Levi Parsons Morton, born at Shoreham, Vermont, May 16, 1824, was
named for his mother's brother, Levi Parsons, the first American
missionary to Palestine. He was the son of a minister, Reverend Daniel
Morton, who with his wife Lucretia Parsons, like so many other
clergymen, was obliged to exist on a starvation salary, only six
hundred dollars a year. Among his ancestors was George Morton of
Battery, Yorkshire, financial agent in London of the _Mayflower_. Mr.
L.P. Morton may have inherited his financial cleverness from this
ancestor.

After studying at Shoreham Academy, he entered a country store at
Enfield, Massachusetts, and was there for two years, then taught a
district school, and later entered a general store at Concord, New
Hampshire, when only seventeen. His father was unable to send him to
college, and Mr. Estabrook, the manager of the store, decided to
establish him in a branch store at Hanover, New Hampshire, where
Dartmouth College is located, giving him soon afterward an interest in
the business. Here he stayed until nearly twenty-four years old. Mr.
Morton immediately engaged a stylish tailor from Boston, W.H. Gibbs,
or as all called him, "Bill Gibbs," whose skill at making even cheap
suits look smart brought him a large patronage from the college
students. Once a whole graduating class were supplied with dress suits
from this artist. Mr. Morton had a most interesting store, sunny and
scrupulously clean, with everything anyone could ask for, and few ever
went out of it without buying something, even if they had entered
simply from curiosity. The clerks were trained to be courteous without
being persistent. Saturday was bargain day, and printed lists of what
could be obtained on that day at an absurdly cheap rate were widely
distributed through the neighbouring towns. People came in large