Yavapai-Apache County AZ Archives Biographies.....Morrison, Robert Emmett July 13, 1856 - living in 1896
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 1, 2005, 10:47 pm

Author: McFarland & Poole

p. 460

  HON. ROBERT EMMETT MORRISON. Nothing is truer than the broad statement that in
this country alone of all the great countries a man's family connections do not
assist him to places of trust and honor, either professionally or in the
political arena, but he must win his way by his own exertions or by his own
honest merit. In the old country the accident of birth determines the preferment
of an individual, and if he is not born to a title, or is not the near relative
of one who is, his chances are few and far between to ever attain a position of
prominence. This government of the people is no discriminator of persons, but
opens its doors wide for the entrance of all such as possess the requisite
qualifications, and birth is by no means one of these. Hon. Robert E. Morrison,
however, comes of an excellent family, and is a product of the city of Chicago,
Ill., where he first saw the light July 13, 1856. His father, A. L. Morrison,
was a police magistrate on the west side in that city for some time after the
fire of 1872, but during the reign of President Arthur he received the
appointment of United States Marshal for New Mexico, and took up his residence
at Santa Fe, where he still resides. For a number of years past he has devoted
his attention to the practice of law, and here as well as in Chicago he has won
an enviable reputation as a shrewd and discriminating lawyer and a man of more
than ordinary intellectual force. During the administration of President
Benjamin Harrison he held the position of Registrar of Land Office for New
Mexico. Hon. Robert Emmett Morrison received the advantages of the city schools
of Chicago, and after finishing the high school course entered Union College of
Law, from which he was graduated in the class of 1877, after which he at once
began the practice of his profession in his native city, where he continued
until 1883. In that year he came West on a vacation and while in Arizona became
infatuated with the climate and the country in general and here decided to
locate. His first three years here were spent on a ranch in Apache County, but
at the end of that time he was made a member of the grand jury, and while
serving in this capacity soon became recognized as an able lawyer, and this
opinion was universally accepted when he succeeded in breaking up a ring that
had been formed for raising and forging county warrants. His conduct during this
time met with such universal approval that in the fall of 1886 he was elected
county judge of Apache County and held the office until the spring of 1887, when
the office was done away with. While serving on the bench he impaneled the first
grand jury that had met in two years, and succeeded in indicting the above
mentioned law breakers, and after the office was abolished the District Court
took up the indictments and convicted and banished the offenders. Later Judge
Morrison was appointed probate judge and ex-officio county superintendent of
schools, which offices he ably filled until January 1, 1889. He then resumed the
practice of his profession in St. Johns, and in the fall of 1891 came to
Prescott, and here has built up a practice of which he has every reason to be
proud. In the fall of the following year he was elected district attorney of
Yavapai County, was re-elected in the fall of 1894 and is still holding the
position. He has ever been a strong Republican politically, and being an
excellent orator has stumped the territory in the interests of his party on
various occasions. In November, 1890, he led to the marriage altar Mrs. Johnnia
M. Logan, a native of Topeka, Kan., by whom he has three promising children:
Robert, Emmett and Erin Mary. He and his wife are members of the Catholic church.


Additional Comments:
From:

A Historical and Biographical Record of the Territory of Arizona
Published by
McFarland & Poole, Chicago, 1896

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/az/yavapai/bios/gbs22morrison.txt

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