FAIRCHILD, MORTON (1806-1860). Captain, First Regiment of the United States Volunteers of New York, Company I. According to Green-Wood Burial and Vital Records, Morton was born in the state of New York; the inscription on his burial plaque states he was born in 1806. Little is known of Morton’s early life. ...
The American Biographical Library and his obituary in the Brooklyn Evening Star indicate that, subsequent to his service in Mexico, he was promoted to brevet major; ...
After the war, Morton worked as a custom house inspector, a position often of political patronage. ...
As per the 1850 federal census, the forty-three-year-old Morton lived in New York City and worked in the custom house office. He had remarried and resided with his second wife, Anna. Also listed in the household is Bridget Kerr, although no relationship to the couple is cited.
The 1855 New York State census documents that the couple still resided in New York City. Also in the household were Morton’s son, Loveland, a servant, Eureka Swartze, and three lodgers, James H. King, C.V.C. Smith, and Abraham Westervelt. Morton’s age is erroneously recorded as forty-two (he was forty-nine at the time of the census).
According to the 1860 federal census, Morton was a custom house inspector. His wife is listed as Amelia. Since there are no records of a divorce from or the death of Ana, it is unclear if Amelia is his third wife or Anna’s name is incorrectly inscribed. Morton’s occupation as a custom house inspector documented in the three census records is also recorded in the New York Vital Records.
Fairchild passed away on August 3, 1860, as recorded in the death announcements in the Brooklyn Evening Star’s August 6, 1860 issue. Green-Wood Burial and Vital Records documents the cause of death as consumption. However, the New York, New York Vital Records indicate anemia as the cause of death.
An additional listing for Major Morton Fairchild (1806-1860) indicates there is a cenotaph at Olde Mount Ida Cemetery, where his first wife is interred. ...
A brief biography of Morton also appears in the American Biographical Library. The tribute to Morton states:
Fairchild, Morton, brevet major in the Mexican war, native of Troy, and orderly serg. of the Troy citizens guard; served in every battle in the Mexican war except that of Molino del Rey, and at Cerro Gordo led his regiment with great bravery; he died in New York August 3, 1860, at 54; a few years since a committee of the community council of New York awarded him a gold snuff box, left in the will of General Jackson, to the man, a citizen of New York, who should evince the greatest bravery in the first foreign war. ...
