Career
He came to America as a boy and reached Chicago in the fifties, looking for work, having walked most of the way from Buffalo, N. Y.
His trading tactics were somewhat unique.
Frequently staying out of the market until late in the week he found his competitors with full coolers and the holders of stale cattle willing to accept any figure within reason to effect a clearance.
These were his harvest periods, when with apparent reluctance, protesting that he could not handle more cattle than he had, he cleared the yards.
He early secured contracts to supply the French and other European governments with beef and he was also largely instrumental in supplying the commissariat department of the Union troops with livestock during the Civil War.
By 1873 his company was earning more than eleven million dollars a year.
In 1874 he entered into partnership with Isaac Waixel and for a while the firm was known as Morris & Waixel.
Eventually it became Nelson Morris & Company and later simply Morris & Company.
Outside of Chicago Morris established packing plants at East St. Louis, Ill. , St. Joseph, Mo. , and Kansas City, Kan.
In addition to these interests he owned large cattle ranches in the Dakotas and in Texas and was one of the first to import Polled-Angus and Galloway cattle.
He also invested heavily in real-estate in Chicago.
Throughout his life he kept his original simplicity of character.
Although he did not care to have his name associated with many charities, he gave of his means for many worthy causes.
[See: Who's Who in America, 1906-07; P. T. Gilbert and C. L. Bryson, Chicago and Its Makers (1929); R. A. Clemen, The Am.
Livestock and Meat Industry (1923); the Nat.
