1925 Biography - Oliver B. Morton

Oliver Bradley Morton, active vice president of the Ouachita National Bank at Monroe, has earned a high degree of esteem in that parish not only as a banker, but as a citizen. He has been identified with banking continuously for nearly thirty years, his capacity for work and individual qualifications for financial enterprise putting him eventually into Some of the most important responsibilities in the banking affairs of Northern Louisiana.

Mr. Morton was born at Marion, in Perry County, Alabama, in 1876, and was five years of age when in 1881 his parents moved to Louisiana. Since 1892 his home has been in Ouachita Parish. He acquired a Public school education, and in 1895 at the age of eighteen Went to work as a collector or runner for the Ouachita National Bank. The Ouachita National Bank, when organized in 1887, was the only bank in northern Louisiana outside of Shreveport. Its original capital was $50,000, Mr. Morton held several positions of increasing responsibilities with the bank, and was its cashier when in April, 1907, a merger was effected between the Ouachita National and Monroe National Bank, retaining the name Ouachita National. This increased the capital to $200 000, with surplus of $100,000. The Monroe National Bank had been established in 1889, two years after the Ouachita National. As cashier of the consolidated bank, Mr. Morton continued until September, 1918, when he resigned to organize the Citizens National Bank, becoming its active vice president. On February 28, 1921, by mutual agreement, a second consolidation was effected between the Ouachita National and the Citizens National, the consolidated bank again retaining the name and title of the other institution. Since this consolidation Mr. Morton has resumed his service with the old bank and has been its active vice president. He had been cashier of the Ouachita National from June, 1901, to September, 1918.

While most of his time has been taken up with his work as a banker, Mr. Morton served several years as treasurer of Ouachita Parish, and has been a liberal supporter of all activities tending towards the advancement and betterment of his community. He is a Knight of Pythias and a member of the Rotary Club. His religious association is fittingly expressed through his membership in the First Baptist Church, in which he is senior deacon, and where he has served or many years as treasurer and superintendent __ time Sunday school.

In 1904 Mr. Morton married Miss Daisy Roberts, a native of Biloxi, Mississippi, and to them have been born four children, of whom three survive, namely: Mildred, Dorothy, and O. B., Jr.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, page 229.