| Notes |
- George A. Morison
Posted by Dick Campbell on Fri, 18 Jun 1999
>From the 1907 book by Alvin H. Wilcox, "A Pioneer History of Becker
County Minnesota" chapter XVIII, pages 269-271:
George A. Morison, nephew of William and Allan Morrison, was born in
St. Hyacinthe, Province of Quebec, Canada, October 4th, 1839; his
father being Donald Geo. Morison and his mother M. A. Rosalie
Papineau, daughter of D. B. Papineau, and niece of the Hon. Louis
Papineau, the talented leader of the French element in Canada, and
the principal instigator of the Canadian rebellion of 1837.
Morison attended common schools until nearly ten years of age, then
went to college for five years in his native village, rounding up his
education with a four year term in a large village store.
He visited the west in 1858 and 1859, spending several months in Old
Superior, Wisconsin, in Crow Wing on the Mississippi, and also at
Long Prairie, the old agency for the Winnebago Indians.
That was in the early days, when travel was by canoes or over Indian
trails, and the trip from Superior to Crow Wing was made in a birch
canoe, up the St. Louis River to Floodwood River, which was followed
nearly to its source, thence over a portage into Prairie River, which
flows into Sandy Lake, and thence into he Mississippi River.
He returned to Canada in November, 1859, where he remained a few
years. In May 1865, he landed in St. Paul, Minnesota, and lived in
Little Falls and Crow Wing during the next three or four years.
He started in business at Leech Lake in January, 1869, and in the
fall of the same year came to White Earth annuity payment with a
stock of goods which he eventually closed out to Wm. W. McArthur,
then a licensed Indian trader there. In August, 1870, Morison and
McArthur combined their business and carried on trading in the Indian
country, under government license, at Leech Lake, Red Lake, White
Earth and Otter Tail, under the above firm name, dissolving co-
partnership in August, 1871; Morison retaining all trading posts in
the Chippewa country, except that of Otter Tail, where McArthur
continued in business. Morison remained in the Indian trade until
July, 1880, and made his headquarters at White Earth Agency during
the last five years of his career as an Indian trader. He, however,
continued to live on the reservation, where he carried on farming and
stock raising, on a small scale, with his cousin Allan Morrison, Jr.
In the fall of 1882, he in company with Arnold A. Ledeboer, also of
White Earth, opened a general store at Red Lake Falls, Minnesota, (at
that time a very much boomed town), but owing to a series of bad crop
years, low prices, and general dull times, the venture was not
successful and they closed their business in 1887; Morison returned
to White Earth.
In the fall of 1894, he entered government service at White Earth
Agency, and later, in January 1896, was stationed at Red Lake Sub-
Agency, as reservation overseer, a position he held until July 1st,
1901, when he returned to White Earth. Since January, 1905, he has
formed part of the office staff at the agency, having charge of the
allotting of land under the provisions of the "Steenerson Act."
By an Indian wife he has one son, Allan F. Morison, born February
6th, 1882. He has been in the government Indian service for a number
of years and is now attached to the agency office force.
It will be noticed that William and Allan Morrison wrote their names
with two r's, while Geo. A. Morison writes the name with only one r,
as did a long line of ancestors before him. This difference in
writing the name, was brought about in a curious manner. When William
Morrison joined the Northwest Fur Company, he had to sign article of
engagement, as they called it at the time, to serve for five years,
and the notary who did the writing, wrote the name Morrison, as did
other branches of the family; when William came to sign, he called
the notary's attention to the error in spelling, but was told that it
mattered little, to sign it as written and it would be just as good.
Several years later when Allan Morrison, his brother, came to Lake
Superior, he also had to write his name as his elder brother did, and
hence the change in their manner of writing the name. In the Island
of Lewis, Scotland, which is the cradle of the family, the name has
been spelt for a thousand years or more, with only one r, thus,
Morison.
Becker County, Minnesota, Genealogy
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