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Born: February 12, 1831
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Died: May 1, 1878
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Complete HarpWeek Biography:
John Morrissey was a prizefighter, gambling house proprietor, congressman,
and a leading figure in the Democratic machine politics of New York City and
State. He was born in Templemore, Ireland, to Julia (or Mary; maiden name
unknown) Morrissey and Timothy Morrissey, a factory worker. In 1834, the
Morrissey family immigrated to Canada, and then moved to Troy, New York. As a
youth in Troy, Morrissey was employed briefly by an iron works and a wallpaper
factory. As a member of street gangs, and leader of a gang called the Downtowns,
he was involved in numerous brawls. When at age 17, he single-handedly defeated
six boys from the rival gang, the Uptowns, he started to think about becoming a
prizefighter. In the meantime, he worked as a deck hand aboard a Hudson River
steamboat. He married the captain’s daughter, Sarah Smith, in 1849; their only
offspring died in childhood.
In 1849, Morrissey ventured to New York City to challenge prizefighter
Charley Duane. When Duane ignored him, and no other prizefighters were present
at Isaiah Rynder’s Empire Club saloon, Morrissey took on the house in
fisticuffs. Rynders, a Tammany Hall politician, was so impressed that he hired
Morrissey as a “shoulder hitter” (a fighter who enforced the will of a
political-machine boss by intimidation or violence). Morrissey was nicknamed
“Old Smoke” after a saloon brawl in which he and his opponent knocked over a
stove and Morrissey was pinned over the coals, with smoke from his smoldering
clothes permeating the room. Morrissey persevered to win the fight.
In 1851, Morrissey journeyed to California, where he won a lot of money
gambling and first appeared as a professional prizefighter, earning a $4,000
purse and $1,000 from a side bet. He was unsuccessful, though, in his attempt to
conquer the gold-rich Queen Charlotte Islands, off the coast of British
Columbia, with an armed schooner and a crew of hoodlums. Back in New York in
1853, Morrissey became the boxing “Champion of America” by defeating Yankee
Sullivan in 37 rounds. (At the time, prizefights were bare-knuckle events, with
rounds lasting until one man fell down, and the match ending only when one boxer
could did not return on his feet to the center of the ring.)
Working again for Tammany Hall, Morrissey organized a gang of
shoulder-hitters, which primarily battled Bill Poole's American Party
(Know-Nothing) gang. In July 1854, Poole defeated Morrissey in a boxing match.
Street fights between the two gangs continued, resulting in the deaths of
several members, including Poole in March 1855. Morrissey was charged with the
murder, but released. In a well-publicized prizefight in October 1858, Morrissey
defeated John “Benicia Boy” Heenan at Long Point, Canada, before a crowd of
2,000, and pocketed $5,000 from a side bet. After the Heenan bout, Morrissey
retired from the boxing ring as the champion.
Morrissey became the owner of several successful saloons and gambling houses,
paying the police to ignore his illegal gambling operations, and reportedly
earning a million-dollar profit within five years. He invested his money in real
estate and, in 1863, the Saratoga Springs racing track, where he helped
revitalize horseracing in the Civil War North. Morrissey also turned his
attention to politics in a more serious way. In 1866, he was elected as a
Democrat to the first of two terms in Congress (1867-1871). He broke with
Tammany Hall’s boss, William M. Tweed, and did not seek reelection in 1870. In
the mid-1870s, he battled Tweed’s successor, John Kelly, for control of the
Democratic Party in New York City, taking part in the establishment of a rival
political machine, Irving Hall (nicknamed the Swallowtails). In 1875 and 1877,
Morrissey was elected to the state senate, where he served until his death on
May 1, 1878.
Sources consulted:
American National Biography; Biographical Dictionary of the United States
Congress; Oliver Allen, The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall; Foster
Rhea Dulles, America Learns to Play; and, Steven A. Reiss, Sport in Industrial
America: 1850-1920. |
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