Career
Their original family name was Oberzinsky. They adopted the name Morris upon their arrival in the United States. After Morritz first arrived in 1843, he spent "a few years" in Mississippi, working as a peddler in Yazoo County and becoming a naturalized citizen in nearby Claiborne County, before returning to Germany for a while.
He then settled in Los Angeles in the early 1850s.
They had a brother, Herman Morris, a newspaper reporter. One report said that Morritz had once been "secretary of the Vigilance Committee of San Francisco."
He had earlier lived "for many years" in an adobe house which he built in 1859 in the midst of a vineyard at Carr and Main streets.
He was predeceased in 1899 by another son, Sigmund, who was a journalist. Julius died on August 29, 1909, in Germany.
Both were Masons and among the founders of Temple B"nai B"rith (later the Wilshire Boulevard Temple).
