History of Aurora, (Cayuga County) New York United States of America

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Biographies:

Horace Boies, governor of Iowa, was born in Aurora, N. Y., in 1827. He was admitted to the bar at Buffalo in 1852, and two years later was elected to the assembly from his native county. In 1867 he removed to Iowa, where he became one of the leaders of the bar of the state. Up to 1881 he acted with the Republican party, but, though himself a total abstainer, he could not follow the Republicans in their adhesion to prohibition, and he also differed with them on the maintenance of a protective tariff. He was twice elected governor of Iowa as a Democrat, his first election, in 1889, breaking a line of thirty-five years' supremacy of the Republican party. He was one of the presidential candidates balloted for in the Chicago national convention of 1896, which nominated William J. Bryan.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Edwin Border Morgan, representative, was born in Aurora, N.Y., May 2, 1806; son of Christopher and Nancy (Barber) Morgan. His father went from Connecticut to Central New York as a school teacher and clerk of the Cayuga Bridge company in 1800 and became a prosperous merchant in Aurora. He attended the public school, entered his father's store as a clerk in 1819 and succeeded to the business in 1827. He was married, Sept. 27, 1829, to Charlotte Fidelia, daughter of Walter Woods of Aurora. He was a founder and the first president of the Wells, Fargo & Co.'s express, and a founder of the United States Express company. He represented his district in the 33d, 34th and 35th congresses, 1853-59, and was one of the representatives who went to the assistance of Senator Sumner when assaulted by Preston S. Brooks, May 22, 1856. He accumulated a large fortune, and was a principal stockholder in the New York Times. He helped many young men to obtain an education and established others in business; erected with William E. Dodge the Dodge-Morgan library building, connected with Auburn Theological seminary, at a cost of $40,000; gave to the seminary as his personal gift a dormitory called Morgan Hall; and at Wells college, at Aurora, in which his interest was second only to that of the founder, he established in 1873 the Alonzo D. Morgan Fund, in memory of his eldest son, increased by provisions of his will to over $200,000, and buildings, land and equipments valued at about $300,000. His wife built Morgan Hall for Wells college at a cost of $25,000. He was a trustee of Auburn Theological seminary, 1870-81; a charter trustee of Wells college, 1868-81, and president of the board, 1878-81, and a trustee of Cornell university, 1865-74. He died in Aurora, N.Y., Oct. 13, 1881.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Lewis Henry Morgan, anthropologist, was born in Aurora, N.Y., Nov. 21, 1818; son of the Hon. Jedediah and Harriet (Steele) Smith Morgan; grandson of Thomas and Sarah (Leeds) Morgan and of Lemuel Steele, and a descendant of James and Margery (Hill) Morgan, New London, Conn., 1650. He was graduated at Union college in 1840, was admitted to the bar, and settled in practice in Rochester, N.Y., in 1842. He was married, Aug. 13, 1851, to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Lemuel Steele, of Albany, N.Y. He retired from practice in 1864 to devote himself to scientific pursuits. He was a member of the state assembly in 1861, and a state senator, 1868-70. He began to study the native Indian tribes, especially the Six Nations, in 1844, and joined the Grand Order of the Iroquois, a secret organization, which enabled him to make a special study of their civil and domestic relations. He was adopted by a tribe of Senecas, and while living with them examined and surveyed many of the traces of ancient Indian occupation in western New York. He urged the formation of a museum of Indian antiquities to illustrate the aboriginal era of American history by the University of the City of New York, in 1848, and contributed papers and aboriginal utensils and relics to the state museum. He made a study of the Ojibway Indians while at Marquette, Mich., in 1858, and found that the society and government of this tribe was similar to the Iroquois. This induced him to continue his investigations, and with the aid of the Smithsonian Institution, agents of the department of state and others who became interested in the matter, he succeeded in recording the kinship systems of more than four-fifths of the world. The result of his researches was published by the Smithsonian Institution as "Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family" (1869). He also wrote a second volume, "Ancient Society" (1877), the result of his research on tribal society. He was called the "Father of American Anthropology." He became a member of the National Academy of Sciences, 1875; president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1879, and a member of other American and European scientific societies. He received the honorary degree LL.D. from Union college in 1878; contributed a series of "Letters on the Iroquois" to the American Review over the signature "Shenandoah" (1847), and is the author of: The League of the Iroquois (1851); The American Beaver and his Works (1868) and Houses and House Life of the American Aborigines (1881). He died in Rochester, N.Y., Dec. 17, 1881.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Amos Lane, representative, was born near Aurora, N.Y., March 1, 1778. He was admitted to the bar in Lawrenceburg, Ind. Ter., and practised 1807-49. He helped in the organization of a state government, was a representative in the state legislature, serving one term as speaker of the house, and was a Democratic representative in the 23d and 24th congresses, 1833-37. He died in Lawrenceburg, Ind., Sept. 2, 1849.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor