An Illustrated History of Central Oregon, Western Historical Publishing Company, Spokane, WA. 1905, page 268. THOMAS F. MORRIS, farmer and stock-raiser, residing one-half mile west of Kingsley, Wasco county, was born in Wyandotte, Kansas, July 4, 1861. His parents, William R. and Catherine (Fox) Morris, were natives of Ireland, the father of Tipperary and the mother of County Carlow, Village of Nurney. When a small child William R. came to the United States with his parents, and they lived in New York, New Jersey and Ohio. At the age of six years Catherine Fox came, accompanied by her parents, to the United States. She died April 5, 1902, on our subject's place. During the Mexican war our subject's father enlisted in the Sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, serving one year and nine months. He was shot twice in the right leg, and almost in the same place on the limb. Following the close of the war he came to Kansas, where he found employment as a cabinet maker, going thence to Calaveras county, California, where he engaged in the sawmill business and mining. He drifted to Sonoma county, remained two years, and in 1869 came to this location in Wasco county, preempted land and lived here until his death in 1882. On the death of his mother, Thomas F. Morris inherited the ranch. During his boyhood days he had attended the public schools in California. At present he has a handsome fourteen-acre orchard, the largest in that neighborhood. He cultivates mainly winter apples, having four hundred "Ben Davis," one hundred Springdale, one hundred Mammoth, Black Twig, Stayman Winesap, Arkansas Senator trees, and thirty other varieties. He owns about six hundred and eighty acres of land, his principal business being hog raising. He has recently erected a handsome story and a half cottage. His brother, John, died a short time after the family came to Wasco county, aged four years. Annie, a sister, died at the age of six, two weeks previous to the death of her brother. Mr. Morris never married. While he is, politically, a Republican, he is by no means a partisan, and not active in the various campaigns. He is a whole-souled, genial and popular man, broad-minded and progressive, and his devoted attention to his invalid mother for many years won the respect of the entire neighborhood in which he resides. ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in January 2005 by Jeffrey L. Elmer. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.