Person:James Morrison (36)

http://library.uncg.edu/ejournals/backcountry/Vol3No1/McKaughan.pdf Journal of Backcountry Studies “Barcelonia” Neckerchiefs, Teaware, and China Plates: Kinship, Status and the Division of Fourth Creek Church BY JOSHUA LEE MCKAUGHAN

The “Old House” Divides The same year which saw William Sharpe become heavily involved in Rowan County’s break with the royal governor and his supporters also witnessed the collapse of the Fourth Creek Church. Partly under its own weight, the Presbyterian meeting house fragmented into three congregations. Other factors, however, played a role in Fourth Creek’s demise. William Sharpe and several of his neighbors, many of whom had established themselves in the area during the previous ten years and had few affinal ties to others in the original congregation, formed Bethany meeting house near the home of James Hall. A second congregation, taking the name Concord, grew around the home of James Morrison on the headwaters of Third Creek. The brother of William Morrison, Sr., James Morrison, like his brother, had grown prosperous since establishing himself on Third Creek in 1753.39 His son Thomas, along with his neighbor, Samuel Harris, became one of the elders of the new church.40 The parent church, Fourth Creek, having survived the 1772 attempt to divide the congregation, survived this split also. Under the leadership of John Mordah and William and John Stevenson, Fourth Creek now focused on those settlers living south and east of the old meeting house.41 Like Concord, Fourth Creek included several of the original settlers who had taken up residence between the Catawba and South Yadkin Rivers.

Concord Church: Independence Resulting From Isolation As the area north of the Fourth Creek church grew in population and prosperity following the mid-1760’s, Fourth Creek itself stagnated, bypassed by roads and new settlers. A similar fate befell the area along the headwaters of Third Creek west of the meeting house. This area, which would fall within the bounds of Concord meeting house following its creation in 1775, also contained a number of families who had established themselves in the region prior to 1762. Predominant among these settlers was James Morrison, a brother of mill owner William Morrison, Sr. Originally a resident of Drumore Township in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County, during the early 1750’s James Morrison accompanied his brothers William and Andrew to North Carolina.122 There, he settled west of William Morrison on Third Creek. By 1773 the households of James Morrison’s sons, like those of Theophilus Simonton, surrounded his landholdings. To the northwest dwelt son William, connected by marriage to the Mordah family far to the east.123 Additional ties to the families residing to the east of the Morrisons along Fourth Creek existed through the marriage of a second son, Andrew, and a daughter, Sarah, to members of the Potts family.124 Unlike his brothers, Thomas Morrison, turned to the family of one of his more immediate neighbors, James Woods, for a bride, marrying Martha Woods on 6 December 1769.125 Three years later, through the assistance of Morrison’s parents, the young couple established themselves across Third Creek from Morrison’s father. Following the creation of Concord meeting house, Thomas Morrison, whose estate barely exceeded in value the median for the area lying between the Catawba and South Yadkin Rivers, began to emerge as a leader in the new church.126 James Morrison, Jr., like his brother, also looked to the families residing west of Fourth Creek meeting house for his mate. On 25 October 1772 he wed Eleanor Snoddy, whose father, Samuel Snoddy, dwelt to the west of the Morrisons along Elk Shoals Creek.127

purchased from John Nesbit, Concord’s parents could turn to the church itself for reading matter. Like Fourth Creek, the new church maintained a small library of religious titles. Among the contributors to this athenaeum was David Hill, a weaver who, when writing out his will in 1774, expressed his desire that “his lot of books in the Public Library” be sold following his death.151 Despite Hill’s wish to sell a portion of the collection, Concord’s parishioners continued to maintain their library. Five years later, James Morrison, less willing to see his allotment of books in this collection scattered and sold than was Hill, directed that his wife Mary receive his “lot of books in the public library” upon his death.152 (Rowan County, NC Wills)

1.   Schroeder, Harriet Rumple. James Amos Morrison Family
   pgs. 416-417.

   About the year 1700 James Morrison left his native Scotland and immigrated to Northern Ireland, probably Londonderry or Fermanagh. Around 1730 he came with his family to America, settling in Lancaster County, Pa. Four of his sons, William (1704-1771), Thomas, James, Anderw (1718-1770 moved south to Iredell (then Rowan) County in early 1750's, settling along Third Creek, south and west of Loray.
   James, son of James, and his wife Mary had nine children: Andrew, Thomas, William (m. Elizabeth Murdock), James, Martha (m. John McKee), Mary (m. James Morrison), Catherine (m. Alexander McCorkle), Sarah (m. James Potts), and Margaret (m. John McLelland).
   James was a prosperous farmer, amassing (as his 1779 will testifies) hundreds of acres of land, a "mansion house", a "lot of books in the public Library", various farming instruments and furniture, spinning wheels, looms, pewter, cash money, slaves, cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, and a gun.
   James and Mary's son Andrew lived with his family on 212 1/2 acre farm along Third Creek. There were ten children: James (m. Margaret Morrison), Henry (m. Elizabeth Guy), John "Hatter" (m. Betsy Feimster), Andrew, Thomas B. "Wagoner Tom" (m. Jane Watts), Mary "Polly" (m. Thomas Morrison), Margaret (m. Henry Steele), Martha (m. - Robertson), Sarah and Jane (m. Elon Feimster), Andrew died in 1828.
   Andrew's son John (b. 1775) in addition to being a farmer was, as his nickname indicates, a maker of hats. He married Betsy G. Feimster (b. 1785), daughter of Capt. William and Mary Sharpe Feimster; was an elder of Concord Prebyterian Church; and had seven children. Betsy died Feb. 26, 1830; John, Feb. 4, 1832. Both are buried in Concord Presbyterian cemetery.