Howard County IN Archives Biographies.....Morrow, Jackson 1849 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com April 21, 2006, 3:33 pm

Author: Jackson Morrow

JACKSON MORROW.

    The subject of this sketch is one of those strong, self-reliant and
determined characters who are occasionally met with and who are of such a
distinct type as to seem to be born leaders of their fellow men. Not that Mr.
Morrow courts that distinction, for he is entirely unassuming, but his great
force of character and his zeal and energy in whatever he undertakes naturally
places him at the head of the crowd and he has been a potent factor in the
development of Howard county, where he has long maintained his home and where he
is well known to all classes for his honorable and industrious life, in both
private and public.

    Jackson Morrow was born March 3, 1849, just south of the village, now the
city of Kokomo, the son of Charles and Sarah (Lame) Morrow, pioneers of this
section, and people of many sterling qualities and honorable standing in the
community, having moved to Howard county in 1845. They were hard workers and
took the obstacles of the new country as a matter of course and soon overcame
many of them, establishing a comfortable home in the wilderness.

    The boyhood of our subject differed in no material respect from that of
other boys in the country, especially those who were contemporaneous with him in
the new territory. He assisted his father in clearing and draining the farm and
in the rude and old-style methods of farming in those pioneer days. When he was
eight years of age he attended a two months' term of winter school in a log
cabin, with rude benches for seats, puncheon floors and other similar
furnishings. A. L. Sharp, now a resident of Kokomo, was his teacher. His only
text-book was the well known "Elementary Spelling Book." The school year in the
country at that time and for some years afterward was three months. The boys
were necessarily detained at home to assist with the farm work until wintry
weather stopped them from working out doors, and thus very few farmers1 boys had
the advantage of even three months school attendance' in a year. When fifteen
years of age Mr. Morrow attended a fall term of school at the Kokomo Normal, of
which Professor Fay was principal. Our subject walked to and from school, it
being three miles distant to his country home, making the trip morning and
evening. When sixteen years old he was granted a two years' license to teach,
and his first experience was teaching a country school near Alto. The two
following autumns he attended the "Old Normal" at Kokomo and taught winter terms
of school, working on his father's farm during the spring and summer months,
meanwhile closely applying himself in his preparation for college. When nineteen
years old he was admitted to the literary department of the University of
Michigan at Ann Arbor, from which he was graduated four years later with the
degree of Bachelor of Arts, having made a brilliant record for scholarship. Thus
we are not surprised that the subsequent life of such a man of fortitude and
determination as was necessary to be exercised by Mr. Morrow in gaining an
education, should admirably succeed.

     Mr. Morrow's domestic life dates from 1873, when he was happily married to
Mary E. Henderson and purchased a farm in eastern Harrison township, to which he
devoted his time alternating with teaching, making a success of each.

    It was not long until Mr. Morrow was slated for political offices by his
fellow citizens, who had been quick to detect merit of an extraordinary nature,
and he was elected trustee of Harrison township in 1880, winning as a Democrat
where the Republican vote was two to one Democratic ballot, thus showing his
popularity in this vicinity. In 1886 Mr. Morrow was elected county surveyor and
again re-elected in 1890, each time overcoming an adverse majority of more than
one thousand votes. In 1898 he was chosen city civil engineer of Kokomo for the
term of four years. In 1906 he was appointed police commissioner by the
governor. In all these offices he exercised rare soundness of judgment and
handled the business entrusted to him in a manner that was entirely satisfacton
to all concerned.

    Our subject moved from his farm to a nice home in Kokomo in 1898, where he
has since resided. In 1891 his first wife, who had proved a most faithful and
worthy companion, was called to her reward, leaving the subject and three
children, Albert, Fred and George, all bright and interesting boys. In 1905 Mr.
Morrow was married to Mrs. Myra Bird, a woman of many praiseworthy traits.

    For many years Mr. Morrow has been an active member of the First Baptist
church of Kokomo, and his life has always been led along high planes,
consequently he is admired by a large circle of friends for his honorable
career, his integrity, honesty and genuine worth, for in all his public career
not a shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil was ever intimated against him even
by his most pronounced opponents, and members of both parties were always glad
to do him honor. He is a public-spirited man, always performing faithfully and
well what tasks are assigned him, and the future to such a man cannot but be
successful and filled with honor.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF HOWARD COUNTY INDIANA
BY
JACKSON MORROW, B. A.
ILLUSTRATED
VOL. II
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

(circa 1909)

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/howard/bios/morrow350nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/infiles/

File size: 5.9 Kb