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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Crittenden County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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G. F. Morris, a descendant of the well-known pioneer settlers of this county, whose name he bears, was born in 1857, and is the oldest of a family of three children born to the union of C. F. and Mississippi H. (Fogleman) Morris. His maternal grandfather, G. S. Fogleman, came to this county in a keel-boat from Ohio, about 1824, when land that is now worth from $6 to $8 per acre could have been purchased for ten cents. After locating here he followed the occupation of a wood chopper, and, not being able to buy a team, he and his wife carried the wood on their backs to the boat landing. After laboring in this manner for some time he bought a team, and from such an humble start was enabled before long to hire hands and contract on a larger scale, and he finally commenced buying negroes, at the time of his death owning sixty-five negro men besides a number of women and children. He was also the owner of twenty-one miles front on the Mississippi River, consisting of over 20,000 acres. He died in 1865 and his wife in 1857 or 1858. G. F. Morris and wife were married in 1856, at Fogleman’s Landing, onboard the steamer Kate Frisbey. Mr. Morris, at that time, was a steamboat man at Memphis, Tenn. His father, W. B. Morris, and grandfather were among the early settlers of Sumner County, Tenn., and were manufacturers of paper. W. B. Morris moved to Memphis when it was a village of only a few hundred inhabitants, and engaged in the mercantile business, remaining there till his death. His son, C. F. Morris, was the first steamboat agent at Memphis, and was clerk on the first boat built at that place, which was run in the Memphis and White River trade. Mr. Morris followed steam-boating for twenty years, discontinuing it just before the commencement of the late civil strife. After the war he engaged in farming, his wife having inherited about 17,000 acres of land. He also followed the wood business till the boats began to burn coal. Mr. and Mrs. Morris were the parents of four children of whom two are still living; they are: G. F., Calvin M. (deceased), Cynthia (deceased), Lazinka E. (wife of A. M. Morrow). G. F. Morris was reared in this county and received his education in Memphis, being married, in 1880, to Miss Mary Speck, daughter of Lawrence Speck. Mr. and Mrs. Morris have a family of two children: Oliver W. and Frank K. When the former reached the age of fourteen years he embarked in life for himself in the wood business, which he followed till 1880, then starting as a farmer. This he continued for only a short time and soon secured a position on the Phil. Allen, serving many years as pilot on this boat and the G. W. Cheek. Since leaving the river he has been occupied in the mercantile and saloon business.

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This family biography is one of 82 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Crittenden County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Crittenden County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Crittenden County, Arkansas family biographies here: Crittenden County, Arkansas Biographies

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