Gov. Edwin Porch Morrow

About

EDWIN P. MORROW was born in Somerset, Kentucky on November 28, 1877. His education was attained at St. Mary’s College in Tennessee, Cumberland College in Kentucky, and at the University of Cincinnati, where he earned a law degree in 1902. Morrow established a successful legal career, serving as the city attorney for Somerset in 1903. He also served as the U.S. district attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky from 1910 to 1913. Morrow had his first encounter with politics in 1895, when he work on the gubernatorial campaign of his uncle, William O. Bradley, who became governor later that same year. Morrow served as a delegate to the 1916, 1920, and 1928 Republican National Conventions, and was an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1913 and in his election bid for governor in 1915. He won the 1919 Republican gubernatorial nomination, was elected governor, and sworn into office on December 9, 1919. During his tenure, the state highway office was restructured, the board of charities was established, the public school system was improved, a state anti-lynching law was sanctioned, and the board of corrections was organized. Also, a non-partisan judiciary law was authorized, two state normal schools were established, and the Ku Klux Klan’s activities were controlled. After leaving office on December 11, 1923, Morrow served on the U.S. Railroad Labor Board from 1923 to 1926. He retired from politics after his defeat for Congress in 1934. Governor Edwin P. Morrow passed away on June 15, 1935, and was buried at the Frankfort Cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Source

Governors’ Papers, Kentucky Department for Libraries & Archives, Public Records Division

Kentucky Court of Justice

The Political Graveyard

Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 2, Westport, Conn.; Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols.

• Uncle of Kentucky Governor William O. Bradley