My Genealogy Hound

Rev. Robert Morrison, the Presbyterian minister resident at Aurora Springs, Mo., is the son of Thomas and Mary (Jennings) Morrison, both of whom were natives of Western Pennsylvania. His paternal grandfather, Robert Morrison, was of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian stock. He came from the north of Ireland, and settled in Delaware, from which State he went and took part, as a soldier, in the Revolutionary War. After the war was over, at the personal request of Gen. Washington, he removed to Western Pennsylvania, but thought the lands owned by the General, and to which he was entitled, were too much exposed to the Indians, so he bought the celebrated McClung thicket, in Greene County, where he spent the remainder of his days, and where Thomas Morrison was born, as well as Robert, the subject of this sketch. Thence he removed, about 1824, to Central Ohio, in Knox County, then a wilderness. There he opened up a farm, on which he spent the remainder of his life, some fifty years, and where the younger members of the family were born. Robert worked and helped to clear up the farm, and in the winter time attended such schools as were in the neighborhood. Later, he graduated at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, President Harrison’s Alma Mater. After graduation Mr. Morrison taught in Poplar Grove Academy, in Middle Tennessee, as its principal. Subsequently for one year he attended the theological seminary at New Albany, Ind., and his last year was at Princeton, N. J. In 1854 he was licensed to preach by the Louisville Presbytery, and, as city missionary, organized the Portland Avenue Presbyterian Church, now one of the strong city churches. For fourteen years he preached to churches adjacent to Louisville, during which time he was assistant editor of the Presbyterian Herald, and editor and proprietor of the True Presbyterian with the late Rev. Stuart Robinson, D. D. In 1868 he took charge of the church in Waterford, Knox Co., Ohio, conducted also Westminster Academy, and after settling up his father’s estate came, in December, 1876, to Missouri. His first charge in Missouri was at Potosi, where he remained for two years and a half, from which he was called to become financial agent of the Presbyterian College in Fulton, Mo. At this work he spent two years, but succeeded in freeing the college from a $15,000 debt. In August, 1881, Mr. M. came to Aurora Springs to rest a month with his family, after his two years’ work without an intermission. His tent was pitched among the trees, some seventy-five yards northeast of the Virginia House. On the first Sunday after his arrival he organized a Union Sunday-school, under some trees in about the center of the park. That school has lived ever since, and is now flourishing, and Mr. M. has been actively connected with it ever since its beginning, for though at first he came to stay but a month, he is still there. In March, 1883, he, with Rev. W. B. Y. Wilkie, of Columbia, Mo., organized the First Presbyterian Church of the Springs, in a large edifice, which he had been instrtumental in building, and of which he is still pastor. In 1876 he attended the national convention of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, then meeting in New York, where, as one of the founders of the order in 1848, he was presented with a fine gold-headed cane. This is, by the way, the fraternity to which President Harrison belongs, and whose name is nineteenth on the roll. Mr. Morrison still preaches every Sabbath; one charge is at Big Rock, in Morgan County, the other in Tuscumbia, where he, with Rev. Dr. Charles, organized a Presbyterian Church in December, 1888. In 1872 Mr. Morrison was married to Miss Flora, daughter of Rev. C. C. Bomberger, herself a native of Coshocton County, Ohio, and whose parents were born in Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively. To Mr. and Mrs. M. were born three children: Margery, Mary and Ethel.