Jackson County, West Virginia Biography of O. J. MORRISON This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 473 O. J. MORRISON. The individual who founds and develops an immense business enterprise must of necessity possess qualities and characteristics of an unusual nature. Com- bined with the mind to plan must be the ability to execute and the foresight to grasp opportunities conditions produce. Contemporary history gives the names and records of a num- ber of men who have worked out worth while successes through the possession of just such an equipment, but perhaps there is no more striking case of what a man may accomplish than the career of O. J. Morrison, proprietor of the O. J. Morrison Department Store Company of Charles- ton, with branch houses in various other communities of West Virginia. . Mr. Morrison was born on a farm near Ripley, Jackson County, West Virginia, March 10, 1869, and is a son of Mr. and Mrs. G. P. Morrison, honorable agricultural people of that community. He received a country school educa- tion and was reared to farming, but did not take kindly to the pursuits of the soil and accordingly turned his at- tention to teaching school. This vocation held him only two years, for the commercial instinct was strong in him and he finally bought a small stock of goods and a horse and wagon and began peddling his wares over the hills of Jackson County, exchanging groceries and calico with the farmers for their produce He was honorable in his deal- ings and honest in his representation, soon gained the im- plicit confidence of his customers and eventually accum- ulated sufficient capital with which to establish a modest store at Kenna, a little village located on the Charleston- Parkersburg Turnpike. The possession of this store, small though it was, gave Mr. Morrison added incentive, and he worked all the more faithfully and industriously, with the result that soon his business outgrew his establishment, and he moved to Ripley, the county seat of Jackson County, where he really began the first of the string of stores that have made his name a household word in this part of the state. It was while at Ripley that Mr. Morrison coined the motto: "Make a dollar worth a dollar," and this he has used consistently ever since. The Ripley store now consists of two stories and a basement, 40 by 125 feet, and is under the management of J. E. Keenan. Later Mr. Morrison founded another store, at Spencer, where he now has an establishment of two stories and a basement, 40 by 150 feet, under the management of W. B. Reed. Later a busi- ness was also established at Clendenin. In 1910 Mr. Mor- rison decided to invade Charleston, where the people soon recognized the fact that he was doing a large business be- cause of the fairness of his dealing and the quality of his goods, together with the astonishingly low prices at which they were offered. In 1914 he established a store at Hunt- ington, where he now has one of the biggest retail houses of the city, four stories and basement, 45 by 200 feet, under the management of I. C. Prickett. In 1919 another store was taken over, at Clarksburg, where he now has a structure of two stories and basement, 50 by 190 feet, man- aged by E. G. Morrison. Mr. Morrison's Charleston store was visited by a dis- astrous fire October 29, 1920, when thousands of dollars worth of merchandise was destroyed and the building was wrecked. There were those who predicted that Mr. Mor- rison's mercantile career in this city at least was at an end, but a few days later work was commenced in dis- mantling the old Burlew Opera House, on Capitol Street, in the place of which was erected a modern structure five stories and basement, 65 by 165 feet, this now being under Mr. Morrison's personal supervision. In all the stores there is represented an outlay of $800,000 capital. There are 300 employes, and the annual gross sales approximate $2;000,000. Mr. Morrison entered upon his career with little or nothing save his self-confidence, his ambition and his willingness to work hard and economize. Nothing was too difficult for him, no labor too exhausting, and when he earned a little money he put it back into his business. In this way he has lived to see that business grow to propor- tions which utterly exceeded his fondest dreams of earlier days, and the end is not yet. He has several other busi- ness connections, and is a director in the Charleston Build- ing and Loan Association. His religious connection is with the United Brethren Church, but he is not interested in fraternal matters. In 1895 Mr. Morrison was united in marriage with Miss Cora A. Harpold, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. S. W. Har- pold, farming people of Jackson County, West Virginia, and they have five children: Freda, Fay, Johnson O., Carl H. and Charles W.