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Morgan Bulkeley
Morgan Gardner Bulkeley (December 26, 1837 –
Morgan Bulkeley
November 6, 1922) was an American politician of the
Republican Party, businessman, and insurance executive.
In 1876, he served as the first president of baseball's
National League and because of that, was inducted into
the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937, a choice that
remains controversial, since his time as a baseball
executive was short.

Bulkeley was born in East Haddam, Connecticut. His

father was Judge Eliphalet Adams Bulkeley, a prominent
local lawyer and businessman, who became the first
president of the Aetna Life Insurance Company. The
family moved to Hartford, where Morgan Bulkeley was
educated, before he took a job in the city of Brooklyn,
New York. He served briefly in the American Civil War,
where he saw no combat. When his father died in 1872, he Bulkeley in 1908
moved back to Hartford and became a bank president and United States Senator
a board member of Aetna, becoming its president in 1879, from Connecticut
a post he held the rest of his life. In office
March 4, 1905 – March 3, 1911
When the Hartford Dark Blues baseball team was asked Preceded by Joseph R. Hawley
to join the new National League in 1876, Bulkeley, the
Succeeded by George P. McLean
team president, was asked to become league president,
54th Governor of Connecticut
despite having a minimum of baseball experience. He
served one season, though most work was done by In office
Chicago White Stockings owner William Hulbert. January 10, 1889 – January 4, 1893
Bulkeley also served on the Hartford Common Council Lieutenant Samuel E. Merwin
and in 1880 was elected to the first of four two-year terms Preceded by Phineas C. Lounsbury
as mayor of Hartford. Succeeded by Luzon B. Morris

He was elected Governor of Connecticut, taking office in 25th Mayor of Hartford, Connecticut
1889. He was not renominated by the Republicans, but In office
served a second two-year term because the houses of the April 5, 1880 – April 2, 1888
state legislature could not agree on the outcome of the Preceded by George G. Sumner
1890 election. Holding over in office after the end of his Succeeded by John G. Root
elected term, the entry to the executive offices at the State
1st President of the National League of
House were locked against him, and he had it opened Professional Baseball Clubs
with a crowbar, thus earning the nickname, "the Crowbar In office
Governor". He left office in 1893, and served one term as February 2, 1876 – December 7, 1876
U.S. senator from Connecticut from 1905 to 1911. In his
Preceded by position established
final years he remained involved with civic and
Succeeded by William Hulbert
Personal details

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philanthropic activities. After his death in 1922, several Born Morgan Gardner
structures in Hartford, including a bridge and a high Bulkeley
school, were named for him. December 26, 1837
East Haddam,
Early life and career Connecticut, U.S.
Died November 6, 1922
Morgan Gardner Bulkeley was born on December 26,
(aged 84)
1837, in East Haddam, Connecticut, to an old local family;
Hartford, Connecticut,
both his parents descended from passengers of the U.S.
Mayflower more than 200 years prior.[1] Morgan was the
Resting place Cedar Hill Cemetery
third of six children and the second son (an older sister
Hartford, Connecticut,
and a younger brother died young).[2] His father,
U.S.
Eliphalet Adams Bulkeley, commonly called "Judge
Bulkeley" for his service early in his career on East Political party Republican
Haddam's probate court, was a lawyer, businessman, Spouse Fannie Briggs
public official and a founder both of the Aetna Life Houghton Bulkeley
Insurance Company and of the Republican Party in (1885–1922, his death)
Connecticut. His mother, born Lydia Smith Morgan, was Children 3
distantly related to J. P. Morgan.[3][4]
Relatives Eliphalet Adams
The Bulkeley family initially lived in East Haddam, but Bulkeley (father)
the judge saw greater opportunities in Hartford, and the William H. Bulkeley
(brother)
family moved there in 1847.[5] Unlike his older brother
Charles, who attended three private schools before Morgan B. Brainard
(nephew)
securing a degree from Yale College in 1856, Morgan was
not a gifted student, attending Centre School in Hartford Nickname "The Crowbar
(later known as the Brown School), and Bacon Academy Governor"
but apparently did not graduate from Bacon. He took a Military service
job with Lydia Bulkeley's brother, Henry Morgan, leaving Allegiance United States
Hartford to work for his uncle's company, H. P. Morgan &
Branch/service U.S. Army (Union
Company, in Brooklyn, New York. There, he began by
learning the dry goods trade and remained almost twenty Army)

years, eventually becoming a partner.[6][7] While in Years of 1862

Brooklyn, he served as a member of the Kings County service
Republican Committee.[8] Rank Private
Unit 13th New York State
During the Civil War, Bulkeley served as a private with
Militia
the 13th Regiment of the New York Militia. His younger
brother, William Bulkeley, who had also come to Battles/wars American Civil War
Brooklyn to work at the Morgan store, went on ninety
Member of the National
days' active service in 1861, while Morgan Bulkeley joined
Baseball Hall of Fame
the home guard. This arrangement was presumably so
that Henry Morgan would not be deprived of the Induction 1937

assistance of both of them. William saw no combat; then, Election Centennial

in May 1862, Morgan Bulkeley joined for a ninety-day method Commission

term. The regiment was sent to Suffolk, Virginia, and saw

no action, losing one man to friendly fire and one to heart disease. The 13th returned to the city of
Brooklyn in September 1862 and Morgan Bulkeley returned to his employment,[9] where he
remained another ten years.[10] His older brother Charles rose to the rank of captain of the 1st

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Connecticut Heavy Artillery Regiment, but died of disease in camp in February 1864, making
Morgan the judge's oldest surviving son, and slated to eventually assume his responsibilities.
Despite minimal service in the Civil War, the conflict had a considerable effect on Morgan
Bulkeley's life, both because of the change of position in the family, and because after the war, he
became deeply involved in such veterans' groups as the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR).[11]
When Judge Bulkeley died in 1872, Morgan returned to Hartford to look after his father's estate
and was made a board member of Aetna.[12]

In Hartford, Bulkeley helped form the United States Bank of Hartford, becoming its president.[13]
Through the bank, he became involved in a number of charitable and civic activities, and was
elected to the Hartford Common Council in 1874.[14]

Baseball
The first professional baseball league, the National Association of
Professional Base Ball Players (National Association or NA), began
play in 1871. In 1874, Hartford entered a team; Bulkeley was a
shareholder in and president of the team, the Hartford Dark Blues.
Hartford finished in seventh place out of eight, and sought to sign star
players. In 1875, led by Candy Cummings and player-manager Bob
"Death to Flying Things" Ferguson, Hartford finished third.[15]

Chicago White Stockings owner William Hulbert devised a plan to

form a new league with the strongest NA teams.[16] At a meeting in
New York on February 2, 1876, four team presidents from the East,
Commemorative "stamp"
including Bulkeley, and four from further west, including Hulbert, depicting Bulkeley issued
agreed to form the National League. Bulkeley was one of five directors, by the Baseball Hall of
selected by lot.[17] Fame in 1939

Bulkeley was named as president. Albert

Spalding later remembered that Bulkeley was
Like all that happened during this historic
reluctant, but was persuaded by Hulbert, who
[February 2, 1876] meeting, several versions
said it was a tribute to the East, where baseball
exist regarding the nomination and election
had its origin and early development. Bulkeley
of Morgan Bulkeley as the National League's
stated he would only serve for one year,[19] and,
first president. The stately Bulkeley, 39-
in practice, Hulbert did most of the work while
year-old president of the Hartford Dark
Bulkeley was president.[20]
Blues, the portrait of quiet elegance, was an
The reasons for the appointment of Bulkeley, obvious choice. Always dressed
who had no deep connection to baseball, are immaculately, Bulkeley cut a figure of
unclear. According to Irv Goldfarb in his article conservative calm. His sweeping, steer-horn
on Bulkeley for the Society for American mustache, erect soldier-straight posture and
Baseball Research, "the highly provincial world serious, stoic countenance made him, on
of early professional ball dictated that naming appearance alone, the ideal candidate for
an Easterner to the post would be the most almost any presidency.
propitious political move".[13] According to
David Krell in his journal article on Bulkeley's
role in the founding of the National League,
"Bulkeley contributed his good name to the
National League launch by agreeing to serve as
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its first president, lending a measure of —Neil W. Macdonald, The League That
credibility to the nascent league". [21] David L. Lasted: 1876 and the Founding of the
Fleitz, in his book on little-known Baseball Hall National League of Professional Base Ball
of Fame figures, stated, "Hulbert needed Clubs, p. 56[18]
Eastern support for the National League to
succeed, and Bulkeley's assumption of the
presidency was an important element of Hulbert's overall plan."[19] According to his Hall of Fame
biography, Hulbert and Spalding "saw in him the integrity and character needed to drive the
league's acceptance".[22]

As head of the Hartford franchise, Bulkeley refused to allow his team's scores to be transmitted
from the ballpark to where fans not attending the game gathered, something the Chicago Tribune
deemed a stupid idea.[23] As president, Bulkeley targeted illegal gambling, drinking and fan
rowdiness.[13] However, he had little insight into baseball, being mainly an investor with little
passion for the sport,[24] and his businesses and other interests, such as harness racing, took up
much of his time. After the 1876 season, he stepped down and Hulbert was elected National League
president.[13] The Hartford franchise played only two seasons in the National League;[21] Bulkeley,
unable to boost attendance, sold his interest in the team before the 1877 season.[20]

Bulkeley was one of the seven members of the 1905 Mills Commission formed by Spalding, the
group that gave credence to the story that Abner Doubleday invented baseball.[25] Goldfarb
described the Mills Commission as a "panel whose questionable findings about the origins of
baseball are still being debated today".[13]

Businessman and politician

Hartford municipal official

Bulkeley's short career as a baseball executive coincided with the beginning of his political career.
From 1875 to 1876, he served on the Hartford Common Council, and in 1876 was elected as an
alderman, serving two years in that position.[26] When Thomas O. Enders resigned as president of
Aetna due to ill health in 1879, Bulkeley became the company's third president. He would serve in
that capacity for forty-three years and as a director for almost half a century.[27] Under Bulkeley,
the firm's assets rose from $25 million in 1880 to more than $200 million by the time of his death
in 1922, with the amount of insurance in force increasing eighteenfold.[28] The techniques it used
under Bulkeley to reach the minimum required return on investment of 4 percent included loaning
to farmers on the developing frontier, and, as they repaid and the areas they were in became more
stable, investing in the municipal bonds of Western towns.[8] Among the new lines of insurance
Aetna developed under Bulkeley were accident, liability, health and automobile insurance.[29]

In 1878, Bulkeley ran as a Republican for mayor of Hartford. He was defeated by George G.
Sumner. He worked to increase his popularity, supplying the illuminations for the opening of the
Connecticut State Capitol in 1879. When he ran again in 1880, he secured many votes of Irish
immigrants in the city wards alongside the Connecticut River, which had given him his margin of
defeat in 1878, by buying them. Bulkeley most likely conspired with former alderman Gideon
Winslow to purchase votes in exchange for five dollars' worth of provisions at Winslow's grocery
store. This was a sum equal to several days' work for a laborer. According to Bulkeley's biographer,
Kevin Murphy, "Without chicanery, how could Bulkeley have done so well there [in the river
wards] in 1880, 1882, 1884, and 1886? The answer is, of course, he could not have."[30] This
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corruption, which won him all eight of the wards in 1880, lost him the support of even some
Republicans, which he won back by buying fewer votes in his three successful re-election bids.
Having won the heavily-Democratic fifth and sixth wards in 1880, he lost both twice and split them
once in his re-election bids, but on average won 45 percent of the vote.[31]

During his mayoralty, Bulkeley took over the annual excursion the city ran for poor children, which
was having trouble getting contributions, and financed it from his own pocket, hiring a train for
several hundred children to go to the summer resort of Fenwick. This was cited as a reason that the
poorer wards gave him votes. The excursion did not occur in 1884 as Bulkeley was in Europe, and
lapsed after that.[32]

Charles W. Burpee, in his history of Hartford County, deemed Bulkeley's mayoralty "most
businesslike and efficient ... instituting and promoting many important municipal projects, while
he disbursed more than his salary in providing pleasure or comfort for the city's poor."[33]

Governor of Connecticut
In 1886, Bulkeley sought the Republican nomination for a two-year
term as governor of Connecticut, but was defeated at the state
convention by Phineas Lounsbury. Republicans were impressed that
Bulkeley gave a reception for Lounsbury both after the convention,
and after Lounsbury was inaugurated in January.[34] The party
custom of rotation in office meant that Governor Lounsbury would not
seek a second term, and in 1888, Bulkeley was nominated by the
Republicans, with his Democrats choosing Luzon Morris as their
nominee. In the election, Morris outpolled Bulkeley by about 1,400
votes but failed to get an absolute majority. Under the law at the time,
the Connecticut General Assembly decided elections for state office
when no candidate received a majority of the vote, and the
Official portrait of Bulkeley
Republican-dominated legislature selected Bulkeley.[35][36]
as governor, by Charles N.
Flagg
Bulkeley devoted much of his day as governor to his duties as
president of Aetna, and found time to benefit the corporation during
his official duties, getting the legislature to pass an act raising taxes on insurance companies from
outside Connecticut. He also performed ceremonial duties outside the state, attending the
inauguration of Republican President Benjamin Harrison (who, like Bulkeley, had lost the popular
vote) and riding in the parade in New York to mark the centennial of the inauguration of George
Washington as president. In June 1889, the legislature passed his proposal to remove the toll on
the bridge across the Connecticut River between Hartford and East Hartford.[37]

Despite the tradition of rotation in office, Bulkeley sought renomination in 1890, but was defeated
at the state convention, which chose Samuel E. Merwin, whose Democratic opponent was
Morris.[38] Morris won the popular vote in the election, and the newly-Democratic state Senate
held that he and the other Democratic candidates for state office had gotten a majority, while the
Republican House of Representatives deemed they had not, and called on the Senate to meet with
them to elect the state officers. As the Republican majority in the House was larger than the
Democratic majority in the Senate, the Republicans would have enough legislators to elect. The
Senate refused, and declared the Democrats the winners, an action the House refused to
recognize.[39]

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