Source: History of Bureau County 1885

Transcribed by Denise McLoughlin

Tampico Area Historical Society

http://www.tampicohistoricalsociety.citymax.com

Page 599

JOSEPH MORRISON, Princeton, was born in Union Township, Belmont co., Ohio, August 16. 1806. His father, Arthur MORRISON, , was born April 1, 1770, in Adams County,Penn.; he died September 3, 1839, in Belmont County, Ohio. He was a tanner and farmer by occupation. The grandfather of our subject was John MORRISON, who was a native of Pennsylvania, but his father was a Scotchman. Mr. MORRISON'S mother was Grezzell McCORMICK. She was born in 1776, in Pennsylvania, and died May 16, 1846, in Belmont County, Ohio. She was the mother of fourteen children, of whom ten reached maturity. Of these six are now living: Mrs. Martha CERR, Samuel, Joseph, Arthur, Mrs. Jane McCORMICK and Robert. The family is noted for longevity, the average age of three now living being eighty-two years. Our subject received his early education in a log schoolhouse in Belmont County, Ohio, where he afterward followed tanning and merchandising. In the spring of 1849, when the news of the discovery of the gold mines of California reached the East, Mr. MORRISON more from a desire of seeing the West that to hunt for gold, joined a party of sixty-five men, and with them crossed the plains with teams and wagons. They were nearly four months in reaching the gold fields. Before leaving the East he formed a stock company with eight men, one of whom died on the plains. The other eight men worked together one year in the gold fields and were successful. After the first year a part of them reorganized and worked another year. In the spring of 1851 Mrs MORRISON returned to Ohio, where he lived one year, and then came to Bureau county, Ill., settling in Dover Township. He farmed till the spring of 1877, since which he has resided in Princeton, where he is living a retired yet by no means idle life, enjoying the fruit of a successful business career. Mr. MORRISON was married March 10, 1881, in Belmont County, Ohio, to Miss Ann J. THOMPSON, who was born August 22, 1884. She was a daughter of Samuel THOMPSON, a native of Ireland, and a Captain in the war of 1812. He mother, Ann J. Lundy, was also of Irish extraction, Mrs. MORRISON was the mother of eleven children. Of these two died in infancy, Cyrus died at the age of fourteen, and another son, Hugh A., reached maturity. He was a gallant soldier in our late war, fighting till the close, after which he was sent with his regiment, the Second Illinois, to Texas, where he stayed till January, 1866, when he came home. About 1870 he entered the services of Gen. DODGE, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and with the General went to Texas, where he was in his employ till his death from lung fever, which occurred November 18, 1874. The names of the living children are: Mrs. Mary GARTON, Mrs. Grezzella HONN, Mrs. Frances BUTTS, Mrs. Sophia EMMERSON, Thomas C. (now a farmer in Nebraska), Julius (a farmer in Kansas) and Maggie. Mr. MORRISON is an active member of the Presbyterian Church. He is connected with the Republican party. From the last ten years Mr. MORRISON has traveled considerably, visiting all the States except three, and all the Territories except three. His two brothers, Samuel and Robert, are residents of California, and to that State he has been twice since he was there digging for gold. At present Mr. MORRISON is one of the Directors of the Farmers National Bank.