Death Claims Mrs. Morton at Age of 81
Pioneer Woman's Life Devoted to Service of Humanity.

Death this morning claimed Mrs. Jessie Wellington Morton 81 year old Roble Ridge resident and mother of nine children. Since her marriage at the age of 17 she had lent a hand where she thought it was needed most, ministering to the ailments of neighbors, and taking an enthusiastic part in the women's suffrage and W.C.T.U. movements.


Palo Alto was her home from 1919 to 1927, when she moved to a new home on Roble Ridge.

The daughter of Dr. Oliver Hastings Wellington and Charlotte Augusta Kent Wellington of Boston, she was born in New York City, June 7, 1854 and accompanied her parents to Kansas where they moved after the Civil War.

As a girl she endured the hardships of the rough pioneer life and underwent the adventures incidental to life on a Kansas homestead - fires and storms and Indian skirmishes.

At the age of 17, shortly before her father returned to his native state, she married Howard Morton, formerly of Plymouth, Mass.

She had an aptitude for and an inclination towards the study of medicine. Her father had been a practicing physician of some note and she learned enough about the profession to be of valuable aid to her neighbors around the country-side. Although never a formal student of medicine, she served as physician until the advent of licensed doctors to the country.

Her Kansas life was limited to the homestead where all but one of her children were born, until her husband took a public office. They then moved to Minneapolis, Kansas. Subsequently, she and her husband pushed westward to Seattle and eventually down the coast to Palo Alto.

While in Kansas she became an enthusiastic supporter of the suffrage movement and the W.C.T.U., and traveled about the state extensively as organizer for the latter organization.

Surviving her are seven daughters: Miss Mary E. Morton, Mrs. T.W. Todd, and Mrs. W.H. Carruth who lived near her on Roble Ridge; Mrs. D.S. Alford of Belmont, Mrs. W.L. Burdick of Sacramento, Miss Charlotte A. Morton of Berkeley, and Mrs. E.G. Johnston of Ann Arbor, Michigan. There are also two sons, Howard Morton of Los Angeles and Nathaniel Morton of Linden. A sister, Mrs. C.P. Treat, lives in Palo Alto, and another, Mrs. Mason Carter, resides in San Diego.