BULKELEY, Morgan Gardner, Ameri can politician: b. East Haddam, Conn., 26 Dec. 1837. At the age of 15 he entered a mercantile house in Brooklyn, N. Y. and in a few years became a partner in it. When the Civil War broke out he went to the front as a private in the 13th New York regiment and served dur ing the McClellan-Peninsula campaign under General Mansfield at Suffolk, Va. In 1872 he came to Hartford, organized and becarrit pres ident of the United States Bank in that city, and later (1879) was elected president of the .Etna Life Insurance Company, a position he has long held. For 30 years he has been a prominent figure in local and State politics. He was four times elected mayor of Hartford (1880-88), and in 1889 was elected governor. At the State election in November 1890, the first gubernatorial election under the new secret ballot law, the Democratic ticket received a considerable plurality over the Republican, but a majority being necessary to elect, there was some doubt whether there had been a choice by the people for governor or treasurer. Ac cordingly the matter went before the general assembly, which met in 1891, and in which the Republicans had a majority of four on joint ballot, the senate being Democratic.
A long contest ensued between the two houses, the senate claiming the election of the recent Democratic candidates and refusing to recog nize in any manner GOvernor Bulkeley and the other hold-over Republican officials. The mat ter was finally settled on 5 Jan. 1892, when the State Supreme Court, in the quo warranto suit brought against Governor Bulkeley by the Dem ocratic candidate for governor, found ((Morgan G. Bulkeley to be governor, both de facto and de jure," and his right to hold over till both houses of the general assembly should unite in declaring the election of his successor was affirmed. As the two houses could not agree, the governor remained iii office for another full term. In November 1892 the Democratic ticket swept the State. He was United States Senator from 1905 to 1911. Governor Bulkeley has since, as chairman of the Connecticut highway and bridge commission, interested himself ear nestly in trying to procure a fine stone bridge across the Connecticut at Hartford.