Gilbert, Frank T.  "Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and
Garfield Counties, Washington Territory; and Umatilla County, Oregon." Portland,
OR: Print & Lithographing House of A.  G.  Walling, 1882.  p. a26.

LEWIS McMORRIS
	
	of Walla Walla, was born in Coshocton county, near Zanesville, Ohio, August
12, 1831.  About eight years after this his parents moved to Shelby county,
Illinois, where his father now lives.  In March, 1852, Lewis left the home of
his parents and crossed the plains to Oregon.  The first year and a half on the
Coast were spent in the mines of Southern Oregon, and the residue of time until
1855 at Yreka, California.  In the latter part of 1855, B.  F.  Dowell was
passing from Yreka with a pack train on his way to Colville with a stock of
goods to sell miners in the newly discovered gold regions.  When they reached
Oregon City the war with Indians had broken out and the Oregon volunteer
quartermaster hired Dowell's animals and McMorris as an assistant in the
quartermaster department. He served in that capacity until the Indians captured
the train that he was employed with on Wild Horse creek, in February, 1856.  He
concluded to try it again, and accordingly made a successful application for a
position in the quartermaster department at the Dalles, and after going with
Colonel Wright through the Yakima campaign in 1856, he went to Walla Walla with
Colonel Steptoe the same year.  He remained in the employ of the quartermaster
at Walla Walla until 1857, in October, when he went to the Willamette and
purchased a team and agricultural implements with the purpose of farming for the
Government in Walla Walla, and returned to that place that fall.  The Indians
objected to the appropriation of any more of their land for agricultural
purposes, and McMorris was shut out.  He had brought from the Danes, on his
return for agricultural purposes, one ton of merchandise to Walla Walla for
Captain J.  Freedman and Neil McGlinchey, for which they paid him $100, and
finding himself without a definite plan for action, took charge of the goods for
that firm and conducted their business for a time and then the freighting for
something over a year.  Freights from Wallula to Walla Walla, thirty miles by
road, were $20 per ton, ship measurement (or 42 square feet), a ton often not
weighing over 800 pounds.  In the fall of 1858 he pre-empted the land claim that
is now occupied by Thomas Page; and commenced farming and stock raising.  Since
then he has continued in that business, Government contracting and staging.

* * * *

Submitted to the WA.  Bios Project in February 2007 by Diana Smith.

Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project.  Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.