Sevier-Sanpete County UT Archives Biographies.....Morrison, James Bruce 1860 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 28, 2011, 12:32 am

Source: See below
Author: S. J. Clarke, Publisher

JAMES BRUCE MORRISON.

    James Bruce Morrison, of Richfield, has been a most prominent factor in the
development of irrigation interests in his part of the state and therefore in
the reclamation and improvement of arid lands. His work has been of untold value
and benefit to his district, and he is regarded as one of its most prominent and
substantial citizens. Moreover, he is a representative of two of the oldest and
best known pioneer families of the state. His father, William Morrison, was one
of the earliest settlers of Sevier county and one of its representative
citizens, having more to do with laying the foundation for the development and
upbuilding of the county perhaps than any other one man. He settled in Richfield
in the early '60s and suffered all the hardships and privations of frontier
life. The settlers were constantly harassed and attacked by the Indians, who
finally drove them out. But in 1867 William Morrison returned with his family
and with his native Scotch determination conquered both the Indians and his
crude surroundings. He assisted largely in the upbuilding of Richfield and
vicinity, was the first postmaster of the city and the first probate judge,
while, he also filled the office of county clerk and was representative from his
district in the territorial legislature of 1874. He was a surveyor and laid out
most of the towns in the county. The mother of James Bruce Morrison was
Christina (Iverson) Morrison, whose family were also pioneers of this section of
the state and prominent in the upbuilding of Sanpete county, being called upon
to help colonize that section of the state. They located at Washington, now the
county seat of Washington county.

     James Bruce Morrison was born in Sanpete county in 1860 and is the eldest
child born to his mother. He attended the graded schools of Richfield and the
Sevier Stake Academy and after completing his education assisted his father upon
the farm until 1876, when he took up teaming in connection with railroad
building. He was thus engaged until 1880, when he went to Arizona and was active
in the building of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad.

    In 1882 Mr. Morrison married Caroline Amanda Foutz, a daughter of Joseph L.
Foutz, who was a son of Jacob Foutz, another prominent pioneer, who was severely
wounded in the Hawn Mill massacre of Missouri and became one of the Utah
pioneers of 1847. He was afterward made bishop of Salt Lake. The living children
of Mr. and Mrs. Morrison are: James B., a farmer residing at Circleville; Leith
Lumsden, of Richfield; Estelle, the wife of Guy Hamilton Goodlander, of Wabash,
Indiana; Reull, who has just been demobilized after two years' service in the
United States army; William, of Richfield; Bandera De Vara, who, being born in
Flagstaff, Arizona, was given the Spanish name of the town of his birth and who
also responded to the call to the colors, having just returned from service with
the American army; Gladys; Elloid; Elloise, a twin sister of Elloid, who died at
the age of six weeks; Verona; and Sybil. The younger children are still at home.

    Mr. Morrison has figured prominently in public connections, his fellow
townsmen, recognizing his worth and ability, having frequently called him to
public office. He has been justice of the peace, city recorder of Richfield and
chaplain of the council in the last territorial legislature, while in the first
state legislature he occupied the position of docket clerk. His official record
is one over which there falls no shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil. He has
ever sought to discharge his duties promptly and faithfully, and his record is a
most creditable one.

    Along an entirely different line, too, the services of Mr. Morrison have
been of the greatest possible value to his section of the state, for he was one
of the prominent factors in the building of the Sevier valley canal and
reservoir and at different times has been secretary, vice president and
president of the company. While filling these positions the stock of the company
has risen from three cents to three dollars per share. Mr. Morrison was also one
of the promoters and builders ofi the Otto Creek Reservoir Company and for eight
years was its president. This project cost one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars and the reservoir has a capacity of sixty-five thousand acre feet. Mr.
Morrison has indeed been a prominent factor in the building and management of
irrigation projects requiring the investment of more than a quarter of a million
dollars capital and furnishing the farmers with a water storage of one hundred
and fifty thousand acre feet. When the state took up the building of the Piute
reservoir project Mr. Morrison was the natural choice for superintendent and was
appointed to the office. This project with its ninety thousand acre feet has
been, as were the others, of great value to the farmers of the valley. Mr.
Morrison is devoting his life to less strenuous activities at the present time
but with the assistance of his boys gives his attention to his farming property,
which embraces forty acres of land near Annabella, Sevier county, upon which he
raises the crops best adapted to soil and climatic conditions here and on which
he is also engaged in the raising of pure bred and graded shorthorn Durham cattle.

    Mr. Morrison has been equally active in the church. In 1889 he was called on
a mission to the northwestern states and there labored for two years. As
secretary of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association and as a member of
the Quorum of Seventy he has done yeoman service. In 1891 he was ordained a high
priest and was made high counselor to President William H. Seegmiller. For eight
years he was superintendent of the stake Sunday schools. His home is in the city
of Richfield and embraces a quarter of a block at the corner of Main street and
Third North. His entire life has been passed in harmony with the splendid record
of his pioneer ancestry, and the work which they instituted in early days has
been carried forward by him in the further development and upbuilding of the
state.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from

UTAH SINCE STATEHOOD
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL

ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME IV
CHICAGO-SALT LAKE: THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1920


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