Morris, VanRansalear (1840-1911)

MORRIS

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/26/2019 at 13:18:46

Van Ransalear Jackson Morris
Mar 3, 1840 - Apr 30, 1911

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.111, Hardin Twp.)
Farmer, P. O. Weston, was born in Des Moines County, this State. March 3, 1840, son of William and Catharine (Cothran) Morris, she a widow, he a native of New York; was a farmer, and one of the pioneers of Iowa, coming in 1836; he died in 1867, at the age of eighty-four years. The mother died in 1843. Our subject was their only child, but he had a half-brother and a half-sister, the result of his father's subsequent marriage. Our subject received a common-school education in this State, and started in life as a farmer. He was married in his native county, April 13, 1861, to Isabella Allison, born in Ireland March 17, 1840. daughter of John and Elizabeth (Barr) Allison, natives also of Ireland, he still living; she died June 30, 1865. Mr. and Mrs. Morris have had five children - Sarah Jane, Elizabeth Catharine (deceased), William Leslie, Elbert Garner and Van Rensselaer. Our subject enlisted, in 1864, in the Fifteenth Iowa Infantrv, and served till the close of the war. He served on detached duty with Sherman in his march to the sea, and was mustered out at Louisville, Ky. He came to his present place in 1873, previous to which, however, he had traveled for some two years in Missouri and elsewhere. He purchased 160 acres of unimproved land, on which he lived for two years, when he moved to Council Bluffs on account of family sickness, there being no physicians in the surrounding country at that time. He remained in the latter city for three years, and then returned to his farm, on which he has since remained. He has formerly raised grain principally, but is now giving extensive attention to stock. Mr. Morris has held several township and school offices. In politics, he is a Republican, and a member of the Masonic fraternity.