WILLIAM E. MORRISON

A successful and popular representative of the agricultural industry in Antrim county is Mr. Morrison, who is one of the sterling pioneers of this section of the state and who has here attained to popularity through his own efforts.  Mr. Morrison is a native of the province of Ontario, Canada, having been born in Elgin county, on the 22d of March, 1846, and being a son of Duncan and Margaret (Leach) Morrison, both of whom were born and reared in Scotland, whence they came to America when comparatively young, the father (Duncan Morrison) having been employed in quarries in his native land, while he identified himself with agricultural pursuits after locating in Canada, where he remained until 1868, when  he came to Kalkaska county, Michigan, Duncan being summoned to is reward in the year 1900, his devoted wife (Margaret) having passed away in 1866. Of their ten children, eight are still living as of 1905.

The subject (William E. Morrison) was reared on the old homestead farm and secured his educational training in the common schools.  He continued to reside in Canada until he had reached the age of twenty-two years, when he came to Michigan and located first in Grand Traverse county, where he remained but a short interval, removing thence to  Kalkaska county and finally to Antrim county, where he took up his abode in 1868, having thus made this section his home for nearly two score of years.

He found  employment in connection with the great lumbering industry, which was then the principal field of activity in this portion of the state, having been for a number of years in the employ of the Dexter & Noble Company, and later being similarly engaged with the Elk Rapids Iron Company, with which he remained a long term of years, having been employed during the greater portion of the time as an operative in sawmills.

In the mean while he secured a tract of land in Elk Rapids township, about two and a half miles south of the town of same name, and here he has resided since 1891. His farm comprises eighty-two acres of most arable and productive land, practically all being under effective cultivation, while the permanent improvements are of substantial order, including an attractive residence, good barns, etc. Mr. Morrison gives his attention to diversified farming and has made his enterprise a most successful one, while he is held in high regard in the community in which he has so long lived and labored.

In politics he is a stanch adherent of the Republican party, and both he and his wife are attendants of the Presbyterian church. . In the year 1879 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Morrison to Miss Jennie Autherson, daughter of Charles and Mary (Gillen) Autherson, and the six children of this union still remain at the parental home at the time of this writing, their names, in order of birth, being as follows: Charles G., Margaret I. (Mrs. Fitch Roberts Williams), Earl A., Glen L., Mary E. and William Scott.

Title: Biographical history of Northern Michigan, containing biographies of prominent pioneer citizens ...Publication date: 1905.