William Morton Meredith (1835–1917) was an official in the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

who was

Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing The Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is the head of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing within the United States Department of the Treasury. The current director is Leonard R. Olijar. The position has existed since 1862, when the ...

from 1889 to 1893 and from 1900 to 1906.

Biography

William Morton Meredith was born in

Centerville, Indiana Centerville is a town in Center Township, Wayne County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 2,552 at the 2010 United States Census. Geography Centerville is located at (39.816141, -84.995420), at an altitude of 1,014 feet/309 m A ...

in 1835, the son of Samuel C. Meredith and his wife Margaret (Ballard) Meredith.From RootsWeb
/ref> He attended a year of college, but left shortly to work in his father's

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...

office.Profile from Bureau of Engraving and Printing
/ref> He later worked for the ''

Indianapolis Journal The ''Indianapolis Journal'' was a newspaper published in Indianapolis, Indiana, during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The paper published daily editions every evening except on Sundays, when it published a morning edition. The fir ...

''. He married Emiline "Emma" Schelenberger in 1859. With the outbreak of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, Meredith enlisted in the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

, but

Governor of Indiana The governor of Indiana is the head of government of the State of Indiana. The governor is elected to a four-year term and is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the functions of many agencies of the Indiana state government ...

Oliver Hazard Perry Morton Oliver Hazard Perry Throck Morton (August 4, 1823 – November 1, 1877), commonly known as Oliver P. Morton, was a U.S. Republican Party politician from Indiana. He served as the 14th governor (the first native-born) of Indiana during the Amer ...

soon appointed Meredith state commissary-general. In 1862, Meredith formed a company of volunteers made up mostly of printers and was selected as the company's captain. This company was a part of the 70th Regiment Indiana Infantry under the command of

Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...

. While he was posted at Wauhatchie in March 1864, he received a telegram informing him that his wife had contracted

spotted fever A spotted fever is a type of tick-borne disease which presents on the skin. They are all caused by bacteria of the genus ''Rickettsia''. Typhus is a group of similar diseases also caused by ''Rickettsia'' bacteria, but spotted fevers and typhus are ...

; she later died of this illness. He was present at the

Battle of Resaca The Battle of Resaca, from May 13 to 15, 1864, formed part of the Atlanta Campaign during the American Civil War, when a Union force under William Tecumseh Sherman engaged the Confederate Army of Tennessee led by Joseph E. Johnston. The battle ...

(May 13–15, 1864), an event he wrote about in the Chicago ''Current'' in 1886. He developed a

hernia A hernia is the abnormal exit of tissue or an organ (anatomy), organ, such as the bowel, through the wall of the cavity in which it normally resides. Various types of hernias can occur, most commonly involving the abdomen, and specifically the gr ...

because of a hard-riding horse and was discharged from the Union Army in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

in August 1864. After leaving the Army, Meredith returned to the ''Indianapolis Journal''. He married Terressa A. Richey in 1867. He later moved to the ''

St. Louis Democrat The ''St. Louis Globe-Democrat'' was originally a daily print newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1852 until 1986. When the trademark registration on the name expired, it was then used as an unrelated free historically themed paper. Orig ...

''. He joined the Western Bank Note Company in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1875 as superintendent of plate printing. In 1889, Meredith's former commander,

, now

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

, named Meredith

. Meredith returned to the Western Bank Note Company in 1893. He returned as Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing from 1900 to 1906. He remained employed in the

until his death of

bronchopneumonia Bronchopneumonia is a subtype of pneumonia. It is the acute inflammation of the bronchi, accompanied by inflamed patches in the nearby lobules of the lungs. citing: Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition, Copyright 2014 It is often ...

in 1917 at age 82.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meredith, William Morton 1835 births 1917 deaths United States Department of the Treasury officials People from Centerville, Indiana People of Indiana in the American Civil War American male journalists Benjamin Harrison administration personnel Cleveland administration personnel Theodore Roosevelt administration personnel