Morrison-Q Genealogical Association Inc

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Tony Morrison was the youngest child and fifth son of John Andrew Morrison I and Grace Jory Morrison.

Tony was born March 4, 1909, in Hood County, Texas. He grew up working on his father’s farm and attended the Tolar High School, four miles away, graduating in 1927. His grades were good, but he excelled in History. He enrolled in John Tarleton Agricultural College in Stephenville, Texas, in the fall of 1927 and graduated with an Associate’s Degree in Agriculture in 1929. He was the first in his family to obtain any kind of college degree.

Graduating into the Great Depression, he did a variety of things between 1929 and 1935 in an attempt to get a start in life. He worked on his father’s farm, taught school, spent two seasons working on a Kansas wheat farm, and worked as a refinery pipeliner and a dairy hand. In 1931, he married Grace Iowa Long, his sweetheart since childhood. They lived for a while with his parents. In 1933, they obtained a dual teaching assignment in an eight grades local school, she teaching the first four grades and he the fifth through the eighth. Tony continued teaching during the 1934-1935 school year, while Grace was pregnant with their first – and only – child.

When the 1935 school year was completed, Tony, Grace, and the boy, who was then six months old, piled their few possessions into an A Model Ford and moved to Beaumont, where Tony’s oldest living brother, Frank, was starting a wholesale grocery company. Tony worked as the lone warehouseman, deliveryman, and salesman during the beginning years of the company. As it grew, he became a full time salesman. While not a natural, his friendly interest in almost everyone and everything made him a successful salesman.

Starting with few assets, Tony and Grace rented a small apartment, then a duplex, and by 1940, a house, where they lived until 1949. They bought a lot in 1947, bought a house and moved it to the lot, then renovated it. Since their rental house was rent controlled at $20/month, they rented their new home for $75/month, applying the difference to pay off the loans they owed to his mother and sister-in-law. In 1949, they moved to the house and had paid the property off before Tony died.

Tony was a good man and a good father. He spent many hours with his only son, threw him passes, flew kites with him, hit fly balls and played catch, and attended baseball and football games with him. Tony was an avid domino player and taught his son to count and add sums at the domino table.

The only child was named for Tony’s father:

• John Andrew Morrison II

Tony yearned to return to his original home, and visited there as often as possible; Grace and John along with him, happy to be with their many relatives who lived in that area, southwest of Fort Worth.

Tony died of a heart attack on August 29, 1961, at the age of 52. His funeral in Beaumont, Texas, and the graveside service at Tolar, Texas, were attended by his many business associates and friends in both places. He and Grace are buried at the Tolar Cemetery.

Grace lived on for 32 years after Tony died. She passed away on August 24, 1993, in Granbury, Texas.

Tony and Grace in summer 1961

John and Tony at domino table

The first John Andrew Morrison was probably born in Gordon County, Georgia; he was the eldest child of Z. C. and Mattie Boyd Morrison.

John grew up as a farmer’s son, but he was fascinated by the railroad. Shortly after 1885, his father sold railroad and telegraph right-of-way through the farm owned by his grandfather. John watched the railroad being built and must have been taken by the idea of being an engineman. Later, his dream came true; he was hired as an engine fireman on the Marietta and North Georgia Railroad. The line ran from Marietta, north of Atlanta, to Etowah, Tennessee, north of Chattanooga. The railroad entered Tennessee through the ore rich Copper Basin. He must have had layovers in Ducktown; he met his future wife, Florence Grace Jory, who lived nearby; before either was 19 years old, they married on May 19, 1874. Just a tad more than nine months later they were parents.

In 1896, John and Grace decided to move to Texas; John’s father and the rest of his family moved about the same time. John and Grace lived in a log cabin in Erath County for about two years on the farm of a cousin, Will Gordon. Their second child, a daughter, was born there in 1897. Then the two decided to return to Tennessee and railroading. They lived in Polk County near Grace’s people. Another daughter and son were born there; while the little boy was still an infant they returned to Texas, this time to stay. Asked why he quit the railroad, John told his son, Sid, “The boiler was cracked and couldn’t keep steam up; the railroad wouldn’t repair the boiler, and it was working me to death.” So they returned to farming.

By 1904, the family had bought a farm in Hood County, about nine miles from the county seat, Granbury. John was given a two loans by his father’s cousin, Dr. Joe Gordon, and used the money to buy first, 40 acres; then, later on, 32 1/2 additional acres. He repaid the loans in about 10 years. The sandy soil was suitable for cotton, but during the 1920s, the depredations of the boll weevil drove them to cultivate peanuts instead, which remained the principal crop in that area until the 1970’s.

John and Grace had seven children, five sons and two daughters:

• John Benton (Jack), who died in a spinal meningitis epidemic while working in a mine in Bisbee, Arizona, at the age of 21.
• Ella Mae, who married Robert Schoonover
• Carrie Edna, who married Henry Vest
• Frank William, who married Ardis Caffall
• James Young, who married Lillah Mae Deaver
• Sidney Maxwell, who married Susie Iola McInroe
• Tony Dawson, who married Grace Iowa Long

John was a hard worker and a thrifty farmer. The family lived in a one and a half story farm home about four miles from the nearest town, and reared their children to be equally hard workers. John was hale, hearty, and seemingly healthy until 1931, when he suffered a stroke. He lived two more years, dying on May 12, 1933.

Grace remained on the farm until 1940 when she sold it. Grace lived 31 years after John’s death, passing away in Dallas on March 23, 1964.

John and Grace and their sons in 1927

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.

Z. C. Morrison and Mattie

Z. C. Morrison and Sons

Andrew Morrison was born in Rutherford County, North Carolina, on May 10, 1813. He was the tenth child and seventh son of John and Mary Morrison. He inherited 100 acres from his father, to be his after his mother’s death. Nothing is known of his activities until after 1830, when he began to be active in community affairs, such as laying out and building roads and serving as a juror.

On either the 23rd or 24th of September in 1835, Andrew married Elizabeth Adaline Wilson, aged 18, daughter of a neighbor on Cane Creek, Samuel P. Wilson and his wife Sarah (Watson) Wilson. They continued to live in Rutherford County until after 1838, when they left with an infant daughter for Georgia. In 1840 they were in Habersham County, Georgia; the census of that year shows their small family contained two daughters. Not long after 1840 they were again on the move, finally settling in Gilmer (later Pickens) County, Georgia, where an older brother, James, was living. They lived there the rest of Andrew’s life, on a farm near the Old Federal Road (now Georgia 5) and the town of Talking Rock.

To Elizabeth and Andrew were born nine children, as follows:

• Mary Elizabeth, who married James Anderson Stephens
• Sarah C., who married, first, William Gordon, and second, Abraham W. Huffman
• Adolfus L., unmarried
• Francis James, unmarried
• John Poston, died in infancy
• Robert Andrew, died at the age of three
• Jerome Decatur, died in infancy
• Zelotes Columbus, who married Martha Jane Boyd
• Florence Arrillia, who married Thomas B. Griffith

The Civil War came to this family in 1861, when Adolfus joined a Georgia regiment shortly after the first battle of Bull Run. He served with the Army of Northern Virginia until he was killed at Petersburg, Virginia, in the summer of 1864. In the early months of 1862, Frank volunteered with many other Georgians; he was a member of the 43rd Georgia Infantry, and fought with the Army of Tennessee until he was killed at Jonesboro, Georgia, in September of 1864. Six sons had been born to Andrew and Elizabeth. Only one lived to have a family.

Andrew served as a Judge of the Inferior Court of Pickens County for about a year after the Civil War ended. He resigned without any reason given in the minutes. He and Elizabeth reared their grandsons Joe and Will Gordon after the death of their parents. Later on they helped with Joe and Will’s half-brother, Frank Huffman. Andrew farmed his land until the early 1880’s, when he turned the responsibility to his son and executor, Columbus. Andrew died on December 9, 1885. Columbus managed the family land and other property and settled the estate; only three of the nine children were still living upon Andrew’s death: Columbus, Mary, and Florence. Andrew is buried in Jasper, Georgia, across the state highway from the First Methodist Church.

In 1896, Columbus left Georgia for Texas, taking his elderly mother with him. She lived almost ten years there, dying in Hood County, Texas, on June 24, 1906. She is buried at the Rock Church Cemetery in Hood County.

John Morrison is believed to be the third son of William, Sen, and Mary Morrison of Burke County, North Carolina. John was born, according to family tradition, on October 7, 1764; the place of birth was probably Rowan County, North Carolina.

John can first be found in public records when he served as a chain bearer when a land grant issued to his father was surveyed March 4, 1780 (entry number 1369, 640 acres, South Muddy Creek). He is subsequently invisible from public records until 1790 and thereafter. He is statistically present as one of the five males who were members of the household of William Morrison Sen in the Burke County, Morgan District, first census of the United States. Later in the 1790’s, he can be viewed from time to time in the Burke County Court Minutes, serving on road juries and trial juries. He received two land grants from the State of North Carolina in Burke County, the first in 1795 and the latter in 1799. The land grants were probably in the part of Burke County that is now McDowell County.

It is possible that John was a militia member who fought at the Battle of King’s Mountain. That is stated by Sudie Hood in a family document, who said in reference to the battle, “John, the younger son, celebrated his 16th birthday by engaging in this battle.” In letters to Lyman Draper, Dr. William Twitty of North Carolina, said that John Morrison was present at a skirmish against the British on Cane Creek (in either Burke or Rutherford County) and that he was also present at the Battle of King’s Mountain. He is not mentioned in the official records of the participants at the battle.

John married Mary Margaret (Erwin?) about 1791. In 1802, he bought 300 acres of land in Rutherford County, and it appears this was his principal residence thereafter. It is likely that he inherited some of his father’s lands and kept his land grant properties in Burke County; his 1826 will conveyed “the farms” where his three eldest sons lived to each of them. All three lived in Burke County when they appeared in the census records after they were adults. He conveyed land in Rutherford County to each of his five younger sons. John can be identified in the records of both Burke and Rutherford Counties after 1800.

John and Mary had eleven children who survived to adulthood. They were, in order of birth:

• Francis, who married Elizabeth Dysart
• William, who married, first, Cynthia Black, and second, Susannah Queen
• James, who married Rachel Patton
• Mary, who married William Johnson Long
• Catharine, who married Elijah Patton Watson
• John (an apparent bachelor, (no record of him after 1835)
• Robert P., who married Charity Andrews
• Thomas, who married Elizabeth Robinson
• Elizabeth, a spinster
• Andrew P., who married Elizabeth A. Wilson
• Joseph, who married Dorothy Whitesides

John died in December, 1826. His Rutherford County will is on record, and names each of his children. The will reveals he had extensive lands, given to his male children; he also gave each of his three daughters generous dowries, consisting of horses and tack, beds and other household furnishings, as well as $200 in cash. Mary lived on the home farm the rest of her life, dying before December, 1843.

Both John and Mary, and presumably their children, were Presbyterians. It is likely that both John and Mary are buried in the cemetery at the Brittain Presbyterian Church in Rutherford County, North Carolina.

William Morrison, Sen, and his wife Mary (maiden name unknown), were the founders of the Morrison family of Burke County, North Carolina.

William was probably born in Pennsylvania in the early 1730’s. The couple married (again,
probably) shortly after 1750. It is likely that the marriage took place in North Carolina, their ultimate home. Rowan County was their residence as early as 1757 (perhaps earlier). By 1778, they lived in the newly organized county of Burke. They acquired several land grants in Burke County, and probably lived in its southern extremity on the South branch of Muddy Creek, which would place them in present day McDowell County.

William served in several responsible positions in Burke County. In 1779 he was a state representative. In the early 1780’s, he served on a commission to determine the site of the court house in Rutherford County. Later he served as an arbiter when the commission to determine the site of the county court in Buncombe could not come to a decision. He served at least two terms as Sheriff of Burke County during the 1780’s and may have served at least one term in the 1790’s.

William and Mary had a large family. At least ten children reached adulthood. They were, in approximate order of birth:

• James, born ca. 1754, married Elizabeth (Campbell?)
• William, born 1757, married Rachel Patton
• Margaret, married Elijah Patton, Sen
• John, married Mary Margaret (Erwin?)
• Andrew, married Mary Armstrong
• Jane, married a man named Pyett
• Elizabeth, a spinster
• Daughter, married Joseph Wilson
• Daughter, married John Templeton

During the American Revolution, William was a Patriot. He swore allegiance to the State of North Carolina, then in rebellion against Great Britain, when he served as a state representative in 1779. There is some evidence that he was a militia officer during the revolution.

William died in 1807, leaving a will which was probably destroyed when Burke County records were torched by Federal troops during the Civil War. His will was identified in Burke County Court Minutes; it was witnessed by Joseph Wilson and Thomas Morrison. His executor was John Morrison, who gave account of William’s possessions, which amounted to only a Negro slave and a rifle gun. It seems likely that his extensive lands had been conveyed to his heirs before his death.

Mary, in keeping with the laws of the time, was invisible to court records until after William’s death. She first appears on Burke County tax rolls in 1808. Shortly after 1810, Mary moved with her daughters, Elizabeth and (unknown) Templeton, and her son-in-law John Templeton, to Tennessee. Her will was written in 1813, and is on record in Williamson County, Tennessee. She may have survived until 1816.