"An Illustrated History of Skagit and Snohomish Counties."  Interstate
Publishing Company, 1906.  p. 596.
 
JOHN C. MORRIS

     a popular and successful farmer residing four miles north of Mount Vernon,
near the Avon line, is a native of Peterboro, England, born July 23, 1871. His
father, George A. Morris, is a man of prominence, associated for many years with
the well-known labor leader, John Burns, who is a personal friend of his. In the
work of the National Association of Farm Laborers, with which he was for many
years identified, he came in touch with many of the distinguished men of
England, Gladstone, Bradlaugh and others, addressing meetings where they were
also on the program. He was born in Huntingdonshire, England, February 6, 1844,
but is now living in retirement in Mount Vernon. Sarah G. (O'Donnell) Morris,
mother of our subject, was also a native of England, the date of her birth being
April 11, 1844. After a long life of devotion to husband and children, she died
March 30, 1905. Having availed himself of the educational advantages afforded by
the schools of Avon, to which point the family had moved, John C. Morris
remained at home until he reached the age of twenty-one, when he began work in
the logging camps and mills of the state. He was employed at this for ten years,
then accepted a position in the United States engineering service, in which he
spent the following four years, receiving at the end of that time an honorable
discharge and recommendations of the highest order. He was a member of the party
that succeeded in removing the immense log jam that had formed in the Skagit
river in 1897, also assisting in the removal of obstructions from the
Stilaguamish, Nooksack and Snohomish rivers, and in the construction of channels
in these rivers. In 1904 he moved onto his present place of twenty acres, which
he had owned for some time, and he intends now to make that his permanent home.
He has fifteen acres of it in fine condition, the remaining five being still
uncleared. He gives especial attention to fine cattle and horses, owning two
head of Percheron horses, and eleven head of Durham and some Jersey cattle. He
raises the finest potatoes to be found in the locality. At present he is
employed as mate on the United States snagboat, Skagit. He has one brother,
George O., also a resident of Avon, and his sisters, all natives of Nottingham,
England, are as follows: Elizabeth Spink, born February 6, 1866; Mrs. Sarah
Mondhan, born April 13, 1873, now of Avon; Mrs. Gertrude Axelson, born August
14, 1882, a resident of Fir; Mrs. Emma M. Allen, of Arlington, born May 10,
1878; Nellie Frances, born August 5, 1885, now at home in Mount Vernon.
     Mr. Morris was married October 11, 1895, to Daisy McCain, the daughter of
James and Helen (Beggs) McCain. Her father, born in Pennsylvania in 1844, was a
prominent soldier in the Civil war enlisting with the Ninth Illinois infantry.
At the close of four years' service, during which time he had participated in
some of the most severe engagements of the war, he received an honorable
discharge. Starting for the Pacific coast with an ox team, he moved first to
Iowa, thence to Nebraska, at length reaching Woodland, California, where he
spent several years. Coming to Mount Vernon in 1882, he homesteaded one hundred
and sixty acres, the farm of his son-in-law being part of the original claim.
The old cabin is still standing on it. The death of this well-known pioneer
occurred in Avon, in March, 1891. The mother of Mrs. Morris was born in Illinois
in 1843, and died at Avon in December, 1880. Mrs. Morris, the youngest of a
family of six children, has three sisters, Theodora H., Mrs. Elizabeth Wilds,
and Mrs. Laura Murray, the latter two residing in Seattle. A brother, William,
lives at Clear Lake, Washington. Mr. and Mrs. Morris have two children, Amy,
born November 12, 1895, and Helen, October 8, 1897. Mr. Morris is a member of
the Odd Fellows, in which order he is past grand, also is actively identified
with the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World, while Mrs. Morris is a
member of the Rebekahs, and takes an active part in the social affairs of the
lodge. Mr. Morris is a loyal member of the Democratic party, but aside from
discharging the duties of the office of deputy assessor in 1896, has never
accepted political preferment. He and his family are regular attendants of the
Methodist church. Earnest, industrious, a strict adherent of sound business
principles, he is destined to be one of the influential members of the county.

     
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Submitted to the Washington Biographies Project in May 2008 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.