Francis Asbury Morris (1817 – 1881) was an attorney general of the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Mex ...

. He subsequently left the practice of law and became a Methodist minister. Morris was born in Ohio in 1817 to

Thomas Asbury Morris Thomas Asbury Morris (28 April 1794 – 2 September 1874) was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1836. He also distinguished himself as a Methodist Circuit rider, Pastor, and Presiding Elder, and as an Editor. Ear ...

, later a Methodist bishop, and his wife Abigail Scales Morris. He attended the

University of Ohio Ohio University is a public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation and subsequen ...

and graduated from Augusta College. He studied law and was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1838. The following year he moved to Texas to practice law and was named Attorney General in 1841 at the age of 24. Later that year he went home to visit his sick mother who died in 1842. This event profoundly influenced the young Morris. He decided to change careers and go into the ministry. He became professor of languages at St. Charles College (Missouri) in 1842. He married Mary Fielding in 1845, who was the daughter of the school's late President and a first cousin of Julia Dent, who later married

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

. He was a circuit riding minister and pastor in Missouri for the next several decades. He died in 1881 and was buried in St. Louis,

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

References

The American Illustrated Methodist Magazine, Volume 1 - The Grants' MarriageAnnals of Methodism in Missouri - Francis Asbury MorrisHandbook of Texas Online - Francis Asbury MorrisWest Virginia Historical Magazine Quarterly, Volumes 4-5 - Bishop Thomas Asbury Morris
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Francis Asbury 1817 births 1881 deaths Texas Attorneys General 19th-century Methodist ministers Augusta College (Kentucky) alumni 19th-century American lawyers