MORRIS H. BROWN, LTJG, USN
Morris Brown '98
Lucky Bag
From the 1898 Lucky Bag:
Brown, Morris Hamilton
East Logansport, Indiana
"Sailor Brown" "White Man"
Chief of Staff, Governor of Indiana (2); Fencing Team (2); Substitute Class Foot-ball Team (4).
Photograph from the fencing team group photo in the 1897 Lucky Bag.
Brown, Morris Hamilton
East Logansport, Indiana
"Sailor Brown" "White Man"
Chief of Staff, Governor of Indiana (2); Fencing Team (2); Substitute Class Foot-ball Team (4).
Photograph from the fencing team group photo in the 1897 Lucky Bag.
Loss
Morris died on December 6, 1904 of an unspecified illness after a stay of "several days" in the hospital.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Morris passed the Naval Academy exam in 1892 and went on a cadet cruise on the USS Constellation in 1894. He was a naval cadet assigned to the battleship Texas on April 3, 1898 and participated in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba on July 3. The Texas engaged the west battery for some hours, and one man was killed. William K. Gise, Class of 1893, was credited for shooting his six-inch gun at the Furor and blowing her up.
In early August, Morris was on furlough at home. He said that he was in charge of six rapid fire six pounders, and the “element of fear has little place in a man’s thoughts during action, his chief energies being directed to the business of hammering the enemy.” He spoke to 300 members of the Pottawatamie Club who listened intently for an hour. He was in his dress uniform of the service, answered their questions, and “bravely stood his ground and evinced that his magazine of experiences would stand the test of a prolonged engagement.” He had several relics from the Vizcaya - a chronometer, a seaman’s knife, fragments of shells, and a machete. While in town, he mounted a watch charm made from a Spanish peseta, which he got off one of the wrecked war ships, and had his monogram placed on it.
In January 1899, Morris was aboard the USS Castine sailing from Havana for Manila. In June he wrote to his father from Iloilo. Their duties were watching out for blockade runners and distributing government literature to the natives. The Filipinos harassed the ship at times, and a couple of the crew had been injured. A group of 80 Filipino blockade runners were taken along with their rice and munitions.
In the June 1900 census, Morris was at home with his father William Hugo, a lumber bookkeeper, mother Otie, and brother Harry, age 21. Morris was then appointed an aide on the personal staff of Admiral George Collier Remy on the Brooklyn. Admiral Remy commanded the Asiatic Station for the next two years. Morris was 22 years old and “distinguished himself by the effective operation of two machine guns on board the Texas, when the Cervera fleet was sunk at Santiago.”
Around mid-March 1903, Morris was a Lieutenant junior grade on board the Raleigh. He left the ship in October and was home for about two months. He went to Washington to take an examination for promotion but became sick and was hospitalized. He was about to be released when at midnight, his condition worsened until he died that morning. At first it was feared that he might have swallowed a poison of some kind, but later the autopsy report was acute inflammation of the stomach and liver. One news article reported that he had failed to take the exam the Tuesday before, had told friends that he was “tired of the whole business,” and “expressed a desire to leave the service.” During his career, Morris had also served on the Oregon, Monadnock, and Newark. His father and brother are both buried near Morris in the Mount Hope Cemetery.
He is buried in Indiana.
Related Articles
His funeral guard was commanded by William Gise '93.
Memorial Hall Error
Illness is not a criteria for inclusion in Memorial Hall.
Morris is the only member of the Class of 1898 in Memorial Hall.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
