Background
His father, the son of Sir John Morrison, of County Cork, Ireland, came to America as a young man.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
William Morrison
Edit ProfileCareer
About 1800 he established a store in Cahokia, Ill.
In 1804 he sent Baptiste Lalande with a stock of goods to Santa F� and was thus the first citizen of the United States to attempt the opening of trade with New Mexico.
Most of his enterprises prospered, and he acquired great wealth.
For this defamation of character he was sued by the register, who had been formally acquitted of the charge, and was mulcted in $200 damages.
About 1801 he built a large and handsome stone residence in Kaskaskia, which became in time perhaps as famous as the home of Menard.
Reynolds, ignoring his connection with the land frauds, speaks of him as honest and upright, and adds that he was kind and benevolent.
He died at his home.
[John Reynolds, The Pioneer Hist.
of Ill. (1852), pp. 129-33; C. W. Alvord, The Ill.
Country, 1673-1818 (1920); Thomas James, Three Years among the Indians and Mexicans (1916), ed.
by W. B. Douglas; F. L. Billon, Annals of St. Louis and Its Territorial Days (1888), pp. 219-21; Elliott Coues, ed. , The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike (1895), II, 500, 602-03; W. A. B. Jones, "Rice Jones, " Chicago Hist.
Soc.
Colls. , IV (1890), 277. ]
Politics
He is described by Governor Reynolds (post), who knew him well, as a man of ordinary size, in his later years inclined to corpulency, but of marked dignity and grace of manner.
Connections
- married:
- Catherine
- children:
- Catherine
- Brother:
- John
- marriage:
- Catherine
- Uncle:
- Guy
Morrison was married three times--to Catherine Thaumur, about 1794; to Euphrosine Huberdeau of Ste. Genevieve, Mo., Nov. 27, 1798; and to Elisa Bissell, of St. Louis, July 20, 1813--and had children by each marriage.
Morrison was married three times--to Catherine Thaumur, about 1794; to Euphrosine Huberdeau of Ste. Genevieve, Mo., Nov. 27, 1798; and to Elisa Bissell, of St. Louis, July 20, 1813--and had children by each marriage.
In the bitter political contests that marked the early days of the Illinois country he and his brother Robert, with John Edgar, led the faction that opposed Gen. W. H. Harrison, then governor of Indiana Territory.
Morrison was married three times--to Catherine Thaumur, about 1794; to Euphrosine Huberdeau of Ste. Genevieve, Mo., Nov. 27, 1798; and to Elisa Bissell, of St. Louis, July 20, 1813--and had children by each marriage.
William was probably only a boy when he entered the store of his uncle, Guy Bryan, a noted merchant of Philadelphia.
