The ancestry and early life of Andrew Morrison has been open to much speculation. Oral family history, through the person of my g-grandfather, Ben Morrison, a son of John W. Morrison, tells the following story:
...Andrew Morrison's father, also named Andrew, came from Scotland in 1748. He married and had three sons. Two of the sons remained in New England, but the third son, Andrew, Jr., came to the Kanawha River Valley, where he married Nancy. They had six children, three boys and three daughters. William Morrison was one of the sons who remained in New England...
Anna Lutz, of the Kanawha County Historical Society, indicates that Andrew Morrison was very possibly a brother to John Morrison, another early settler in Kanawha County. There is a large amount of circumstantial evidence that points to their relationship.
More recently, a preponderance of evidence which has been compiled by several researchers (including myself) which points to James and Jane (Taylor) Morrison being the parents of Andrew, who was born 1781 in Pennsylvania.
To date, our ancestry is shown to be:
Nathaniel Morrison; b. ca 1700 in Scotland > Nathaniel and Thankful (Heriman) Morrison > James and Mrs. Jane (Taylor) Morrison >Andrew and Nancy (Carruthers) Morrison > John and Mary (Forqueran) Morrison > Benjamin and Violetta (Martin) Morrison...Click here to view a more detailed descendancy report for Nathaniel Morrison.
Andrew Morrison reached Kanawha County by 1809, when his name appears in the 1809 Personal Property lists. He met and married Nancy Carruthers, the daughter of James and M. Carruthers, other early settlers. Andrew and Nancy settled and farmed near Bear Creek, near the Kanawha River.
The above mentioned oral history given by Ben Morrison states that Andrew's wife was named Nancy McCown. It is unclear whether Ben meant his grandfather or his g-grandfather. There is evidence that the Morrisons lived near a family named McCown. There is also evidence that Andrew was sued in 1810 on behalf of a woman named Sally McCorkle by the Department of the Poor for Kanawha, Virginia. Sally gave birth on 6 December 1809 to a "female bastard child". I do not know how the case was resolved, but it is known that in 1810 Sally McCorkle married John Cantrell and moved to Ohio. This may be the source of Ben's assertions. With lack of definitive proof, the best evidence suggests that Andrew's wife was, in fact, Nancy Jane Carruthers.
Andrew died in May of 1850, of pneumonia, after and eight-day illness. Probate records show that his administrators were his wife, Nancy, his sons, John W. and Benjamin R., and his son-in-law, William Cash.
Andrew was buried in what is now known as the James Stewart Cemetery, on the land that he once owned. The cemetery is located near Bill's Creek, formerly Bear Creek, near Winfield, Kanawha County, West Virginia, on the south side of the Kanawha River. The cemetery, according to Anna Lutz, is still in existence, though many of the older stones are gone, and a road now passes through the cemetery.
|
