Calhoun County AlArchives Biographies.....Morris, Elbert G. 1820 - living in 1893
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 15, 2004, 1:07 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
   ELBERT G. MORRIS was born in Stokes county, N. C., in 1820. Was a son of
Shadrac and Eunice (Gibson) Morris, both natives of North Carolina. His
grandfather was a son of Shadrac and Rebecca (Hutchins) Morris, and his mother
was a daughter of William and Eunice (Brown) Gibson. William Gibson was also a
native of North Carolina, and was a soldier in the war of 1812. Mrs. Eunice
Gibson was a native of South Carolina. William Gibson came to St. Clair county,
Alabama, with his family in 1828. Shadrac Morris, the father of the subject of
this sketch was a carpenter by trade, and lived with his family near Germanton,
N. C., until 1833 when he moved with his family to St. Clair county, Alabama.
While in North Carolina he had given his children all the advantages that could
be had in the schools of Germanton. Elbert G. Morris came with his father to
Alabama in 1833, he being then thirteen years of age. After this time he had no
school training to amount to anything. The father, after coming to St. Clair
county, Alabama, settled in the woods, and after he had cleared out a small
farm, he left his family on it, and went to Wetumpka, Ala., and worked there as
a carpenter. He served as a justice of the peace many years, raised a large
family of children, and, after a long and honorable life on the farm he settled
when first coming to the state, he died in September, 1873, at the good old age
of seventy-five; his wife died the same week. Elbert G. Morris worked on the
farm a few years, and, at the age of nineteen years, went to Scottsville.
Alabama, and was employed by the owners of a cotton factory at that place to
superintend the mechanical affairs of the factory, which place he filled to the
entire satisfaction of the company for about a year, and then came to the town
of Talladega in 1840. Here he contracted for and constructed houses until 1843,
when he began a partnership with Lewis Gilbert in the building and repairing of
grist mills. This partnership lasted through a number of years, during which
time (1846) he married. His wife was Elizabeth Helen Brown, daughter of James
and Burnnetta (Suddeth) Brown, both natives of Lincoln county, Ga., who came to
Alabama, and settled in Talladega county in 1844. The mother was a daughter of
Willis and Edith (Mosely) Suddeth, natives of Virginia. Grandfather Suddeth was
a son of Lawrence and Mary Suddeth; great-grandfather Suddeth was a soldier of
the Revolutionary war. To the union of Elbert G. Morris and Elizabeth H. Brown
were born ten children, of whom seven are living: Mary C., Elizabeth T., Eunice,
Elbert G., Jr., Helen, Lewis J., and John H. Those dead are Shadrac F., Fannie,
and Julia. The mother was born in Lincoln county, Ga., in 1821. A year after
their marriage, in 1847, Mr. Morris bought the place where he now lives, and
being a millwright and machinist, erected a flouring mill, and in 1851 he built
a machine shop and manufactured sash, doors, and blinds. He also added to his
manufactures wagons and buggies. In 1855 he purchased the old Cane creek blast
furnace and almost immediately it was burned down. He rebuilt it, however, and
continued to make charcoal iron, and hammered bar iron until the year 1864, when
he sold the iron works to Isaac I. Moses. Up to this time, since the beginning
of the Civil war, he had furnished the Confederate government the total output
of his furnace. Since his coming to this place (which he built up and named
Morrisville) and up to the war, he had continued his business of building both
mills and houses, and probably did more building of houses of good class in the
towns of Jacksonville and Talladega than anyone else, and had by 1865 amassed
quite a fortune in property of various kinds, including negroes. He had erected,
before and after 1865, seven large flouring mills at large expense, but the
failure to raise wheat caused these all to become practically worthless on his
hands and he suffered severe losses in this way. After the Civil war, he
continued to follow the business of millwright, and in 1876 invented the turbine
water wheel, that is now known by his name. In 1883, his boys being about grown
by this time, he built an iron foundry at Morrisville and began the manufacture
of water wheels and mill machinery, with his three youngest sons (Elbert, Lewis
and John) as partners, under the firm name of E. G. Morris & Sons. One year
after this, this company had the misfortune to have their property destroyed by
a waterspout, which fell in April, 1884, causing a loss of over $40,000. The
indomitable energy of Mr. Morris never flagged for an instant, and he caused the
company to rebuild their works on a better scale than before, and after a few
years he sold his interest to his three living sons, and they now continue the
business of making the Morris turbine water wheels, together with sawmills,
pulleys, shafting, gearing and castings of both iron and brass, under the firm
name of Morris Manufacturing Co., Morrisville, Ala. Mr. Morris and wife are both
members of the Baptist church, he also being a Mason. He has held no office and
never sought any, but has been preeminently a builder and developer in his day
and generation. Of his offspring, they have married as follows: Mary C. to the
late Dr. C. A. Bates; Elizabeth T. to T. A. Pelham; Shadrac F. to Miss R.
Fowler; Fannie to J. E. Williams; Elbert G. to Miss Jennie Yarbrough; Helen to
A. J. Smith. Of those who have not married, Eunice is a teacher; Lewis J. a
millwright and machinist, a member of the I. O. O. F. and member of the general
assembly of Alabama, session of 1892-3; John H., a mechanical engineer, standing
at the head in his class of mechanics.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 604-606

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