John Morrow
John Morrow was for many years a merchant at Bellville. He resembled William H. Seward in appearance, and had been his schoolmate. Morrow was bred to the law, but was diverted from it into the channel of trade. Morrow was erudite, but he preferred to consider and discuss men and events rather than books. Beneath his dignity there was a vein of humor, and he could tell a story and enjoy a joke, but never indulged in personal ones nor descended to the plane of a "kidder". Morrow had a dog that made the store his headquarters for many years and in the summer season when the windows were open in the story above the storeroom the dog would stand for hours at a time with his feet upon their low sills looking out and down upon passers-by. The dog died and the day following a peddler came along who had a dog the exact counterpart of the Morrow dog ins size, color and markings, but being a Turn-spit, he had short legs -- legs only about half the length of the Morrow dog. For the consideration of one dollar the ownership of the canine was transferred from the peddler to Mr. Morrow and the "Turnspit" took the position in the store that his late predecessor had before him. Then the fun began, when people came to the store, they would look at the dog, then at Morrow, and ask, "Squire, where alls your dog? What has happened to him? Se how short his legs have become!" Morrow would reply: "I told the boys not to leave those windows hoisted upstairs, that the dog was liable to jump out and get 'stowed up'. Now look at him! See his legs!" And dozens of people looked at the dog and wondered, never doubting that it was the some "dorg" and that he ha jumped out of the upstairs window to the stone pavement below and had thus been "jammed up". And the merchant would look over his gold-rimmed spectacles, which he wore well down on his nose, and feign commiseration over the supposed mishap. 'Squire Morrow was a leading citizen of Bellville for many years. He was the father of Capt. W.F. Morrow, of Cincinnati, a traveling salesman, who frequently visits Mansfield.
From The Mansfield News, May 28, 1899