A descendant of Anthony Morris, one of the first colonists in Pennsylvania, Morris was born in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, which had been founded by his grandfather and namesake, the first Benjamin Wistar Morris. His father was Samuel Wells Morris, a district court judge and member of the United States. House of Representatives.
Morris graduated from General Theological Seminary in New York City in 1846, was ordained to the diaconate and subsequently to the priesthood on April 27, 1847.
While serving at Saint Luke"s, Morris organized an effort to supply food, medicine, clothing, and bedding to sick and wounded troops at the Battle of Gettysburg. On December 3, 1868 he was elected as the second missionary, following Thomas Fielding Scott, who had died the previous year. He received the degree of South. T. Doctorate. from Columbia University in 1868, and also from the University of Pennsylvania the same year.
Morris was consecrated December 3, 1868, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and arrived in Portland, Oregon, on June 2, 1869.
To reach Portland, Morris voyaged down the Atlantic coast, crossed the isthmus of Panama on foot, and boarded a ship sailing up the Pacific Coast. In 1869 he founded Saint Helen"s Hall Girls" School, now known as the Oregon Episcopal School.
Eighteen parishes in the current Diocese of Oregon were founded by Morris during his tenure. By 1880 the missionary diocese of Oregon had grown too large for one bishop, and the missionary dioceses of Olympia in Western Washington and Spokane in Eastern Washington were formed.
