Lorenzo Morris
Lorenzo Morris, farmer, stock raiser and butcher, is a son of Zadok and Lydia Morris, who were natives of Virginia. They came to Ohio in 1818, and settled in what is now Green Township, this county, three miles north of Leesburg. Here the wife died in 1863. Mr. Morris remains on the same farm. They were the parents of three children, two sons and one daughter. Lauretta died at the age of sixteen. Jonathan married, and lives near his father.
Lorenzo, our subject, was born October 30, 1834. On the 16th of October, 1856, he married Miss Deborah A. Plumer, daughter of Eli Plumer. For ten years they lived and farmed in Clinton County, this state. In October, 1866, Mr. Morris purchased a farm of two hundred and thirty-seven acres, known as the Hays farm, in Concord Township, situated on what is known as the Snow Hill pike, near the Clinton County line. They soon removed to this farm, where they still remain. Mr. Morris has since purchased adjoining lands, so that the farm now contains four hundred and twenty acres; good land, and well located.
Our subject is an active, energetic man, continually on the go. He has been extensively engaged in the feeding of hogs—feeding some twelve hundred each year. This business did well for Mr. Morris, until the cholera attacked his hogs, which in due time caused him to cease further operations in this direction.
Mr. Morris was led by rather peculiar circumstances to engage on his farm in tbe butchering business, opening a shop in Washington. The slaughtering of cattle, hogs, and sheep, is all done on the farm, some nine miles west from Washington, and the meat is hauled daily to town, where, from his commodious room, it is sold at low but remunerative prices. In 1879 he slaughtered one hundred and sixty-two beeves. In 1880 two hundred and eighty-two beeves were killed, besides hogs and sheep. During 1881 it is expected to require from four to live hundred cattle, with, a large number of hogs and sheep, to supply the demand, which is rapidly increasing. Mr. Morris purchases the majority of his cattle in the Cincinnati market. They are brought to his farm, where they are fattened for the knife. About one hundred head of cattle are constantly kept on hand, and they are fed, summer and winter, in large boxes, corn in unlimited quantities, with the best of grass in summer. As the fattest are butchered, others take their place. Evidently Mr. Morris has succeeded so fully in reducing this business to a system that it must prove quite remunerative.
Mr. and Mrs. Morris have six children, five sons and one daughter. The daughter, Olive, is married to James Shoop, who is a school teacher. They have one child, and live on her father's farm.
William Azro is a promising young man. He has spent five years at the Adrian, Michigan, University, where he expects to graduate.
Walter is of age, and at home, working on the farm.
Jonathan, Elwood, and David, are also at home, working on the farm.
Mr. Morris is a Republican in politics; in religion a Methodist.
From R. S. Dills' History of Fayette County