Morris Belknap | |
|---|---|
 Portrait, before 1910 | |
| Born | Morris Burke Belknap June 7, 1856 |
| Died | April 13, 1910 (aged 53) |
| Resting place | Cave Hill Cemetery |
| Alma mater | Yale University |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Vice-president of Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company; nominee for governor of Kentucky |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouses | Lily Buckner
(m. 1883; died 1893)Marion S. Dumont (m. 1900) |
| Children | 4 |
| Parents |
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| Relatives | Simon Bolivar Buckner (father-in-law) |
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Morris Burke Belknap (June 7, 1856 – April 13, 1910), also known as Colonel Morris Burke Belknap, was an American businessman from Louisville, Kentucky.
After earning a degree from Yale University in 1877, Belknap worked at his father's hardware company. Later, he co-founded an agricultural implement company. In 1883, he married Lily Buckner, with whom he fathered four children. Following the death of his father, Belknap became vice-president of his hardware company, a position which he held for the rest of his life. Buckner died in 1893, and he married Marion S. Dumont in 1900.
In addition to his business career, Belknap served in the Kentucky State Guard, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1898, during the Spanish–American War, he served briefly in Puerto Rico prior to the end of hostilities. He was promoted to colonel before his honorable discharge in 1899.
Belknap was the Republican nominee for governor of Kentucky in the 1903 gubernatorial election. He campaigned on his business experience and opposition to policies of the incumbent governor, J. C. W. Beckham, whom Belknap lost the election to. Afterward, Belknap spent his later life involved in a variety of civil and religious organizations. In 1910, he died of pernicious anemia, a condition which is believed to have been worsened by a mysterious ailment he contracted while in Puerto Rico.