Buckner Stith Morris

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Buckner Stith Morris (born: August 19, 1800 in Augusta, Georgia; died: December 16, 1879; buried in Rosehill Cemetery) served as Mayor of Chicago, Illinois (1838-1839) for the Whig Party.

Morris traveled north from Georgia in 1832, marrying Evelina Barker in Kentucky. The couple arrived in Chicago in 1834 where Morris established a law practice with J. Young Scammon and created the Chicago Lyceum, the city's first literary society. By 1835, however, Morris had left Scammon and was practicing law with Edward Casey. He was elected mayor of Chicago in 1838 and went on to serve terms as a city alderman.

Following Evelina's death in 1847, he married Eliza Stephenson in 1850. Eliza died in 1855.

The former was mayor outspoken in his opposition the "War Between the States" and was suspected to sympathise with the "Copperheads". In 1864, he was arrested for aiding in a Confederate attempt to free prisoners of war from Camp Douglas. He, along with his confederates, were sentenced to imprisonment, but were pardoned nine months later. Being unable, while so detained, to attend to his business affairs, he lost most of his assets through foreclosures. Incensed over the treatment of their ancestor, his heirs refused to permit the donation of his historical material, diaries, etc., to the Chicago Historical Society, despite urging to that end.