William Morton Grinnell (February 28, 1857 – February 9, 1906)
was a
United States diplomat, lawyer, banker and author.
Early life
William Morton Grinnell was born in
New York City on February 28, 1857, the son of William F. Grinnell and Mary (Morton) Grinnell (sister of
Levi P. Morton).
Another uncle,
Daniel Oliver Morton (1815–59), served as the
Mayor of Toledo, Ohio from 1849 to 1850.
He was educated in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
and at
Phillips Exeter Academy
(not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God)
, location = 20 Main Street
, city = Exeter, New Hampshire
, zipcode ...
. He then studied at
Harvard College, but left without taking a degree because of health problems, traveling to
France, where his father had recently been appointed U.S.
Consul at
Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
Saint-Étienne is the t ...
. William Morton Grinnell worked for a while for the
United States Consulate
The United States has the second most Diplomatic mission, diplomatic missions of any country in the world List of diplomatic missions of China, after Mainland China, including 166 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, as well as obse ...
in
Lyon. He then attended
Columbia Law School.
Career
After he was
admitted to the bar, Grinnell practiced law briefly in New York City. In 1881, he traveled to
Paris, becoming Counsel of the
U.S. Embassy there, a post he held until 1886. While in France, he received degrees of ''bachelier ès lettres'' and ''bachelier en droit''. He returned to the United States and resumed his practice of law there in 1886.
In 1892,
President of the United States Benjamin Harrison (whose vice president was Grinnell's uncle Levi P. Morton) appointed Grinnell
Third Assistant Secretary of State, with Grinnell holding this office from February 15, 1892 until April 16, 1893.
Grinnell then returned to New York City to practice law. In 1894, he joined the banking house of Morton, Bliss & Co. (run by his mother's family), and remained there following its incorporation into the Morton Trust. His work there was interrupted by the outbreak of the
Spanish–American War in 1898, at which time he joined the
United States Army with the rank of
Major
Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
. He returned to banking after the war.
In addition to his work, Grinnell was a director of the
Illinois Central Railroad, the Gunly Mountain Coal Company, the Mount Morris Bank, the
Rio Grande, Sierra Madre & Pacific Railway, and the Sea Beach Land Company. He also published several books on contemporaneous social and economic questions.
Personal life
On December 8, 1898, Grinnell married Elizabeth Lee Ernst (1871–1944), daughter of
Oswald Herbert Ernst
Oswald Herbert Ernst (June 27, 1842 – March 21, 1926) was an astronomer, engineer, military educator, and career officer in the United States Army who became superintendent of the United States Military Academy. Over a forty-year career, Erns ...
, the
superintendent of the United States Military Academy
The Superintendent of the United States Military Academy is the academy's commanding officer. This position is roughly equivalent to the chancellor or president of an American civilian university. The officer appointed is, by tradition, a grad ...
.
Together, they had two children:
* Elizabeth Lee Grinnell (1900–1993), who married Henry L. Abbott.
She later married second to David Munroe.
* George Morton Grinnell (1902–1953)
Grinnell died of
pneumonia in New York City on February 9, 1906.
Works by William Morton Grinnell
''A Comparative Glance at the French Code Civil and the Proposed New York Civil Code'' (1886)''The Regeneration of the United States: A Forecast of Its Industrial Evolution'' (1899)''Social Theories and Social Facts'' (1905)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grinnell, William Morton
1857 births
1906 deaths
United States Assistant Secretaries of State
Phillips Exeter Academy alumni
Harvard College alumni
Columbia Law School alumni
American military personnel of the Spanish–American War
Deaths from pneumonia in New York City