Cotton, Morris, 1805-1871.

Morris Cotton (1805-1871), Boston publisher and bookseller, appears to have been the son of John Cotton (1750-1820) and Hannah Lane (1768-1837), both of southeastern New Hampshire. During part of his life, Morris Cotton was a farmer in Gilford, N.H.

Cotton first appeared in Boston in 1851. In January 1852, he replaced George W. Light (1809-1868) as publisher of the Common School Journal, which had been begun in 1838 by Horace Mann (1796-1859). William Bentley Fowle (1795-1865), who published the journal from 1842 to 1849, replaced Mann as its editor in 1848. Cotton published the journal for Fowle until its failure in December 1852. In addition to his activities with this periodical, Cotton published and sold books and pamphlets which were mostly of an educational nature.