Zelotes Columbus Morrison, known as Columbus when he lived in Georgia, and Z. C. after he moved to Texas in 1896, was the sixth and only son of Andrew and Elizabeth (Wilson) Morrison who lived to marry and have children. The others perished as young children and in the Civil War.
Z. C. was born November 7, 1853, in Pickens County, Georgia. He was the son of a farmer. He met and married Martha Jane Boyd in neighboring Gordon County, Georgia, where an older brother of Martha lived. The marriage took place on December 30, 1874. Z. C. probably lived in Gordon County from the time of his marriage until shortly before his father died in 1885. His eldest daughter, Mattie Clyde (Clytie), died in September, 1882 and was buried in Gordon County.
While in Georgia, Z. C. farmed and managed, with a partner, some kind of business. Family tradition holds that the partner absconded with the money, bankrupting the business. The same tradition says that he paid all the creditors. Shortly after 1885, Z. C. sold railway and telegraph right-of-way through Andrew’s farmland to the Marietta and North Georgia Railroad, being built from Marietta, Georgia, to Etowah, Tennessee. The timber railroad bridge in the town of Jasper is still in use. The last ten years in Georgia, Z. C. was busy running his father’s farm, serving as his father’s executor and as the head of the family of two sisters and their children, as well as a foster father for a nephew, Howard Griffith. During that time, he bought and sold property on behalf of himself, three cousins in Texas, and both sisters and their heirs.
In 1896, having taken care of his family’s business, he and Mattie, their three youngest children, and his mother, Betty Wilson Morrison, moved to Hood County, Texas; Howard Griffith traveled with them, Z. C. being his guardian. The eldest son, John, already married, traveled independently to Texas. In the town of Paluxy, Texas, lived a cousin, Dr. Joseph Gordon. Z. C. chose that place to live, and farmed there until after 1900. He then moved near the county seat of Granbury, and bought a farm near the Brazos River. He lived there the rest of his life. Z. C. was elected County Clerk in 1909 and served three terms, until 1914. Other than that, he was a “gentleman” farmer until age caused him to retire completely.
Z. C. and Mattie’s children were:
- John Andrew Morrison I, who married Florence Grace Jory.
- Frank Boyd, who married Fannie Wilson
- Mattie Clyde, who died in infantcy
- Elizabeth Mae, who married Arthur F. (Bud) Larned
- Addie Amazon, a spinster
In 1920, Mattie Boyd Morrison died, after being in poor health for some years. Z. C. survived her by some ten years, dying on March 3, 1930. They are buried in the Granbury City Cemetery, together with their Granbury family, Frank, Betty, Addie, and many of their grandchildren.
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