management, and installing himself as a director with Charles A. Whitney as president. Death and legacy Morgan died on May 9, 1878, at his home in New York City after an extended illness as a consequence of Bright's disease. He is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. Morgan's incorporation of the eponymous Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad and Steamship Company (ML&TRSC) facilitated a division of his estate, delegated to the administration of Charles A. Whitney. In April 1878, just a few weeks prior to his death, Morgan conveyed shares of the company to Mary Jane Sexton Morgan, Maria Louis Morgan Whitney, Frances Eliza Morgan Quintard, Charles A. Whitney, George W. Quintard, and Richard Jessup Morgan (a grandson). Whitney was the president of the company; Alexander C. Hutchinson was the vice-president. Both held proxies from the Morgan family shareholders to manage the company. The ML&TRSC continued to expand westward, reaching Lafayette by 1879. The company continued to operate under the goals that he established, and it was finally acquired by Southern Pacific Railroad in 1883. The railroad company persisted through 1885. Ultimately the development of the railroads severely diminished the role of coastal steamships; however, the railroad part of the enterprise remained valuable. Collis P. Huntington and Jay Gould emerged as dominant railroad developers in the region. Though Texas law prohibited interstate railroads, Huntington leased Texas railroads to bring them into the Southern Pacific Railroad system. Some of these included segments of the ML&TRSC in Texas and Louisiana. Morgan's legacy is preserved with the 1876 renaming of Brashear to Morgan City, Louisiana, and in the Morgan School, a high school in Clinton, Connecticut, for which Morgan donated land and capital. References Bibliography 1795 births 1878 deaths 19th-century American railroad executives People from Clinton, Connecticut Businesspeople from New York City Ship owners American businesspeople in shipping American Civil War industrialists American slave owners Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery