San Francisco County
JOHN WHARTON MORRIS
JOHN WHARTON MORRIS, of Oakland, was born in Center county, Pennsylvania, July 11, 1827, a son of William and
Elizabeth (Mitchell) Morris, both natives of that State. The father, a blacksmith and farmer, moved
with his family to Iowa in 1847, and thence to
California in 1860. Settling first in
Placerville, he followed the business of freighting to and from that point for
a year or more, and settled permanently in Clayton, Contra Costa county, in 1862.
There he carried on a livery stable business, was Postmaster, Justice of
the Peace and District Recorder of Mines for some years, enjoying the esteem
and confidence of the community. He died
in 1867, lacking a few days of being sixty-seven years old. His parents lived to an advanced age, the
mother dying in Placerville at the age of eighty-six. The Morris family is believed to have been
settled in Pennsylvania for several generations. The Mitchells were
also of that State, grandmother Mitchell (by birth a
Miss Fox) being of German descent. She
died in Iowa in 1858, at the age of eighty.
Hiram t. Morris, the only brother of J. W. Morris, died in Clayton,
Contra Costa county, California, at the early age of
twenty-five. Three sisters are still
living in this State. The mother, Mrs.
Elizabeth Morris, is deceased.
J. W.
Morris, the only surviving son of his parents, went to school in winter and at
other times helped on the farm from an early age. He following the plow at the age of nine, did “cradling” at thirteen and was an expert in that line
at fifteen. Quitting school at sixteen
he learned the trade of blacksmith from his father, with whom he remained until
the age of twenty-three. In 1850 he
started a shop on his own account in Charleston, Lee county, Iowa, and in 1852
started for California. He was one of a
large train crossing the plains, his immediate party having about twenty
wagons. They came by way of Salt
Lake. About the headwaters of the
Humboldt, Mr. Morris with three comrades, equipping themselves with packs,
struck out for the mines, reaching Downieville
September 17, 1852. Here their first
job, however, was not gold-mining, but the old familiar Eastern work of
wood-chopping. After three weeks so
engaged Mr. Morris went to Johnson’s ranch on Bear river
to work at his trade of blacksmith. Six
months later he embarked with a partner in the hog-raising industry on Deer
creek in Butte county.
In nine months he found his health undermined by malaria, mountain
fever, scurvy and dropsy, arising from the hard usage and privations of pioneer
life, and came down to Oakland, where it took him eleven months to
recover. In December, 1853, he went to
work here at his trade for a year, and then moved to Placerville, where he
engaged in freighting to and from Sacramento.
Before the close of 1855 he was induced to sell his outfit on ten days’
time, which was enough for the buyer to disappear with, leaving Mr. Morris
without a business or cash equivalent.
After a few months partly spent in a vain search for the thief, he went
to driving for another freighter about four months. He then went to work at his trade in
Marysville, finishing the year of 1856 thus engaged. In 1857 he returned to Oakland and opened a shop,
which he carried on until 1859, when he embarked in the business of running a
stage from this city to Martinez and Mount Diablo. Thus occupied about four years, he again
moved to Placerville, where he resumed freighting and opened a livery stable,
remaining to the close of 1864. The next
two years were spend in the employ of the Central Pacific as an assistant to
the superintendent of construction in charge of a band of men employed in
grading. After again running a
blacksmith shop in this city, from 1867 to 1870, he tried farming near Haywards, in the spring of 1870, for one season, when he
returned and started a grocery store, which he conducted for four years. From 1875 to 1878 he was employed in the
United States Mint in San Francisco, and toward the end of 1878 again went to
railroad building in the employ of the Southern Pacific Company. After six months spent in Arizona in charge
of a band of workmen, he was detailed to the work of constructing the Oakland
Mole, in June, 1879, his department being getting out rock at Niles with a
force of about 200 men, shipping ninety carloads a day, averaging fifteen tons
each. In the fall of 1880 he was sent to
Texas, where he worked about a year as a foreman of construction, and then six
months on the Atlantic & Pacific railroad, between Mojave station and the
Needles, being transferred thence to Redding, on the California & Oregon,
for eighteen months; and again to the south to Soledad Canon, always for the
same company. Returning to Oakland he
took a year’s rest and then went back to Soledad, whence he was sent after
three months to Delta, on the California & Oregon, staying until the road
was completed to Ashland, whither it had already been built from Portland, and
was present at the driving of the “golden spike,” December 17, 1887. After a month of finishing work in ballasting,
he left the employ of the company, in January, 1888, and opened the Arlington
Hotel in Ashland, in partnership with Mr. Curtis, to whom he sold his interest
in three months. About the same time he
disposed of some lands he owned in Oregon and has since engaged in no active
business. He still owns 160 acres of
sugar-pine land in Tuolumne county, California.
Mr.
Morris was married in San Francisco, in 1857, to Miss Catherine Landrigan, born in Ireland, February 29, 1832, who had come
to this coast about 1852. Her mother
lived to be over eighty, dying in Ireland in 1889. Mrs. Morris died in this city May 3, 1887,
leaving five children, all born in Oakland, except the youngest, who was born
in Placer county:—Mary Elizabeth and Clarissa Emily, both graduates of the
Oakland High School and of the San Francisco branch of the State Normal School,
are teachers in this city; John Edward, who also received a high-school
education and was graduated from Heald’s Business
College in San Francisco, learned telegraphy and is now manager of the Oakland
office of the Western Union Telegraph Company; Thomas Harvey, a graduate of the
Pacific Business College, learned dentistry in an office in this city for
eighteen months and then took a course in the College of Dentistry of the
University of California, from which he was graduated in 1887, is now
practicing his profession on his own account; Letitia,
a graduate of the Oakland High School and educated for the profession of
teacher in a private establishment, received a teacher’s certificate and has
sometimes taught as a substitute while awaiting permanent assignment. John E. and T. Harvey Morris are both members
of Oakland Parlor, No. 50, N. S. G. W.
Transcribed by Donna L.
Becker.
Source: “The Bay of San
Francisco,” Vol. 2, Pages 657-659,
Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2006 Donna L.
Becker.