Person:Charles Morris (5)

(This little bio is under construction and still needs a lot of work.)

by Richard Hollenbeck and Janice Morris Kollitz

(Anybody with something to add can log in--this IS, after all, a wiki.) Charles Millard "Charlie" MORRIS was the son of Charles Edward MORRIS and Rose MCCARTY MORRIS. He was born on 14 Nov 1905 in Botna, Shelby County, Iowa in the same house that his mother and sister Lucille were born. He moved with his family to a farm 15 miles south of Belfield, North Dakota when he was only a baby, so it is doubtful he had any recollection of living at the old home in Botna. He attended a one-room school house in North Dakota. As a child, Charlie was nicknamed "Happy" because of his happy disposition. He was an active child; Charlie's grandfather, William Francis McCarty, used to offer him a 50¢ peice if he could sit still for half an hour. Charlie attended the Belfield High School, graduating around 1920, North Dakota State Teacher's College (Normal School) in Dickinson, ND, playing on the football team in 1925, and was staff artist for the school annual, "Prairie Smoke." He taught in the rural schools of the county and later was employed in Dickinson in the offices of the U.S. Employment Commission. He worked with Hattie Neidhardt from Hebron, North Dakota, and in December of 1936, he married her in Montana. Early the following year Charlie and Hattie, with Hattie's brother Jake, moved to Stockton, California, where their daughter Janice was born the following year. But times were tough and Charlie's need to seek gainful employment took the new family to Vallejo, then to Napa, where their son James was born. Finally Charlie found work in Oakland, California, working for John Neal at American Office Machines as a salesman and repairman, so he moved his family to Oakland. They purchased a plot of land in Juana Avenue in San Leandro and cultivated a "Victory Garden." There was always enough surplus food to share with the neighbors and relatives. When Mr. Neal retired, Charlie purchased the business from him. All tolled, Charlie worked at this company, as salesman/repairman, then owner, about 12 or 13 years, until about 1952.

About 1940, Charlie and Hattie purchased another plot of land on Joaquin Avenue in San Leandro and built a house upon it. The site of this property was at one time the location of Don José Joaquín Estudillo's coral on his rancho (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Joaqu%C3%ADn_Estudillo). This house became their home for the next thirty or so years.

Other ideas to possibly write about:

   * R. C. Allen adding machines
   * Royal Typewriter
   * Ratchet repair

In the mid 1970s, Charlie and Hattie sold their home in San Leandro and purchased a small duplex to Oceanside, California to simplify their life and to live near her children who by this time were living in Southern California.

In 1990 Charlie died of a heart attack.

   * Hattie moved to Lodi to live with her sister Lydia
   * Hattie moved to Sun City to live near her daughter and grandchildren and to receive assisted living.

At home in San Leandro, CA 1972

1923 Fryburg Depot in North Dakota

Hattie (Neidhardt) and Charlie Morris