MORRIS FAMILY

The following family biographical note was scanned from the Hood County Genealogical Society Newsletter No. 8;   November 1985
Editor: Merle Mcneese

MORRIS FAMILY            by Jeanell  Morris


Thomas Jefferson Morris and Gloria Smith Morris my great-grandparents came to Texas from Alabama, some time around 1846.  My grandfather, Burr Wilson Morris was born in Texas that year.   In 1847 T.J. Morris is listed on the tax rolls in Cherokee County,  Texas. He is listed each year after that until 1853, when both
he and Glorvina are listed. The next year only Glorvina is listed  as property owner. I assume it was during the year 1853 thatThomas J. died. In 1856, according to Cherokee County, marriage  records, Glorvina Morris married Charnel Hightower. Sometime  shortly thereafter they moved to Hood County, Texas (then Johnson  County) for they are listed on the 1860 census and had two children.

My grandfather, Burr Wilson Morris, was about ten or twelve years  old when his mother and step-father moved to Hood County. He enlisted in the Civil War when he was fifteen. After the war he came back to Hood County. He also spent time in Ellis County, Texas where he met and married Julia Ann Craig in 1871. This was the same year that the city of Granbury was established and the
young couple became prominent in the establishment of the town.

B.W. Morris served as Tax Collector and then as Sheriff from 1882-1894.  In 1895 he was elected to the House of Representatives and spent one term in the State Legislature. After spending so many years in local and state government, he opened a grocery store, which was the stone building behind the First National Bank, and
later a dry goods store on the North side of the square. At one time he had a store in Neri, Moran and Granbury.

Burr and Julia Ann had nine children: Alonzo (Lon), Sam, Walter, Royal (died infancy), Charlie, Lucy, Thomas, Jake, Emma and Lottie.

by Jeanell  Morris