Morris B. Belknap

Morris Burke Belknap (June 7, 1856 – April 13, 1910), also known as Colonel Morris Burke Belknap, was an American businessman from Louisville, Kentucky.

After earning a degree from Yale University in 1877, Belknap worked at his father's hardware company. Later, he co-founded an agricultural implement company. In 1883, he married Lily Buckner, with whom he fathered four children. Following the death of his father, Belknap became vice-president of his hardware company, a position which he held for the rest of his life. Buckner died in 1893, and he married Marion S. Dumont in 1900.

In addition to his business career, Belknap served in the Kentucky State Guard, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1898, during the Spanish–American War, he served briefly in Puerto Rico prior to the end of hostilities. He was promoted to colonel before his honorable discharge in 1899.

Belknap was the Republican nominee for governor of Kentucky in the 1903 gubernatorial election. He campaigned on his business experience and opposition to policies of the incumbent governor, J. C. W. Beckham, whom Belknap lost the election to. Afterward, Belknap spent his later life involved in a variety of civil and religious organizations. In 1910, he died of pernicious anemia, a condition which is believed to have been worsened by a mysterious ailment he contracted while in Puerto Rico.

Early life and family Belknap was born at his parents' home in Louisville, Kentucky, on June 7, 1856. He was the youngest child of William Burke and Mary (Richardson) Belknap. Until the age of 17, he was educated in the private school of Benjamin B. Huntoon. On his return, he enrolled in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University. The couple had four children – Gertrude, Walter Kingsbury, Lily, and Morris Jr.

Belknap's father died in 1889, and after incorporating his company as Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company, Morris Belknap became the company's vice-president, a position he held for the remainder of his life. Former governor Bradley, however, supported a fellow Louisvillian, attorney Augustus E. Willson. Former Democratic governor Buckner supported his son-in-law's candidacy.

Belknap touted his business management experience, contrasting it with charges that his opponent, incumbent governor J. C. W. Beckham, had mismanaged the state's eleemosynary institutions. Election day was a rowdy one throughout the state, and a judge supporting Belknap was shot by a sheriff at a polling place in Louisville. Victory went to Belknap's opponent; Beckham won the election 229,014 to 202,764, marking the first time in sixteen years that the Democrats had gained a majority of the votes cast. Belknap fell ill in late 1907, and his poor health continued into mid-1908. In July 1908, he traveled to Europe in order to improve his health, but after his return in October, his condition worsened again. From January to June 1909, he was bedfast. In early April 1910, he fell into a coma from which he never awakened. He died of pernicious anemia on April 13, 1910, at Lexington, Kentucky and was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery.