Santa
Clara County
Biographies
HIRAM CLIFFORD MORRELL
The better class of early-day miners always
admitted that the crucial test of character came when the gold digger
reluctantly laid aside his pick and acknowledged to himself
that the incentive which brought him from a peaceful if simple home in the east
had proved a snare and a delusion. To face about from the rude camp, with its
fortunes for the few and its disappointments for the many, and, among
strangers, seek some plodding, patience-compelling occupation,
required not only courage, but a relentless dealing with unavoidable
circumstances. There was little romance connected with the situation, and it
made or unmade a man, according to his bringing up and his ability to adjust
himself to changed conditions. Yet from just this starting point have come the
majority of the successful men on the coast to-day, or at least the men who
have been the most potent influences in their respective centers of activity.
Belonging to this class is Hiram Clifford Morrell, for years one of the most
energetic lumbermen in this section, and equally at home at fruit raising on
his well-equipped ranch near Wrights.
Mr. Morrell comes form the state of
Maine, where his grandfather, Josiah, lived and died, and where his father,
Ephraim, spent his entire life. Ephraim Morrell was a farmer and well known
local character of the vicinity of Waterville, Kennebee
county, also somewhat of a politician, serving as supervisor for a number of
years. He married Ascah Clifford, a native of Maine,
who died in 1889, at the age of sixty-eight, his own death occurring in 1896.
There were eight children in the family, and Hiram, the fifth child, was born
on the Kennebee county farm April 25, 1835. He
received the average schooling of his time and place, and probably would have
become an expert machinist had not a desire to make a quick fortune in the west
terminated his apprenticeship. Leaving home in the spring of 1854, he came by
way of Panama, arriving in San Francisco November 30, 1854. His mining
experiences covered a year and were conducted in Placer county, where he
doubtless had opportunity to learn much of lumbering, to which he turned his
attention for many subsequent years. Three years in the woods of Placer county and one in the vicinity of Humboldt Bay brought him
to 1859, the year he was identified with Santa Clara county. Locating above Los
Gatos, on the creek of that name, he prosecuted a successful lumber business in
Santa Cruz county until 1900. Meanwhile, in 1867, Mr.
Morrell purchased his present home, and in connection with lumbering placed his
land to fruit, the growth and success of which he has since watched with
unremitting interest. Three years before buying his home he renounced single
blessedness, marrying, November 15, 1864, Clara R. Burrell, born in Elyria,
Lorain county, Ohio, June 30, 1845. Her father Lyman J. Burrell,
came to California in 1849, locating on a farm in Santa Clara county in 1853.
His family came around Cape Horn in 1853. Five children have been born into
this thrifty and well regulated home: Lizzie M., H. Clifford, Jr., Jesse B,
Minnie C., and Albert E. Mr. Morrell comes from a Democratic family but
invariably votes the Republican ticket. Politics have never appealed to him as
of absorbing interest, and for this reason he has given his undivided attention
to his immediate business, and to the making of a happy home for his family.
Broad-minded and liberal in his grasp of general information, Mr. Morrell has proved himself of
sterling material, to the interest of the fruit business, and has
conscientiously and intelligently met the problems whose solving has placed him
among the honored citizens and upbuilders of Santa
Clara county.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast
Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1286-1287. The
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.