Buckner Stith Morris

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Buckner Stith Morris
2nd Mayor of Chicago
Mayor of the City of Chicago
In office 1838 – 1839
Preceded by	William Butler Ogden
Succeeded by	Benjamin Wright Raymond

Born	August 19, 1800 Augusta, Georgia
Died	December 16, 1879 Chicago, Illinois
Political party	Whig
Spouse	Evelina Barker (1st wife), Eliza Stephenson (2nd wife)
Residence	Chicago, Illinois

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. He ran for the office of Illinois Secretary of State in 1852 under the Whig ticket and served as a Lake County Circuit Court Judge from 1853-1855.

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.