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Morgan Bulkeley
United States Senator from Connecticut
In office March 4, 1905 – March 3, 1911
Preceded by	Joseph R. Hawley
Succeeded by	George P. McLean
54th Governor of Connecticut
In office January 10, 1889 – January 4, 1893
Lieutenant	Samuel E. Merwin
Preceded by	Phineas C. Lounsbury
Succeeded by	Luzon B. Morris
25th Mayor of Hartford, Connecticut
In office April 5, 1880 – April 2, 1888
Preceded by	George G. Sumner
Succeeded by	John G. Root
1st President of the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs
In office February 2, 1876 – December 7, 1876
Preceded by	position established
Succeeded by	William Hulbert
Personal details
Born	Morgan Gardner Bulkeley (1837-12-26)December 26, 1837 East Haddam, Connecticut, U.S.
Died	November 6, 1922(1922-11-06) (aged 84) Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Resting place	Cedar Hill Cemetery Hartford, Connecticut
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Fannie Briggs Houghton Bulkeley (1885–1922, his death)
Children	3
Relatives	Eliphalet Adams Bulkeley (father) William H. Bulkeley (brother)
Nickname	"The Crowbar Governor"
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	U.S. Army (Union Army)
Years of service	1862
Rank	Private
Unit	13th New York State Militia
Battles/wars	American Civil War
Baseball player Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Induction 1937 Election method Centennial Commission

Morgan Gardner Bulkeley (December 26, 1837 – November 6, 1922) was an American politician, businessman, and sports executive. A Republican, he served in the American Civil War, and became a Hartford bank president before becoming the third president of the Aetna Life Insurance Company, a post he held for 43 years. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in recognition of his role as the first president of the National League. Bulkeley served on the Hartford City Council and was a four-term mayor of Hartford. He later served as the 54th Governor of Connecticut for two terms and as a United States Senator.

Early life and career

Morgan Gardner Bulkeley was born on December 26, 1837, in East Haddam, Connecticut, to an old local family; both his parents descended from passengers of the Mayflower more than 200 years prior, and was his family's third of six children and the second son (an older sister and younger brother died young). His father, Eliphalet Adams Bulkeley, commonly called "Judge Bulkeley" for his service early in his career on East Haddam's probate court, was a lawyer, businessman, public official and a founder both of the Aetna Life Insurance Company and of the Republican Party in Connecticut. His mother, born Lydia Smith Morgan, was distantly related to J.P. Morgan.

The Bulkeley family initially lived in East Haddam, but the judge saw greater opportunities in Hartford, and the family moved there in 1847. Unlike his older brother Charles, who attended three private schools before securing a degree from Yale College in 1856, Morgan was not a gifted student, attending Centre School in Hartford (later known as the Brown School), and attended Bacon Academy but apparently did not graduate. He took a job with Lydia Bulkeley's brother, Henry Morgan, leaving Hartford to work for his uncle's company, H. P. Morgan & Company, in Brooklyn, New York, beginning by learning the dry goods trade and remaining almost twenty years, eventually becoming a partner. While in Brooklyn, he served as a member of the Kings County Republican Committee.

During the Civil War, Bulkeley served as a private with the 13th Regiment of the New York Militia. His younger brother, William Bulkeley, who had also come to Brooklyn to work at the Morgan store, went on ninety day's active service while Morgan Buckeley joined the home guard, presumably so that Henry Morgan would not be deprived of the assistance of both of them. William Buckley saw no combat, and in May 1862, Morgan Buckeley joined for a ninety day term. The regiment was sent to Suffolk, Virginia and saw no action, losing one man to friendly fire and one to heart disease. The 13th returned to the city of Brooklyn in September 1862 and Morgan Buckeley returned to his employment, where he would remain another ten years. His older brother Charles rose to the rank of captain of the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, but died of disease in camp in February 1864, making Morgan the judge's oldest surviving son. Despite minimal service in the Civil War, the conflict had a considerable effect on Morgan Bulkeley's life, both because of the change of position in the family, and because after the war, he became deeply involved in such veterans' groups as the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). When Judge Bulkeley died in 1872, his son Morgan returned to Hartford to look after his father's estate and was made a board member of Aetna.

In Hartford, Bulkeley helped form the United States Bank of Hartford, becoming its president. Through the bank, he became involved in a number of charitable and civic activities, and was elected to the Hartford City Council in 1874.

Baseball

The first professional baseball league, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (National Association or NA), began play in 1871. In 1873, Middletown, Connecticut entered a team, and while it did not last the season, civic pride demanded that Hartford form a professional baseball team. Bulkeley served as president of the team, the Hartford Dark Blues, which began play in 1874. Hartford finished in seventh place out of eight, and sought to sign star players. In 1875, the team featured pitcher Candy Cummings and player-manager Bob "Death to Flying Things" Ferguson. Led by Cummings's pitching (he is said to have invented the curve ball), Hartford finished third.

The NA had been plagued with a number of problems, including gambling, poor finances, and a league office with little power over the teams and players. Chicago White Stockings owner William Hulbert devised a plan to form a new league with the strongest NA teams, and with a league constitution that would try to eliminate these difficulties. At a meeting in New York on February 2, 1876, four team presidents from the East, including Bulkeley, and four from further west, including Hulbert, agreed to form the National League. Bulkeley was one of five directors, selected by lot,

Like all that happened during this historic meeting, several versions exist regarding the nomination and election of Morgan Bulkeley as the National League's first president. The stately Bulkeley, 39-year-old president of the Hartford Dark Blues, the portrait of quiet elegance, was an obvious choice. Always dressed immaculately, Bulkeley cut a figure of conservative calm. His sweeping, steer-horn mustache, erect soldier-straight posture and serious, stoic countenance made him, on appearance alone, the ideal candidate for almost any presidency.

Bulkeley was named as president. Albert Spalding later remembered that Bulkeley was reluctant, but was persuaded by Hulbert, who said it was a tribute to the East, where baseball had its origin and early development. Bulkeley stated he would only serve for one year, and, in practice, Hulbert did most of the work while Bulkeley was president.

The reasons for the appointment of Bulkeley, who had no deep connection to baseball, are unclear. According to Irv Goldfarb in his article on Bulkeley for the Society for American Baseball Research, "the highly provincial world of early professional ball dictated that naming an Easterner to the post would be the most propitious political move". According to David Krell in his journal article on Bulkeley's role in the founding of the National League, "Bulkeley contributed his good name to the National League launch by agreeing to serve as its first president, lending a measure of credibility to the nascent league". David L. Fleitz in his book on little-known Baseball Hall of Fame figures, stated, "Hulbert needed Eastern support for the National League to succeed, and Bulkeley's assumption of the presidency was an important element of Hulbert's overall plan." David Nemec in his book on pre-1900 baseball personalities wrote, "that Bulkeley was a natural choice for the presidency as an easterner who was personally respected but did not represent one of the traditional powers of eastern baseball." According to his Hall of Fame biography, Hulbert and Spalding "saw in him the integrity and character needed to drive the league’s acceptance".

In his only season as president, Bulkeley targeted illegal gambling, drinking and fan rowdiness. However, he had little insight into baseball, being mainly an investor with little passion for the game. and his businesses and other interests, such as harness racing, took up much of his time. After the one-year term, he stepped down and Hulbert was elected National League president. The Hartford franchise played only two seasons in the National League; Bulkeley, unable to boost attendance, sold the team, and, thereafter, his involvement in baseball was, for the most part, limited to attending testimonial dinners for Hulbert, Spalding and others. He stayed in touch with many of his former players, especially Cummings, who along with Bulkeley, would become the only members of the Hartford Dark Blues organization to be enshrined in baseball's Hall of Fame. Hulbert would not join them there until 1995.

Bulkeley was one of the seven members of the 1905 Mills Commission formed by Spalding, the group that gave credence to the story that Abner Doubleday invented baseball. Goldfarb described the Mills Commission as a "panel whose questionable findings about the origins of baseball are still being debated today".

Bulkeley's election to the Hall of Fame in 1937, 15 years after his death, is controversial due to the brevity of his involvement in the game. The first president of the American League, Ban Johnson, a major figure in baseball for over twenty years, was elected to the Hall of Fame at the same time by the Centennial Commission (appointed by Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis), and the choices may be connected. Goldfarb wrote, "it was more of a 'political' decision than a baseball one: as American League founder and president Ban Johnson had been chosen for induction at that time, it was felt that the National League also needed to be represented". Krell noted that Bulkeley was elected league president to give credibility to the new league and suggested, "Those who disagree with his Hall of Fame credentials must first consider whether the National League would have been successful without him."

Businessman and politician

Hartford municipal official

Bulkeley's short career as a baseball executive coincided with the beginning of his political career. From 1875 to 1876, he served on the Hartford Common Council, and in 1876 was elected as an alderman, serving two years in that position. When Thomas O. Enders resigned as president of Aetna due to ill health in 1879, Bulkeley became the company's third president. He would serve in that capacity for forty-three years and as a director for almost half a century. Under Bulkeley, the firms assets rose from $25 million in 1880 to more than $200 million by the time of his death in 1922, with the amount of insurance in force increasing eighteenfold. Among the techniques it used under Bulkeley to reach the minimum required return on investment of 4 percent is loaning to farmers on the developing frontier, and, as they repaid and the areas they were in became more stable, investing in the municipal bonds of Western towns. Among the new lines of insurance Aetna developed under Bulkeley were accident, liability, health and automobile insurance.

In 1878, Bulkeley ran as a Republican for mayor of Hartford. He was defeated by George G. Sumner. He worked to increase his popularity (supplying the illuminations for the opening of Connecticut's state capitol in 1879, and, when he ran again in 1880, secured many votes of Irish immigrants in the city wards alongside the Connecticut River, which had given him his margin of defeat in 1878, by buying them, most likely conspiring with former alderman Gideon Winslow to purchase votes in exchange for five dollars' worth of provisions at Winslow's grocery store. This was a sum equal to several day's work for a laborer. According to his biographer, Kevin Murphy, "Without chicanery, how could Bulkeley have done so well there in 1880, 1882, 1884, and 1886? The answer is, of course, he could not have." This corruption, which won him all eight of the wards in 1880, lost him the support of even some Republicans, which he won back by buying fewer votes in his three successful re-election bids. Having won the heavily-Democratic Fifth and Sixth wards in 1880, he lost both twice and split them once in his re-election bids, but on average won 45 percent of the vote.

During his mayoralty, Bulkeley took over the annual excursion the city ran for poor children, which was having trouble getting contributions, and financed it from his own pocket, hiring a train for several hundred children to go to the summer resort of Fenwick. This was cited as a reason that the poorer wards gave him votes. The excursion did not occur in 1884 as Bulkeley was in Europe, and lapsed after that.

Charles W. Burpee, in his history of Hartford County, deemed Bulkeley's mayoralty "most businesslike and efficient ... instituting and promoting many important municipal projects, while he disbursed more than his salary in providing pleasure or comfort for the city's poor."

While mayor of Hartford, on February 11, 1885, Bulkeley married Fannie Briggs Houghton in San Francisco, California. They had two sons and a daughter.

Governor of Connecticut

In 1886, Bulkeley sought the Republican nomination for a two-year term as governor of Connecticut, but was defeated at the state convention by Phineas Lounsbury. Republicans were impressed that Bulkeley gave a reception for Lounsbury both after the convention, and after Lounsbury was inaugurated in January. The party custom of rotation in office meant that Governor Lounsbury would not seek a second term, and in 1888, Bulkeley was selected by his party, with his Democratic opponent Luzon Morris. In the election, Morris outpolled Bulkeley by about 1,400 votes but failed to get an absolute majority. Under the law at the time, the Republican-dominated Connecticut General Assembly was to decide the election, and the legislature selected Bulkeley.

Bulkeley devoted much of his day as governor to his duties as president of Aetna, and found time to benefit the corporation during his official duties, getting the legislature to pass an act raising taxes on insurance companies from outside Connecticut. He also found time for ceremonial duties outside the state, attending the inauguration of Republican President Benjamin Harrison (who, like Bulkeley, had lost the popular vote) and riding in the parade in New York to mark the centennial of the inauguration of George Washington as president. In June 1889, the legislature passed his proposal to remove the toll on the bridge across the Connecticut River between Hartford and East Hartford.

Despite the tradition of rotation in office, Bulkeley sought renomination in 1890, but was defeated at the state convention, which chose Samuel E. Merwin, whose Democratic opponent was Morris. Morris won the popular vote in the election, and the newly-Democratic state Senate held he and the other Democratic candidates for state office had gotten a majority, while the Republican House of Representatives deemed they had not, and called on the Senate to meet with them to elect the state officers. As the Republican majority in the House was larger than the Democratic majority in the Senate, the Republicans would have enough legislators to elect. The Senate refused, and declared the Democrats the winners, an action the House refused to recognize.

The stalemate continued the Republican incumbents, including Bulkeley, in office. The House conceded the election of the Democratic candidate for comptroller, Nicholas Staub, and he was sworn in. Staub had a padlock put on the door of the executive offices. On March 21, 1891, Bulkeley found the door locked against him, and he had the door opened with a crowbar, thus gaining the nickname "the Crowbar Governor".

Bulkeley and the other Republican holdovers remained in office until their successors were elected in November 1892. The Senate refused to pass appropriation bills; Bulkeley financed the government with loans from Aetna, which were later repaid by the state. Governor David B. Hill of New York, a Democrat, refused to honor extradition requests signed by Bulkeley as governor. However, after the Supreme Court of Connecticut ruled Bulkeley was legally governor in January 1892, Staub agreed to pay some of the state's bills. In November, Morris was elected with a clear majority and Bulkeley left office in January. The General Assembly reimbursed Aetna in full.

Bulkeley later served one term in the U.S. Senate from 1905 to 1911, as part of the "Millionaires' Senate" of 1906, so named for the wealth of its members.

Death and legacy

Morgan Bulkeley died in Hartford at age 84 and was interred at Cedar Hill Cemetery. At the time of his death, Bulkeley had been the president of Aetna for 43 years and had increased its assets from $25.7 million to $207 million and from 29 to 1,500 employees. Under his guidance, Aetna had been transformed from a life insurance company into a company that offered accident, health, automobile, workers compensation, and group insurance. He was succeeded by his nephew, Morgan B. Brainard, who led Aetna for the following 35 years. Bulkeley's widow, Fannie, died on June 22, 1938.

Memberships

He was a member of the Freemasons, Society of the Cincinnati, Grand Army of the Republic, Sons of the Revolution, Sons of the American Revolution, Society of Colonial Wars and the Military Order of Foreign Wars. In 1894 he was elected as a Hereditary Companion of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States by right of inheritance from his brother, Captain Charles E. Bulkeley, was killed during the Civil War.

Legacy

The Hartford Bridge over the Connecticut River was renamed the Bulkeley Bridge in his honor in 1922 after his death. Morgan G. Bulkeley High School, which opened in Hartford in 1926, was also named for him. In 1928, Clarkin Field in Hartford was renamed Morgan G. Bulkeley Stadium in his honor.

References

1. Fleitz, p. 6.
2. Murphy, pp. xii–xiii.
3. Grant, H. Roger (1999). "Bulkeley, Morgan Gardner". American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0500102. (subscription required)
4. Murphy, pp. 9–11.
5. Murphy, p. 12.
6. "Bulkeley, Morgan Gardner". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
7. Murphy, pp. 20–22, 25.
8. ^ "Ex-Sen Morgan G. Bulkeley dies after brief illness; long, distinguished career". The Hartford Courant. November 7, 1922. pp. 1, 12. Retrieved December 21, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. Page 12 here
9. Murphy, pp. 30–35.
10. Hooker, pp. 96, 98.
11. Murphy, pp. 36–37.
12. Hooker, p. 98.
13. ^ Goldfarb, Irv. "Morgan Bulkeley". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
14. Fleitz, p. 7.
15. Fleitz, pp. 7–8.
16. Ryczek, pp. 1427–1434.
17. Thorn, pp. 932–934.
18. Madonald, p. 56. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMadonald (help)
19. ^ Fleitz, p. 10.
20. ^ Murphy, p. 58.
21. ^ Krell, p. 51.
22. Nemec, p. 9.
23. "Morgan Bulkeley, Executive". National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
24. Krell, p. 49.
25. Pernot, p. 36.
26. "The Origins of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum". National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Archived from the original on December 6, 2006. Retrieved January 13, 2007.
27. Fleitz, pp. 5–6.
28. Murphy, pp. 48–49.
29. Hooker, pp. 88–90.
30. Hooker, p. 100.
31. Hooker, pp. 101–105.
32. Murphy, pp. 49–53.
33. Murphy, p. 63.
34. Murphy, pp. 68–70.
35. Burpee, p. 20.
36. ^ Cite error: The named reference CTLib was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
37. Murphy, pp. 96–97.
38. Murphy, p. 109.
39. "Morgan Gardner Bulkeley". Museum of Connecticut History. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
40. Murphy, pp. 111–116.
41. Murphy, p. 120.
42. Argersinger, p. 77.
43. Murphy, pp. 120–122.
44. Murphy, pp. 122–126.
45. "The Year Connecticut Elected Nobody Governor". tribunedigital-thecourant. November 3, 2002. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
46. ^ Cite error: The named reference AetnaHistory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
47. "Notable Residents: Morgan Gardner Bulkeley, 1837 – 1922". Cedar Hill Cemetery.org. Hartford, CT: Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation. 2021. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
48. Cite error: The named reference al was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
49. Bulkeley Bridge, Bridge No. 980A Archived December 15, 2006, at the Wayback Machine - Connecticut's Historic Masonry Arches. Retrieved on December 31, 2006.

Sources

• Argersinger, Peter H. (June 1989). "The Value of the Vote: Political Representation in the Gilded Age". The Journal of American History. 76 (1): 59–90. JSTOR 1908344.
• Burpee, Charles W. (1928). History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. S.J. Clarke Publishing Co. OCLC 49335309.
• Collier, Christopher (June 1992). "Sleeping with Ghosts: Myth and Public Policy in Connecticut, 1634-1991". The New England Quarterly. 65 (2): 179–207. JSTOR 366095.
• Fleitz, David L. (2015). Ghosts in the Gallery at Cooperstown: Sixteen Little-Known Members of the Hall of Fame. McFarland & Co. ISBN 0786480610.
• Hooker, Richard (1956). Ætna Life Insurance Company: Its First Hundred Years, a History. Ætna Life Insurance Company. OCLC 1240246222.
• Krell, David (2015). "Morgan Bulkeley: Founding father or figurehead?". Base Ball. 9: 45–52.
• Lembeck, Harry (2015). Taking on Theodore Roosevelt: How One Senator Defied the President on Brownsville and Shook American Politics. Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-61614-955-0.
• Macdonald, Neil W. (2004). The League That Lasted: 1876 and the Founding of the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs. McFarland & Co. ISBN 0786417552.
• Murphy, Kevin (2011). Crowbar Governor: The Life and Times of Morgan Gardner Bulkeley. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-7075-8.
• Nemec, David (2011). Major League Baseball Profiles, 1871-1900, Volume 2: The Hall of Famers and Memorable Personalities Who Shaped the Game. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803235321.
• Osborn, Norris G., ed. (1906). Men of Mark in Connecticut (PDF). William R. Goodspeed. OCLC 9411911.
• Pernot, Laurent (2015). Before the Ivy: The Cubs' Golden Age in Pre-Wrigley Chicago. University of Illinois Press.
• Riess, Steven A. (1999). Touching Base: Professional Baseball and American Culture in the Progressive Era. University of Illinois Press.
• Ryczek, William J. (2016) . Blackguards and Red Stockings: A History of Baseball's National Association, 1871–1875 (revised ebook ed.). ISBN 978-1-4766-2552-2.
• Thorn, John. Baseball in the Garden of Eden: the Secret History of the Early Game (ebook ed.). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-7021-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

External links

• Morgan Bulkeley at the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Morgan Bulkeley at Find a Grave

v t e Governors of Connecticut
Trumbull Sr. M. Griswold Huntington Wolcott Sr. Trumbull Jr. Treadwell R. Griswold Smith Wolcott Jr. Tomlinson Peters Edwards Foot Edwards Ellsworth Cleveland R. S. Baldwin Toucey Bissell J. Trumbull Seymour Pond Dutton Minor Holley Buckingham Hawley English Jewell English Jewell Ingersoll Hubbard Andrews Bigelow Waller Harrison P. Lounsbury Bulkeley Morris Coffin Cooke G. Lounsbury McLean Chamberlain Roberts Woodruff Lilley Weeks S. Baldwin Holcomb Lake Templeton Bingham J. H. Trumbull Cross R. E. Baldwin Hurley R. E. Baldwin Snow McConaughy Shannon Bowles Lodge Ribicoff Dempsey Meskill Grasso O'Neill Weicker Rowland Rell Malloy Lamont

v t e United States senators from Connecticut
Class 1	Ellsworth Hillhouse Dana Boardman Edwards Foot N. Smith Niles Betts Huntington R. S. Baldwin Toucey Dixon Buckingham Eaton Hawley Bulkeley McLean Walcott Maloney Hart R. E. Baldwin Benton Purtell T. J. Dodd Weicker Lieberman Murphy
Class 3	Johnson Sherman Mitchell Trumbull Tracy Goodrich Daggett Lanman Willey Tomlinson P. Smith Niles T. Smith Gillette Foster Ferry English Barnum Platt Brandegee Bingham Lonergan Danaher McMahon Purtell Bush Ribicoff C. Dodd Blumenthal

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