeus van der Helst. The downturn in the art market in Dordrecht and other Dutch cities as a result of the Rampjaar (Disaster Year) of 1672, which was marked by a large-scale invasion of the Dutch Republic by French and other armies, likely also played a role. Maes must have counted on his fashionable portrait paintings to attract the patronage of Amsterdam's larger population of prosperous burghers. His calculation was correct as Maes was so much in demand as a portraitist in Amsterdam that sitters considered it a favour to be given the chance to have the artist paint their portrait. The great number of portraits dating to the 1670s and 1680s are evidence of his success as a society portraitist. His pupils in Dordrecht included his stepson Justus de Gelder, Margaretha van Godewijk, Jacob Moelaert, and Johannes Vollevens.

Despite his long-term residency in Amsterdam starting from 1673, Maes never became a citizen of Amsterdam. He waited until 1688 to register with the Amsterdam Guild of Saint Luke, only after the municipality had demanded a list of members from the Guild. Maes registered with the Guild not as a 'burgher' (citizen of Amsterdam), but as a resident. During his life he achieved financial success, as at his death his estate included 11,000 guilders in cash, two houses in Dordrecht and three houses in Amsterdam.

Maes suffered from gout in the final years of his life. His wife Adriana Brouwers was buried in the Oude Kerk, Amsterdam on 14 March 1690. On 24 December 1693, he was buried alongside his wife.

Biblical and mythological scenes
In his early years as an independent artist in the early 1650s Maes painted a few biblical and mythological scenes. These include the Suffer the little Children to come unto Me (1652/3, London, National Gallery), Vertumnus and Pomona (possibly 1653, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin) and Woman of Samaria at the Well (c. 1653, Russell collection, Amsterdam). Maes' biblical compositions were clearly indebted to his master Rembrandt's models but show at the same time that he was capable of interpreting the Bible and the iconographic precedents in an original manner. For instance, in the Dismissal of Hagar and Ishmael (1653, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) Maes portrays Abraham banishing the handmaiden Hagar along with their son, Ishmael. By showing Hagar's despondency and Ishmael's isolated posture the work is one of the most moving renderings of this theme, popular with Rembrandt's pupils. Most of Maes' religious compositions are of cabinet size except for the Christ Blessing the Children (National Gallery, London) which depicts life-size figures.

Genre painting
During this early period Maes showed himself to be among the most inventive genre painters in the Dutch Republic. He introduced new themes and invented unprecedented expressive poses, gestures and facial expressions. Maes painted various genre scenes set on the domestic doorsteps (for example A young boy receiving alms from an elderly man, 1656, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts) and others praising the virtues of good parenting. These works were influential on other Dutch painters such as Jan Steen. Maes applied Rembrandt's stylistic characteristics such as the brushwork and chiaroscuro to domestic scenes that were the favourite subject matter of Dutch genre artists of his time.

His paintings of domestic interiors showing women engaged in household tasks are endowed with a solemn dignity through the play of light and shadow and the limited color palette derived from Rembrandt. Between 1654 and 1658, he created a large number of pictures of spinners, lace makers and mothers with children that express the contemporary moralistic view of the value of family life and quiet diligence. An example is The virtuous woman (c. 1655, the Wallace Collection) which depicts a housewife sewing a shirt in a very tidy interior. An open Bible at her side implies that she is also clean and pious in spirit. A little boy at the window may indicate that the composition is a depiction of Proverbs 31, 10-19 about working hard and stretching the hand to the poor and the needy. Maes has thus transformed a simple domestic scene into an evocation of the exercise of dignity and moral uprightness in a true biblical sense.

Maes created some works showing everyday events occurring on the doorstep of a private house such as milkmaids ringing the doorbell or receiving payment or boys asking for alms. Maes was able to bestow on these mundane transactions a solemn dignity. Another theme treated by Maes in the mid-1650s are elderly female figures shown in half or three-quarter length such as an elderly woman saying grace before a simple meal, praying amid vanitas symbols or dozing over a Bible.

Maes' major contribution in the depiction of interior space was to treat domestic interiors not as shallow, three-walled boxes but as suites of rooms. These innovations in the structuring of interior space were likely inspired by the new story element he introduced in genre painting. These inventions had an important influence on Delft genre painters including Johannes Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch in particular in the compositional arrangements of people in interior spaces. Maes' exterior genre scenes may also have been influential on de Hooch's courtyard views.

Portrait painting
In his earlier portraits Maes places his sitters who are typically dressed and presented in an austere manner against a dark background. Maes' mature style was formed during the 1660s and shows the influence of the Flemish style of portraiture created by van Dyck, which had been introduced into the Dutch Republic in the previous decade. From this time onwards, Maes employed staging and accessories often seen in Flemish portraiture. In the 1670s Maes' style further developed to reflect the lighter spirit of the times as he places his sitters in elegant gardens painted in light tones and with a free brushstroke. These later portraits emphasize the gestures and poses, as well as the clothes and hairstyles of the models. The stylistic evolution of his portraits shows the influence of developments in Flemish and French portraiture.

Maes painted hundreds of portraits during his mature period. These were mostly executed in two standardised formats: the first used a small rectangular canvas to depict a half-length figure within a painted oval in a while the second used on a larger format to depict a three-quarter-length figure, who would be leaning against a prop such as a column, fountain or rock. The setting was often a terrace or garden against a sunset sky. He also created many group portraits of families or just children shown at full length amidst a landscape. During the 1670s and early 1680s he painted several portraits of children in the guise of mythological figures such as Ganymede, Apollo and Diana, either as single figure or in a family group. He further painted one group portrait of a guild, the Six Governors of the Amsterdam Surgeons' Guild (1680–81, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam).

Selected works

 * Portrait of Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester - Oil on canvas, 113 x 89.4 cm, Private collection
 * Christ Before Pilate (1649-1650) - Oil on canvas, 216 x 174 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
 * Portrait of Four Children (1657) - Oil on canvas, 150 x 112 cm, Groeningemuseum, Bruges
 * Christ Blessing the Children (1652-1653) -Oil on canvas, 206 x 154 cm, National Gallery, London
 * Admiral Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest (1662) - Oil on Canvas
 * Portrait of Justus Criex (1666) - Oil on canvas, 109 x 92 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
 * Eavesdropper with a Scolding Woman (1655) - Oil on panel, 46,3 x 72,2 cm, Private collection
 * The Idle Servant (1655) - Oil on wood, 70 x 53 cm, National Gallery, London
 * The Lacemaker (1649-1650) - Oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
 * The Lacemaker (1655) - oil on canvas National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
 * Old Woman Dozing (1656) - Oil on canvas, 135 x 105 cm, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels
 * Portrait of a Woman (1667) - Oil on canvas, 90 x 72 cm, Musée d'Arras, Arras
 * Portrait of a Woman - Oil on canvas, 89,6 x 71,2 cm, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent
 * A Woman Spinning (1655) - Oil on panel, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
 * Apostle Thomas (1656) - Oil on canvas, Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel
 * Woman Plucking a Duck (c. 1656) - Oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
 * Old Woman at Prayer (c. 1656) - Oil on canvas, 134 x 113 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
 * Doing the Accounts (1656) - Oil on canvas, 66 x 54 cm, Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis
 * The Eavesdropper (1657) - Oil on canvas, 92 x 122 c, Dordrechts Museum
 * Portrait of Jacob Trip (c. 1660) - Oil on canvas, 88 x 68 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
 * Portrait of Margaretha de Geer, Wife of Jacob Trip (c. 1660) - Oil on canvas, 88 x 68 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
 * Portrait of Simon van Alphen (c. 1680) - Oil on canvas, 71 x 57 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
 * Portrait of William the Third of Orange (after 1677) - Oil on canvas, Blanton Art Museum Austin, Texas

title: Nicolaes Maes


text:
Arthur Ernest Morgan

Arthur Ernest Morgan (June 20, 1878 – November 16, 1975) was a civil engineer, U.S. administrator, and educator. He was the design engineer for the Miami Conservancy District flood control system and oversaw construction. He served as the president of Antioch College between 1920 and 1936. He was also the first chairman of Tennessee Valley Authority from 1933 until 1938 in which he used the concepts proven in his earlier work with the Miami Conservancy District.

Early life
Arthur E. Morgan was born near Cincinnati, Ohio but his family soon moved to St. Cloud, Minnesota. After graduating from high school, he spent the next several years doing outdoors work in Colorado. During this time he learned that there was a dearth of practical understanding of hydraulic engineering. He returned home and took up practice with his father, learning about hydraulic engineering by apprenticeship. By 1910 he had founded his own firm and become an associate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Engineer
After the disastrous Great Dayton, Ohio Flood in 1913, Morgan proposed a system of dry earthen dams to control the river systems above Dayton. His concepts were challenged because of his lack of formal engineering training, but eventually his plans were adopted and constructed, and the subsequent years proved the effectiveness of his concepts. Because of this success, he was chosen in 1933 to design and deploy the Tennessee Valley system of dams for flood control and electrification.

Educator
Always interested in progressive education, he sent his son Ernest to Marietta Johnson's Organic School in Fairhope, Alabama, a pioneering progressive boarding school. Morgan's first effort in education was to found the Moraine Park School, an experimental progressive school in Dayton, in 1917. In 1921, Morgan became the first president of The Association for the Advancement of Progressive Education, later renamed in 1931 as Progressive Education Association (PEA). In 1919, Morgan accepted the presidency of Antioch College to turn it around after a low point in the college's finances. Morgan replaced the existing board of trustees, which had been dominated by quarrelsome local ministers, with prominent businessmen such as Charles Kettering, who had also backed Morgan's efforts at the Moraine Park School. Between 1921 and 1933, board members and their friends donated more than $2 million to Antioch. Kettering alone donated $500,000. Morgan reorganized the educational program to include cooperative education and involved faculty in industrial research. The faculty, most personally chosen by Morgan, included not only academics but also architects, engineers, chemists, advertising executives, and government bureaucrats.

Until around the 1930s, Morgan was a member of the Unitarian Church. In his later life, Morgan was a Humanist Quaker, a member of the Society of Friends in Yellow Springs, Ohio, as was his son Ernest. After his departure from the TVA in 1938, Arthur Morgan was active in Quaker war relief efforts in Mexico and Finland. Among other accomplishments in the 1940s, he founded a non-profit organization to promote small communities (Community Service, Inc. ), helped to set up a system of rural universities in India, and fought to protect Native American (Seneca) land from the flooding by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Morgan was the author of more than twenty books. Two in the water field demonstrated his environmental orientation and his criticism of the Army Corps.

In 1962 Morgan's daughter-in-law, Elizabeth, with the help of his son Ernest, founded a progressive private school with humanist, Quaker, and Montessori influences, naming it the Arthur Morgan School.

Along with J.J. Tigert, Morgan served as a member of the Indian University Education Commission set up in 1948 with S. Radhakrishnan as a chair and Zakir Husain as a member. The commission studied Land-Grant colleges in agricultural education in the United States. He travelled across India in 1948 as part of the commission and also supported a community education initiative in Kerala called Mitraniketan begun by K. Viswanathan in 1965.

Community organizer

Morgan was a leading community organizer in the postwar period. He was deeply committed to community and greatly interested in community settlements. Heavily influenced by Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, Morgan gained a reputation as a Utopian dreamer. This interest in community living, coupled with Morgan's belief in small towns and family life as the most virtuous form of living, led Morgan to participate in several projects that fostered rural community life.

As chairman of the TVA, he not only directed the building of dams and provided power; he promoted community living as well. Morgan advanced a wide variety of cooperative enterprises and cottage industries and created a number of planned towns that followed the English garden city model.

In 1937, Morgan founded Celo Community, a land trust in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The community, which still exists today, is a self-governed land trust. Although Celo does not require members to accept any particular religious creed or ideology, it is built on cooperation between members and care for the natural environment. Today, Celo is home to 40 families who live on its 1000 acre.

In the 1940s, Morgan went on to found two organizations for the promotion of community, Community Service Inc. (CSI) in 1940, and in 1949 the Fellowship of Intentional Communities (FIC). CSI was created to advance family life and small towns, which Morgan saw as the necessary ingredients for a positive American future. The organization was founded on Morgan's belief in the importance of small towns to the rapidly urbanizing nation. Small towns, he argued, provided places for people to experience respect, cooperation, and personal relationships. In the same year, Morgan founded the Fellowship of Intentional Communities, an organization that fostered relationships between communal settlements. The FIC cultivated communication and the exchange of products between communities, promoted communication between communal settlements and the outside world, and advocated for the formation of new intentional communities.

Racism and eugenics
From an early age, Morgan believed in the innate inferiority of certain races. In particular, he held the view that those of Asian and African descent were "the most unfit of all" peoples. To illustrate this point, Morgan once wrote that, "The extreme and universal immorality of the negro is a bigger blight on the country than people realize."

In addition to his belief in white supremacy, Morgan was also a leading proponent of eugenics and what he termed "euthenics". As such, he spoke widely of the need to both extinguish undesirable genetic traits seen among peoples of poor genetic stock and eliminate cultural traits seen among "uncivilized" peoples. With these views, Morgan became a leader in the eugenics movement, serving as a charter member and honorary president of the American Eugenics Society. Adolf Hitler cited the American eugenics movement as an inspiration for what became known as the Holocaust.

Morgan's views on race greatly informed his actions as head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, leading him to exclude Black Americans from employment and housing opportunities offered to whites by the "New Deal" program. As a result, all-white towns such as Norris, Tennessee, came to characterize his vision for "model" communities. When sued by the NAACP for denying Black Americans equal access to jobs and housing, Morgan pushed back, claiming that "Blacks had to create their own opportunities." To this day, Norris Tennessee remains almost exclusively white, as documented in James W. Loewen's book "Sundown Towns."

Despite investigations demonstrating that Morgan's TVA had deliberately excluded Black Americans from the "New Deal" gains enjoyed by whites, Morgan remained defiant and unrepentant until his death in 1975. In his memoir of his TVA years, he denied any responsibility for the program's negative effects, claiming that there was nothing else he could do but to honor the attitudes of a racist, majority white America.

title: Arthur Ernest Morgan


text:
Charles Morgan (businessman)

Charles Morgan (April 21, 1795 – May 8, 1878) was an American railroad and shipping magnate. He played a leading role in the development of transportation and commerce in the Southern United States through the mid- to late-19th century.

Morgan started working in New York City at the age of 14. He managed both wholesale and retail businesses before specializing in marine shipping. He invested in sailing vessels as early as 1819, while managing all aspects of the business from his office at the wharf in New York City. He started his first partnership for a packet company in 1831. During the 1830s, he held stakes in companies shipping to Kingston, Jamaica, and Charleston, South Carolina, from New York, and a stake in a company shipping between New Orleans and Galveston, Texas. During this time, he invested more in steamships than sailing ships. The LouisianaTexas packets became so successful that he gradually withdrew from the Atlantic trade in the late 1830s. Charles Morgan's Steamships primary cargo from Rhode Island to the South were Slaves.

In the 1840s and 1850s, Morgan expanded his shipping business in the Gulf of Mexico, expanding service to Mexico, Florida, and adding stops in Texas. Texas statehood and the Mexican War were boons to his enterprises of shipping mail, troops, and war material. By 1846, he sold his last stake in a sailing vessel. After 1849 and through part of the 1850s, Morgan responded to transportation demand to California driven by the gold rush. He offered passenger service from New York City to San Francisco via Panama. These activities pulled him into business alliances and rivalries with Cornelius Vanderbilt which culminated in Morgan's support of William Walker's filibuster in Nicaragua. Morgan also attempted to damage Vanderbilt's investments and his business positions before they agreed to a truce in 1858. In the late 1850s, a lucrative business developed out of a segment of railroad running between New Orleans and Berwick Bay, Louisiana. The railroad terminated in a desolate part of the state, and Morgan's steamers enabled the railroad to create revenue from an expensive infrastructure investment. In return, the railroad shortened Morgan's Louisiana to Texas route by about 150 miles. In 1855, Morgan incorporated his assets for the first time, co-founding the Southern Steamship Company. With family and other close friends managing the company, Morgan accelerated his investments in steamboats.

During the Civil War, he lost some of his investments to seizures by the North and the South. Most of the steamers seized were corporately owned by the Southern Steamship Company, which led to its liquidation in 1863. Morgan, however, prospered during the war despite these losses. He ran blockade runners for the Confederacy, but his most profitable venture during this period was the Morgan Iron Works. This shop built engines for thirteen ships sold to the Union Navy. At the end of the war, he repurchased some of these steamships at favorable prices.

During Reconstruction, Morgan sold his interest in the Morgan Iron Works. He also took advantage of the buyer's market for steamships and expanded his fleet. He resumed his Gulf packet service between New Orleans and Texas, and between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama. In 1869, he acquired his first railroad. Two more railroad acquisitions followed in the 1870s. He died on May 8, 1878, at his home in New York City. Just prior to his death, he incorporated Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad and Steamship Company and distributed his shares to several family members.

Family life
Charles Morgan was born April 21, 1795, to George and Betsy Morgan. His native town was then known as Killingworth, Connecticut, but is now known as Clinton. Charles had a younger sister named Wealthy Ann (b. September 6, 1798) and older brothers, Elias (b. September 26, 1790) and John (b. December 3, 1791).

George Morgan was a successful farmer, and Charles had a comfortable upbringing in a rural area. However, a changing economy induced Charles to follow his brothers who had moved to New York City in 1809. He married Emily Reeves in 1817, several years after establishing himself as a merchant, and they had five children together: Emily Ann (1818), Frances Eliza (1823), Charles W. (1825), Henry R. (1827), and Maria Louise (1832). They remained married until Emily's death in 1850.

Morgan's daughter Frances Eliza married George W. Quintard in either 1843 or early in 1844. Like her father, Quintard grew up in Connecticut and left his hometown as a teenager seeking opportunity in New York City. Concurrent with his marriage, Quintard opened a shop, combining a grocery and ship chandlery. In 1847, he joined the marine engineering firm of T. F. Secor & Co., in which Charles Morgan was a partner, and in 1850, Quintard and Morgan purchased the firm outright and renamed it the Morgan Iron Works. Morgan's eldest daughter Emily Ann married Israel C. Harris of New Orleans. In December 1847, Harris founded a partnership with Charles Morgan's youngest son Henry, and the firm of Harris & Morgan assumed agency for all of Morgan's ships. In 1853, Maria Louise Morgan married Charles A. Whitney, a shipping agent. Out of Morgan's family, his sons-in-laws assumed the most active roles in his transportation businesses. His eldest son, Charles W., eschewed the shipping business and opened his own grocery in 1849. His youngest son, Henry Morgan, married Laura Mallard of New Orleans in 1854.

On June 24, 1851, Morgan married his second wife, Mary Jane Sexton, who taught math and French in New York. Charles and Mary Jane Morgan commissioned the construction of a large mansion at 7 East 26th Street, where they resided from 1852 until their deaths.

Early career
Charles Morgan left home for New York City at age fourteen to work for a merchant, but he later started his own import business. His arrival in the city and coming of age coincided with the growing importance of New York as a port. He conducted business as both a grocer and a chandler, but his early business activities included importer and exporter, retailer and wholesaler, and shipping merchant.

Morgan owned stakes in eighteen sailing packet ships and fifteen sailing tramp vessels between 1819 and 1846. In addition to equity shares, he acted as ship's husband for seven vessels of The Ship Line, and for thirteen sailing vessels in which he had owned shares. His duties as husband included bookkeeping, dispatching, maintenance, and outfitter. In 1831, Morgan partnered with Benjamin Aymars to establish the first packet service from New York to Kingston, Jamaica. He also served as line master, who was responsible for coordination of all ships within the shipping line.

New York and Charleston Steam Packet Company
The New York and Charleston Steam Packet Company was formed in June 1834 by Charles Morgan, James P. Allaire, and John Haggerty. Allaire owned an iron foundry which counted Robert Fulton among its clients, and he acquired Fulton's shop after his death and combined it with his existing foundry. He had the side-wheeler David Brown built and dispatched it to run between New York and Charleston, South Carolina, in November 1833. The firm acquired the William Gibbons the same year, and by March 1, 1834, both steamers were making weekly runs.

At this time, sailing vessels still dominated ocean navigation, including the coastal trade, but Morgan and his brother-in-law John Haggerty joined with Allaire to develop coastal steam packets, focusing on the route between New York and Charleston. Morgan was the operations manager of the New YorkCharleston line, as well as the Jamaica packet line. By June 1835, he was dispatching two steamers per week to Charleston, David Brown and the newly acquired Columbia. The packet company had won the bid for the United States Mail contract, worth $7,200 annually, and its ships were earning more than $1,000 per trip in profits.

However, the risks faced by ocean-going steamers threatened the company. William Gibbons sank in October 1836, which caused a loss of public confidence in addition to the direct financial loss. Some of the investors sold David Brown and then abandoned the company, leaving Morgan, Allaire, and Haggerty as the sole partners and Columbia as their only ship. Yet the partnership built new steamers of the line which they christened Home and New York, and they accomplished this despite the Panic of 1837. They also supplemented their packet revenue with contracts to carry mail along their line, and contracts to carry military troops to Florida.

Another lost ship threatened the New York and Charleston Steam Packet Company. Home started its last voyageand only its third overallon October 7, 1837. Home had cost nearly $90,000 to build and included a cabin with luxury amenities to accommodate as many as 120 first-class passengers. She ran aground while departing New York Harbor, but continued to the ocean without any apparent damage. However, a storm with rough seas battered the ship near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina; she started taking on water and her engine failed, and her sails were not able to drive and control the ship. The storm pushed Home toward the shore and ran it aground, and 99 people died trying to reach land.

Gulf coast packets
In 1837, Morgan started running steamboat service between New Orleans and Galveston, Texas, which was the first packet boat service running between these cities on a regular schedule. However, this had not been Morgan's first foray in shipping in the Gulf of Mexico. The previous year, the New York and Charleston Steam Packet Company deployed the steamship David Brown to sail a route from New Orleans to Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba. The Home catastrophe forced a reorganization of the partnership, with the new company shifting its emphasis to the Gulf trade, and Columbia sailed out of the port of New Orleans for Galveston on November 18, 1837, about five weeks after the Home wreck.

Allaire and several investors divested themselves from the New York and Charleston Steam Packet Company, leaving Morgan and John Haggerty as the sole partners: thus the Morgan Line was born and Columbia was its first ship, committed to the New OrleansGalveston route. During this era, New Orleans was the main port for Gulf traffic, and the newly formed Republic of Texas attracted many immigrants and demand for trade goods. On June 8, 1838, the owners of Columbia and the owners of the steamship Cuba formed a cartel known as the New Orleans and Texas Line, which included coordination of rates and scheduling of shipping between New Orleans and Galveston. The New Orleans and Texas Line dominated transportation in the two cities after the last half of 1838.

Gulf trade experienced seasonal cycles. June marked the beginning of the slack season, which lasted throughout the summer and part of the fall, and business picked up again in early October. Morgan would remove some of his ships from service during slack times and send them to New York for refitting and repairs. He continued to maintain New York City as his residence and the main location for shipbuilding and repair, even though his main shipping market was located on the Gulf coast. He sold the last of his sailing vessels in 1846, while he increased his investment in T. F. Secor & Company, a builder of marine steam engines.

Mexican War
During the Mexican War, Morgan accepted various contracts to move U.S. troops, deploying New York and Galveston for military transport, and collecting nearly $80,000 (~$ in ) in less than six months in 1846. This compromised packet service, including its contract for carrying the U.S. mail. Morgan had won a contract to transport mail for the Republic of Texas, which he continued after Texas received statehood and the U.S. Mail Service took over in 1846. Morgan lost the New York in a hurricane in September 1846, and he required a larger steamship fleet to meet the demands of passenger service, civilian trade, mail service, and military transportation. He acquired five steamers in 1847, the first of which was the New Orleans, launched from New York on January 12, 1847. He paid $120,000 for the 869-ton steamship new, but it produced only $33,000 in revenue for moving troops. He sold it five months after its launch for $125,000. The other 1847 steamer purchases were for steamships already in use. Palmetto was built in 1846, and most of its interest sold to Morgan in March 1847. Captain Jeremiah Smith commanded the 533-ton steamer and spent about three months on charters for the United States Army. Afterward, Palmetto entered packet service for New Orleans and Galveston. Captain Smith maintained a small interest in Palmetto and became an investment partner with Morgan in the 249-ton steamship Yacht, a much smaller vessel better suited for navigating the sandbars of the Texas coast. Portland was a steamer built in 1835 which originally served the coast of Maine; she was brought into the Morgan fleet late in 1847 and assigned to move military troops and equipment out of New Orleans. The fifth and last acquisition in 1847 was Globe, which was placed immediately into packet service.

After the war, Morgan obtained the charter business for taking troops home. Later, he deployed his steamers to expanded packet service. Service in Texas expanded to Indianola, Port Lavaca, and Brazos St. Iago. The last of these ports facilitated outbound shipments of precious metals, hides, and wool. Starting in 1850, the Morgan earned $15,000 annually for carrying mail in and out of Brazos St. Iago, and $12,000 for the mail route from New Orleans to Galveston and Indianola.

Panama
After the discovery of gold in California in January 1848, news emanated to the eastern United States in the last quarter of that year. With financial capital and the means of production still concentrated near the Eastern seaboard, there was demand for transportation to carry people and supplies to the Pacific coast. In January 1849, no fewer than 90 marine vessels departed eastern ports bound for California. Through mid-April 1849, the port of New York dispatched 226 California-bound vessels carrying a total of about 20,000 people.

The shortest wholly oceanic route from New York was over 14,000 nautical miles, and even a few hundred miles longer from New Orleans. Yet this distance from New York could be reduced to less than 5,000 miles with a multi-modal short-cut across the Isthmus of Panama. The Royal Steam Packet Company, one of three companies operating across Central American just prior to the gold rush, ran a route from London to Panama, then overland to the Pacific. Two companies, the U.S. Mail Steamship Company and the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, serviced US government contracts using a similar transport corridor. The heightened transportation demand made these enterprises highly lucrative in 1849. At the same time, demand outstripped supply in early 1849, especially on the Atlantic side, and Charles Morgan first entered this market as a major shareholder of Crescent City, which his agent J. Howard & Son dispatched to Chagres, Panama, from New York. Morgan acquired the newly built Empire City, adding to the Panama service, with the two ships forming the Empire City Line. Morgan and John T. Howard increased their investment in westbound transportation throughout 1849 and 1850, first buying the screw-steamer Sarah Sands, then four more ships of the line, three of which sailed the Pacific side from Panama to San Francisco.

A business collaboration between Morgan and Cornelius Vanderbilt was spurred by a disabled ship. By accident, the two men departed New York on Morgan's Crescent City on December 14, 1849. Both were travelling in order to investigate the transportation business in Central America. A failing engine caused the steamer to limp into Charleston for repairs. Each man improvised transportation toward the Gulf of Mexico. Vanderbilt chartered a ship for Havana and carried with him eight other passengers after observing that Morgan chartered a ship for himself and several other passengers, sealing the deal by buying the ship's cargo of lumber.

Nicaragua

Morgan and Howard operated three steamers from the Pacific side of Panama in 1850, compared to four operated by U.S. Mail Steamship Company. Pacific Mail Steamship Company added four ships to its Pacific fleet for a total of seven, creating a competitive market for passengers in 1850. Morgan withdrew from the competition for the trade across Panama late in 1850, though he did not withdraw from the trade across the isthmus. Seeking to shorten the trip from New York to the west coast, he probed crossings several hundred miles west through a water and land route via Nicaragua. This led initially to a business alliance between Morgan and Vanderbilt, who had previously secured comprehensive right-of-way charters with the Nicaraguan government. On August 27, 1849, American Atlantic and Pacific Ship-Canal Company gained a concession for exclusive rights to construct a canal to the Pacific. In exchange for this and additional concessions, Nicaragua received cash, a right to stock in the canal, and annual cash payments. Under a separate deal, Vanderbilt also gained the right-of-way through Nicaragua using any means of transportation, which would remain in effect even if his company did not complete the canal. However, this second deal was signed after a civil war split Nicaragua into rival governments. The agreement was negotiated between Joseph L. White and the conservative faction which ruled out of the city of Granada, and conveyed the rights to construct a canal to the Vanderbilt-controlled Accessory Transit Company. The parties signed on August 14, 1851. Vanderbilt began operating routes from New York to San Francisco on his New and Independent Line. Morgan placed his own ships into service of Vanderbilt's company, running his Empire City Line steamers from New York, as well as Mexico from New Orleans, all of which put in at the port of San Juan del Norte. In September 1852, Vanderbilt resigned as president of the company and divested most of his interests the following December. He retained a commission as the company's agent and a percentage of the company's business across Nicaragua. Morgan was part of a short-lived alliance with Vanderbilt as late as February 1853. Accessory Transit Company reported net revenue in excess of $535,000 (~$ in ) in its semi-annual report at the end of 1853; however, this report failed to account for stock dilution, accounts payable to the government of Nicaragua, and the debt settlements to Vanderbilt. In the same year, Morgan deposed Vanderbilt as the agent of the line while the Commodore was vacationing. An anti-Vanderbilt faction seized the control of the board, and they appointed Morgan president of the Accessory Transit Company.

The New York Times reported decades later in its obituary of Vanderbilt that he penned the following missive directed at his enemies, "You have undertaken to cheat me. I won’t sue you for the law is too slow. I’ll ruin you." According to two historians, this is at best apocryphal. In the fall of 1853, Vanderbilt entered the Atlantic–Pacific trade to compete with his former partners. He formed the Independent Opposition Line with North Star sailing the New York–Nicaragua leg, and partnered with Edward Mills and his two steamers to run on the Nicaragua–San Francisco leg. The Independent Opposition Line offered aggressively priced fares, triggering a three-way price war between Vanderbilt, Morgan's Accessory Transit Company, and the U.S. Pacific Mail Lines. Vanderbilt's low fares damaged his competitors. After less than a year, the Morgan-led Accessory Transit Company and the U.S. Pacific Mail Lines agreed to pay over $1 million to Vanderbilt, in return for Vanderbilt leaving the market. This payment included a total of $800,000 for his two ships on the Pacific side and $40,000 per month in cash for a non-compete agreement. With Vanderbilt out of the field, the remaining carriers were able to restore their rates.

Morgan and C. K. Garrison participated in a scheme devised by Edmund Randolph to support the filibuster of William Walker in Nicaragua. Randolph and Walker were old friends. Walker readily accepted Randolph's plan to invalidate the old transit concessions to Accessory Transit Company so that the new transit concession would eventually convey to a new company headed by Garrison and Morgan. They divested of their Accessory Transit Company stock, while Morgan even took short positions. Patricio Rivas of the Liberal-faction assumed the title of Provisional President of Nicaragua, under the supervision of Walker. Vanderbilt and two other investors accumulated enough Accessory Transit Company stock to gain a majority of its shares, recapturing control of the company and causing losses on Morgan's short positions. With Vanderbilt back in control as an investor, Morgan resigned his directorship on December 21, 1855. Yet Morgan responded to this financial and professional loss by doubling down. In the first part of 1856, Morgan went on another short selling binge, matched each time by Vanderbilt and his allies. Morgan failed in weakening the price of Vanderbilt's stock and suffered great financial losses on the process. By 1858, Morgan withdrew from running steamers on the Pacific and from transit in Nicaragua. At the same time, Vanderbilt sold his fleet of Gulf packets to Morgan, ending the feud between Morgan and the Commodore.

Southern Steamship Company
Morgan incorporated the Southern Steamship Company on March 14, 1855. Chartered in Louisiana, it opened some of his Gulf shipping interests to outside investors. Morgan was a minority shareholder, controlling only 500 of 4,000 shares. However, two of the members of the board were Morgan's New Orleans agents, Israel Harris (his son-in-law) and Henry R. Morgan (his son). Their partnership, Harris & Morgan, was also the largest shareholder, controlling 890 of 4,000 shares, so the triumvirate of Charles Morgan, Henry Morgan, and Israel Harris controlled 1,390 of 4,000 shares. A third board member, Cornelius B. Payne, was a junior partner of Harris & Morgan and owned 250 shares of stock in the Southern Steamship Company. The fourth board member was a close friend of Charles Morgan, a New Orleans grocer, E.J. Hart. Morgan completed his requirements to capitalize the corporation at $400,000 (~$ in ) by transferring several assets on June 10, 1856. The assets received by the Southern Steamship Company were four steamships, the New OrleansGalvestonIndianola mail contract, eight enslaved persons, and sundry equipment. Through incorporation, Morgan attracted new investors while still maintaining a large portfolio of assets apart from the Southern Steamship Company. Incorporation also represented a partial withdrawal from management of Morgan's interests and a new role as a passive investor.

On October 1, 1856, the Southern Steamship Company secured a mail contract serving Brashear, Louisiana and Galveston. Brashear was located at the western terminus of the New Orleans, Opelousas and Great Western Railroad (NOO&GW), navigable from Berwick's Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. The NOO&GW was planned to span from New Orleans to the Pacific Coast, but higher than expected construction costs prevented the company from building beyond this swampy, inaccessible, and sparsely populated area of Louisiana. After fending off a serious challenge from Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Southern Steamship Company forged a mutual freight agreement with the NOO&GW. The eastern terminal of the NOO&GW was located in Algiers, Louisiana, directly across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. Freight delivered to the railroad at Algiers avoided New Orleans taxes and wharfage fees. In addition, transferring western-bound freight to the railroad eliminated both navigating the Mississippi River and shortened the western route to Galveston by about 160 miles.

Morgan himself had negotiated the complex freight deal between the Southern Steamship Company and NOO&GW. Southern Steamship agreed to transport freight for the railroad from its Brashear terminal to Galveston (via Sabine Pass, Texas), and to Indianola, Texas (via Galveston). The Southern Steamship Company received a percentage of NOO&GW's freight receipts based on a multiple-tiered formula. NOO&GW also agreed to move freight for the Southern Steamship Company at a discount, and provide its ships with a wharf at Brashear. The steamship service not only carried mail and other freight, but carried over 16,000 passengers from Brashear to Texas in 1859, and over 28,000 passengers in 1860.

American Civil War
Morgan was a lifetime resident of the northeast. He grew up in Connecticut and maintained a primary residence in New York City his entire adult life. However, he was "a more-than-casual slaveholder," acquiring no fewer than thirty-three enslaved persons through the start of the American Civil War. In a very early action of the Civil War, one of Morgan's steamships, the General Rusk, transported Texas troops. The State of Texas adopted its ordinance of secession on February 4, 1861, and appointed E.B. Nichols as its Commissioner and Financial Representative on February 7. Nichols had already been serving Morgan as his shipping agent in Galveston. He booked Morgan's General Rusk to transport troops for $500 per day. Shortly after, this Texas force captured the United States Army Base at Brazos St. Iago. Yet, Morgan used the same steamer to transport the fleeing Union troops from Brazos St. Iago to Key West, Florida.

Morgan kept his fleet in the Gulf ports, even after the attack on Fort Sumter. Louisiana Governor Thomas O. Moore mandated a seizure of three ships from the Southern Steamship Company, viewing Charles Morgan as a northerner and a threat to the Confederacy. While Morgan never sided with the Confederacy, Israel Harris did. The ships were allowed to travel on a limited basis, but with many inspections at the ports of New Orleans and Galveston. At Galveston, the ranking officer, Sidney Sherman, seized two of Morgan's vessels. Nichols interceded on Morgan's behalf, and Sherman agreed to allow the Morgan steamers passage off Texas waters. However, he did keep the General Rusk for the Confederate fleet. With the United States mail service discontinued and the effective Union blockade of southern ports, Morgan's steamship empire was idled. The Southern Steamship Company, which had entered the Civil War with twelve steamships, sold two of them, and lost the other ten when General Mansfield Lovell expropriated them on behalf of the Confederacy on January 16, 1862. The company was left without a fleet and without compensation for its seized assets, thus it folded in 1863.

Despite the losses borne by the Southern Steamship Company, Morgan continued to operate other ventures by doing business with both the Union and the Confederacy. Morgan placed orders with Harlan and Hollingsworth for five large steamers between 1862 and 1864. These ships were frequently booked on charters for the Union during the war. Morgan also profited from his ownership of the Morgan Iron Works, which was producing engines from its shops in New York City for commercial enterprises in the United States and abroad. Beyond civilian production, the Morgan Iron Works built engines and other marine equipment for thirteen ships in the Union Naval fleet. In one case, they built a warship from scratch: USS Onondaga (1863). These naval contracts accrued over $2 million in revenue to the Morgan Iron Works. For the Confederates, Morgan ran the Frances to evade Union blockades between Havana and the southern ports.

Sale of Morgan Iron Works
After the Civil War, demand for steamships flagged and the federal government placed some of their vessels on the market. Morgan had already anticipated the buyer's' market for steamships as early as the fall of 1865. In 1867, Quintard and Morgan sold their interests in the Morgan Iron Works to John Roach for $450,000 (~$ in ). Morgan bought four steamers from the U.S. Navy. Morgan had sold two of these to the Navy during the war: Austin and William G. Hewes. In another case of making money on both ends, Morgan sold three steamships to the federal government for $495,000, then repurchased them a year later for $225,000. Included in this expansion of his fleet, he ordered eight new ships from Harlan and Hollingsworth between 1865 and 1867.

Quintard proposed a new investment idea to Morgan in 1867. This resulted in the formation of the New York and Charleston Steamship Company (not to be confused with the New York and Charleston Packet Company). The new company started by acquiring Manhattan from Morgan's youngest son-in-law, Charles A. Whitney. Next they purchased two large steamers, Champion (1,452 tons) and Charleston (1,517), and chartered the steamer James Adger.

Morgan forged a rate deal with the Pontchartrain Railroad on April 17, 1866. He received 75 percent of the revenue for their freight traveling on his steamships between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama. At first, Morgan faced open competition from other carriers on the route, but in 1868, he paid $250,000 (~$ in ) in exchange for being the exclusive carrier. However, after 1870, Morgan competed for business with a railroad running between the two cities.

On May 3, 1866, Morgan signed a new contract with the NOO&GW railroad. This deal contained many of the provisions of the eight-year contract they implemented before the war. Morgan received a percentage of the freight receipts based on multiple-tiers, received a fifty percent discount moving his supplies on the railroad, and the railroad would provide wharfage at the western terminus at Brashear. As before, Morgan's steamship transported freight from the western terminus of the railroad at Brashear to the Texas ports of Galveston and Indianola. In the late-1860s, Morgan's steamships carried much of the eastbound freight for a growing coastal Texas cattle industry. He offered new service in 1867 to Rockport, Texas, hauling outbound hides and beef products. The new port on Aransas Bay exported over 2 million pounds of hides and over 1.7 million pounds of wool by 1869. The port of Indianola served the area around Matagorda Bay, where five meatpacking facilities were located by 1870. Indianola exported cattle, hides, wool, cotton, and processed meat.

There was a major managerial re-alignment in 1867. Preceded by the departure of George Quintard and Henry Morgan, both of whom pursued new paths as independent financiers, his agent in New Orleans, Israel C. Harris, retired on April 1 before dying on Christmas Eve. Morgan hired a new agency for the Crescent City, headed by another one of his son-in-laws, Charles A. Whitney. Whitney & Company's other partner was another Morgan associate by the name of Alexander C. Hutchinson. Morgan granted them total authority over the Morgan Line, which operated between Louisiana and Texas.

Railroad ownership
To this point, Morgan had invested in the first-tier mortgage bonds of the NOO&GW, but had not yet held equity in any railroads. The NOO&GW had fallen behind in its coupon payments. The Illinois Central Railroad, a large bondholder, filed suit on June 10, 1868. The following year, William S. Pike approached Morgan to join a group of 26 NOO&GW bondholders to force a court-ordered sale of the railroad. Morgan refused to join the suit, and Pike dropped the plan. Several months later, in September 1868, Morgan offered a complex counter-proposal to act as an operator and lessee of the NOO&GW. Morgan agreed to buy all of the NOO&GW's debt, while taking responsibility for two-thirds of the debt for building the railroad to Sabine Pass, Texas. In Pike's opinion, the bondholders would be offering as much as a fifty percent discount on their assets, thus he declined the offer. Morgan predicted a bankruptcy in the NOO&GW's near future. Shortly later, Morgan retained Miles Taylor as legal counsel, who filed a series of legal actions against the railroad. One of these suits competed against an earlier lawsuit filed in federal court by the Illinois Central Railroad, which was attempting to force the NOO&GW into liquidation. This was inimical to Morgan's financial interests since he was a major bondholder, and Taylor's suit asked for a court-ordered sale of the railroad. The Illinois Central's suit was dismissed in Federal District Court, and Morgan won his suit, sending the NOO&GW into an auction at the New Orleans Custom House. Through an agent, Morgan purchased the NOO&GW on May 25, 1869, for $2,050,000 (~$ in ).

Morgan, for his more than $2 million, owned the entire NOO&GW. He renamed it Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad. At the time of purchase, the assets included a terminal each at Algiers and Brashear, and eighty miles of single-track in between. The Algiers terminal included forty acres with 370-feet of frontage on the Mississippi River, directly across from New Orleans. It was highly modernized for its time, incorporating innovative cargo-handling equipment such as Link Belt steel conveyor belt "Endless Freight Conveyors". The Brashear terminal included coal yards, warehouses, and wharves, with 330-feet of frontage on the Atchafalaya River. Along its track, the NOO&GW had built many miles of trestles over the watery right-of-way, and also maintained depots and rolling stock.

Morgan purchased a large share of equity of the San Antonio and Mexican Gulf Railroad (SA&MG) on May 25, 1870. His steamers had long served the Texas port of Indianola, and he met the competition of railroad transport to Indianola by his own railroad investment. Morgan, and the other owner, Henry S. McComb, renamed the company the Gulf, Western Texas, and Pacific Railroad. Morgan acquired McComb's interest in the railroad in May 1872.

With steamboat service from New Orleans to Mobile, Alabama, discontinued, the LouisianaTexas service accounted for most of Morgan's marine business. High taxes and fees increased the costs for doing business in New Orleans. The city's access to the Mississippi River was less important in light of Morgan's Texas and Louisiana Railroad. After the dredging of the Atchafalya River in 1872, Morgan moved all of his Louisiana steamboat operations from New Orleans to Brashear, relying on the ferry from New Orleans to Algiers, and his railroad from Algiers to Brashear to convey his westbound passengers and freight. He also shifted investments from wharfage at Lake Ponchartain and in New Orleans to expanded facilities in Brashear. By around 1875, Morgan's payroll included about 800 workers in Brashear, with the wharf spanning over 2,600 feet. In February 1876, the town's name was changed to Morgan City.

By the 1870s, the Southern Steamship Company had expanded its geographical reach through new assets and alliances. For example, a Morgan agent in 1873 was able to sell a single ticket for passage between New Orleans and San Antonio, Texas, which employed several modes of transportation. Starting on rail from Algiers, Louisiana, the journey included coastal steamboat passage combining two packets, another rail segment, and finally the passenger reached San Antonio via stagecoach.

Meanwhile, in Texas, Morgan started withdrawing from Galveston as a port. The Galveston Wharf Company no longer gave his ships favored treatment. In addition, the only railroad from that citythe Galveston, Houston and Hendersoncould not run any of its rolling stock north of Houston. Morgan also adapted to the progress of the railroad networks. First, in 1873, he changed his freight tariffs from rates by container volumes to rates per hundred pounds of weight. Second, he had started a plan to bypass Galveston as a logistics center in favor of Houston. Around the same time, he also forwarded his passengers and freight through the Houston Direct Navigation Company, which transferred between coastal steamers to Buffalo Bayou packets in Galveston Bay, thus avoiding the port of Galveston, along with its regulations and fees. Houston Direct Navigation Company ran its steamers from Galveston Bay to the wharf at Houston. Later he bought enough stock in the company to become its largest shareholder, further aligning his interests with Houston and against Galveston.

On July 1, 1874, Morgan forged an agreement with the Ship Channel Company (Houston) to improve navigation of Buffalo Bayou. Morgan agreed to dredge to a depth of nine feet and at least 120-feet in width in exchange for company stock. Less than two years later, he completed a channel through Galveston Bay to an existing channel through the Red Fish Bar, and the final segment terminated about six miles east of Houston, at a place he named Clinton, Texas. He next commissioned the construction of a short line railroad of just over seven miles to network his wharves at Clinton with two Houston railroads: the Houston and Texas Central and the International and Great Northern. When this line started operation on September 11, 1876, Morgan gained access to most of Texas and no longer needed Galveston within his transportation network. Next, he engineered a takeover of the Houston and Texas Central, ousting the all-Texas management, and installing himself as a director with Charles A. Whitney as president.

Death and legacy
Morgan died on May 9, 1878, at his home in New York City after an extended illness as a consequence of Bright's disease. He is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

Morgan's incorporation of the eponymous Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad and Steamship Company (ML&TRSC) facilitated a division of his estate, delegated to the administration of Charles A. Whitney. In April 1878, just a few weeks prior to his death, Morgan conveyed shares of the company to Mary Jane Sexton Morgan, Maria Louis Morgan Whitney, Frances Eliza Morgan Quintard, Charles A. Whitney, George W. Quintard, and Richard Jessup Morgan (a grandson). Whitney was the president of the company; Alexander C. Hutchinson was the vice-president. Both held proxies from the Morgan family shareholders to manage the company.

The ML&TRSC continued to expand westward, reaching Lafayette by 1879. The company continued to operate under the goals that he established, and it was finally acquired by Southern Pacific Railroad in 1883. The railroad company persisted through 1885. Ultimately the development of the railroads severely diminished the role of coastal steamships; however, the railroad part of the enterprise remained valuable. Collis P. Huntington and Jay Gould emerged as dominant railroad developers in the region. Though Texas law prohibited interstate railroads, Huntington leased Texas railroads to bring them into the Southern Pacific Railroad system. Some of these included segments of the ML&TRSC in Texas and Louisiana. Morgan's legacy is preserved with the 1876 renaming of Brashear to Morgan City, Louisiana, and in the Morgan School, a high school in Clinton, Connecticut, for which Morgan donated land and capital.

title: Charles Morgan (businessman)


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Worm-eating warbler

The worm-eating warbler (Helmitheros vermivorum) is a small New World warbler that breeds in the Eastern United States and migrates to southern Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America for the winter.

Taxonomy
The worm-eating warbler was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the wagtails in the genus Motacilla and coined the binomial name Motacilla vermivora. Gmelin based his account on the "worm-eater" that had been described and illustrated in 1760 by the English naturalist George Edwards in his Gleanings of Natural History. Edwards had received a specimen from the American naturalist William Bartram that had been collected in Pennsylvania. The worm-eating warbler is now placed in the genus Helmitheros that was introduced in 1819 by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek helmins meaning "worm", and -thēras meaning "hunter". The specific epithet vermivorum is from Latin vermis meaning "worm" and -vorus meaning "-eating". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

Description
The worm-eating warbler is a small New World warbler. It is around 13 cm in length and weighs 11.8 - 17.4 g. It is relatively plain with olive-brown upperparts and light-coloured underparts, but has black and light brown stripes on its head. It has a slim pointed bill and pink legs. In immature birds, the head stripes are brownish. The male's song is a short high-pitched trill. This bird's call is a chip or tseet. Worm-eating warblers are sexually monomorphic. Males and females can only reliably be sexed during the breeding season by the presence of a brood patch in females or a cloacal protuberance in males. These birds are also difficult to age. Hatch year/second year birds have rusty tips on tertials that wear off by March of the following year. Juveniles can be distinguished by duskier head markings, and cinnamon wingbars.

Distribution and habitat
These birds breed in the Eastern United States. Their selected habitats vary significantly between populations. In much of their range, worm-eating warblers are associated with mature hardwood forests on steep slopes. However, recent attention has been focused on coastal breeding populations, as little is known about their ecology or status. Historically, coastal populations would select for pocosin ecosystems. More recently, however, these populations have shifted to frequent use of pine plantations. Current use of pine plantations has resulted in densities higher than in areas previously thought to be their natural habitat. This shift in habitat selection likely demonstrates that worm-eating warblers are more closely associated with shrub structure than stand age or size. If this is the case, the landscape changes that occurred on the Atlantic coastal plain may have had less of an impact on these birds than previously described. Maintaining this species habitat may require managing for dense shrubby midstory and understory. Due to their reliance on shrub structure for foraging, and ground nesting behavior, frequent fires have a negative impact on this species. Other management strategies that reduce the shrub mid-story, increase herbaceous growth, and decrease canopy cover are likely to have a similar effect. More information is needed about their breeding habits in coastal regions as these forests are likely to represent different conditions from their inland counterparts. Fat deposits play a key role in allowing for long distance migration in most passerines. Stopover habitat, or areas that allow birds to replenish their fat stores, are also critical.

In winter, these birds migrate to southern Mexico, the Greater Antilles, and Central America particularly along the Caribbean Slope where they occupy both scrub and moist forests. Worm-eating warblers have disappeared from some parts of their range due to habitat loss but their ability to use both scrub and moist forest ecosystems may be beneficial to the long term conservation of this species.

Breeding
This bird breeds in dense deciduous forests in the eastern United States, usually on wooded slopes. The nest is an open cup placed on the ground, hidden among dead leaves. It is one of several species of new-world warblers that nests on the ground including the black-and-white warbler (Mniotilta varia), the ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla), the northern waterthrush (Parkesia noveboracensis), Louisiana waterthrush (Parkesia motacilla), palm warbler (Setophaga palmarum), and the Kentucky warbler (Geothlypis formosa). The female lays four or five eggs. Both parents feed the young; they may try to distract predators near the nest by pretending to be injured. Worm-eating warblers are often parasitized by brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) where forest fragmentation occurs. Reducing forest fragmentation may prove vital if populations of worm-eating warblers suffer large declines.

Food and feeding
The diet of worm-eating warblers varies across habitat types. This variation can be attributed to different predator avoidance strategies employed by common prey items. On their breeding grounds, worm-eating warblers glean mostly from live foliage, searching for arthropods. On the wintering grounds, this species gleans insects almost exclusively from dead plant material. The name "worm-eating" refers to the numerous Lepidopteran larvae that this species consumes; they rarely if ever eat earthworms.

Use of pesticides, especially those broadcast over a wide area, is likely to have an effect on most insectivorous songbird species, including the worm-eating warbler. These pesticides decrease the species' primary food source and could result in long-term toxicity.

title: Worm-eating warbler


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Rubén Hinojosa

Rubén Eloy Hinojosa (born August 20, 1940) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for TX's 15th congressional district, from 1997 to 2017. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district stretched from Seguin (east of San Antonio), to McAllen on the Mexican border. Much of the region was rural although Hidalgo County is part of the third-fastest-growing metropolitan statistical area in the country. Hinojosa served on the Financial Services and Education committees.

Early life and education
Hinojosa was born in Edcouch, Texas. The eighth of eleven children, Hinojosa was reared in Hidalgo County, which borders on Mexico, and earned two business degrees, a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin and his MBA from the University of Texas–Pan American.

Career
In 1974, Hinojosa was elected to the Texas State Board of Education, a position which he held for ten years.

Hinojosa's father and uncle founded H&H Foods in 1947 as a slaughterhouse. Control of the firm passed in 1976 to himself and his brother, Liborio. He gave up his executive position when he entered Congress, but remained a director and major stockholder.

Committee assignments

 * Committee on Education and the Workforce
 * Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training (Ranking Member)
 * Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions
 * Committee on Financial Services
 * Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises
 * Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit

Political campaigns
After 32-year incumbent Kika de la Garza announced his retirement, Hinojosa won a five-way primary for the seat by only 588 votes. This practically assured him of being only the sixth person to represent this heavily Democratic, Latino-majority district. He defeated Republican Tom Haughey with 62 percent of the vote. He defeated Haughey again in 1998, winning 59 percent of the vote. In 2000, he took 89 percent of the vote against the Independent Frank L. Jones, III. In 2002, he was unopposed. In 2004, Hinojosa faced Republican Michael Thamm in the redrawn District 15 and defeated the former major, winning 59 percent of the vote. In the 2006 mid-term election he faced Paul Haring and Eddie Zamora, both Republicans. Hinojosa won 61 percent of the vote in the once-again redrawn district.

In the general election held on November 4, 2014, Hinojosa squared off once again with the Republican Eddie Zamora, who received 7,776 votes (54.9 percent) in the primary election held on March 4. Douglas A. "Doug" Carlile (born c. 1963) polled the remaining 6,393 Republican ballots (45.1 percent).

Hinojosa did not seek an eleventh term in the House in 2016. Democrats Vicente Gonzalez and Juan "Sonny" Palacios, Jr., met in the May 24 runoff election to select a successor nominee.

Three Republicans contested the seat in the primary election. Tim Westley, a pastor of Shepherd's Vineyard Christian Church in San Antonio who carried the backing of the Tea Party movement, led the field with 13,153 votes (45.3 percent). He faced a runoff on May 24 with Ruben O. Villarreal, who received 9,131 votes (31.5 percent); the third-place candidate, Xavier Salinas, drew a critical 6,730 votes (23.2 percent). Villarreal is the mayor of Rio Grande City, a non-partisan position, in heavily Democratic Starr County.

Three candidates, Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, Republican Tim Westley and Green Vanessa Tijerina, competed in the November 8, 2016, general election for the right to succeed Hinojosa.

In 2016 it was revealed he was one of 9 members of Congress who took a trip secretly funded by the government of Azerbaijan and had to turn over gifts the country gave him to the House Clerk after an ethics investigation.

Political positions
Hinojosa has been called a "hard-core liberal" and a "rank-and-file Democrat". The 'That's My Congress' website has given Hinojosa a "Liberal Action Score" of 37/100 and a "Conservative Action Score" of 16/100 for his votes in the 112th Congress.

During the 111th Congress, Hinojosa voted with his party 99 percent of the time. He voted to extend the Patriot Act and supported the 2011 budget compromise. He voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), the American Clean Energy and Security Act, otherwise known as "Cap and Trade", and the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Hinojosa has emphasized assisting minorities and low-income Americans gain access to higher education. He has been especially active in supporting water-conservation projects along the Mexican border, and in replacing federal subsidies for student loans with direct government loans. Hinojosa and George Miller were responsible for constructing the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act, which increased the maximum Pell Grants available to low-income students and authorized additional funding for minority-serving schools.

He co-sponsored a 2010 bill for enhanced border security, but has opposed the construction of a wall along the border.

He has also been a very strong supporter of free-trade agreements, and was one of 15 House Democrats to vote for the 2005 Central American Free Trade Agreement.

In 2010, Hinojosa supported the introduction of full-body scanners at Valley International Airport. He said that we need to take more precautions when it comes to public safety, and that the new technology "gives TSA employees a distinct advantage in the prevention of terrorist events."

In June 2011, Hinojosa introduced legislation that would expand the authority of NADBank, which had already funded more than 100 projects to prevent the release of untreated sewage into the Rio Grande and other bodies of water, to finance infrastructure projects designed to enhance economic development along the border and raise environmental standards.

He has also supported measures to aid undocumented workers. He backed the "AgJobs" bill aimed at helping undocumented farm workers. He has been an advocate of the DREAM Act, which would provide citizenship to people who were brought to the U.S. as children by their parents. He cited his concern that these children came to the US alongside their parents and should not be faulted. Hinojosa argued that "[o]ur country is much better off by being able to let those children get a college education and serve in the military and contribute to the prosperity of our country."

Personal life
Hinojosa is married to Martha Lopez Hinojosa and they have two daughters, Kaitlin and Karen. He has one son, Ruben Jr., and two daughters from a previous marriage.

Bankruptcy
Hinojosa filed for personal bankruptcy in December 2010. He blamed the bankruptcy on a loan made to his family's food processing company, H&H Foods that left him owing $2.6 million to Wells Fargo Bank.

title: Rubén Hinojosa