Morris Mengis
![Morris Mengis](https://dvy6b4.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/9493E30B-E98E-430B-B094-49C67EF2B5A0_1_201_a-756x1024.jpeg)
Admitted from Bayou Sara, Louisiana by his widowed step-father when the Home opened in 1856, Morris Mengis (sometimes Menges) exasperated the board with his “want of subordination.” Discharged six years later at age 14 as a jeweler’s apprentice, Mengis served as a drummer in the Confederate army and went on to win fame and fortune in Baltimore and New York as a hotelier, inventor and holder of 7 patents, winner of a $1 million verdict in 1905 against railroad tycoons, a gambler, and thoroughbred horse owner. He died in 1921 at his home in Brooklyn and was buried in New York’s historic Green-Wood Cemetery. Photos courtesy of Mengis’s granddaughter, the late Roberta Wade.
![2F80076F-7C0A-493F-B5A9-2B4066FE123B_1_105_c a sketch of a bathtub on white background.](https://dvy6b4.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2F80076F-7C0A-493F-B5A9-2B4066FE123B_1_105_c.jpeg)
![87F9CFFE-A5E3-4ED1-9C59-D05C5658B3A9_1_105_c Baltimore Wednesday Morning front page](https://dvy6b4.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/87F9CFFE-A5E3-4ED1-9C59-D05C5658B3A9_1_105_c.jpeg)
![19C9E703-6252-41B3-8991-E252B814E94D_1_105_c a man checking files in the office.](https://dvy6b4.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/19C9E703-6252-41B3-8991-E252B814E94D_1_105_c.jpeg)