ABOUT CHARLES H. MORRILL
[About Morrill County] - [About Charles H. Morrill] - [Morrill Family History]
Written by Jeffrey P. Morrill, 2nd Great Grandson
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Charles Henry Morrill is a descendent of the Puritans of New England. Abraham Morrill is the first of this surname to come to this country, emigrating on the ship Lyon in 1632 from England to Boston and settling in what is now Salisbury, Massachusetts. Among Abraham's other descendants is Justin Smith Morrill, prominent US Senator from Vermont, who is credited with legislation that founded the agricultural colleges of the various states. Charles Henry Morrill is descended from several veterans of the American Revolution, including his great grandfather Daniel Morrill of Warner, New Hampshire.
Charles Henry Morrill was born July 14, 1843 at Concord, New Hampshire, the only child of Ephriam and Mahala (Lampery) Morrill. At the age of 12, his mother died, and Charles was sent to live with his aunt, and thereafter to a Baptist boarding school, the New London Academy. Less than two years after the death of his mother, his father remarried to Clara Sanborn and had an additional child. Charles never mentions his stepmother in his memoirs, so it appears from his writings that he was excluded from this new family.
In September of 1862, Charles Henry Morrill married Harriet Zinnia Currier. Less than two weeks later, he enlisted in the Eleventh New Hampshire Volunteers, and joined the Civil War. He fought in the battle of Fredericksburg against Stonewall Jackson, found himself under siege in Knoxville, Tennessee, and took part in the siege at Vicksburg. By the end of his three years of service, the Eleventh New Hampshire regiment declined from 1,500 men down to a few over 200.
Afterward, in the spring of 1866, Charles Henry Morrill purchased a team of horses and went west in a covered wagon in search of a government homestead, ending up as a farmer in Iowa. He built a one-room house, and "whenever it rained, most of the water came through, wetting the bedding and everything inside the so-called house." Charles was not a very good farmer, and Harriet knew little about farmhouse work. Ultimately, due to poor health and several poor harvests, they were forced to leave.
In 1871, Charles and his family had moved to Polk County, Nebraska, on the Big Blue River, where they started another farm and cattle ranch "in a sparsely settled country with 6,000 Pawnee Indians less than twenty-five miles away." Charles started traveling away from home in this time to supplement his income, and made many acquaintances along the way. By 1880 was appointed by the Governor of Nebraska, Albinus Nance, to be his private secretary. Three years later, Charles joined in a partnership with Governor Nance to organize the Bank of Stromsburg Nebraska in 1883.
Being President of the Stromsburg Nebraska Bank turned Charles Henry Morrill from a poor farmer to a wealthy man. He was afterwards President of the Lincoln (Nebraska) Land Company and also President of the South Platte Land Company, the Lancaster Land Company, and the Boston Investment Company. During this time he helped the Burlington railroad explore the country and report on general conditions, so that they could determine the best routes for railroad lines. This helped create many settlements in western Nebraska and nearby states, particularly in the North Platte Valley. As President of the Lincoln Land Company, he helped establish the town of Scottsbluff, Nebraska in 1898. Shortly thereafter, he laid out a tract of land for a town at the western edge of the state and named it after himself, thereby creating the town of Morrill, Nebraska.
In the year 1908, the Nebraska State Legislature divided Cheyenne County, and the part north of the division line was called "Morrill" county in honor of Charles Henry Morrill's contribution to the development of this part of the state.
Colonel W. F. Cody, Buffalo Bill, was one of Charles Henry Morrill's most famous friends. They met when Col. Cody was selected as a guide for a group exploring the area near Yosemite Valley in Wyoming on behalf of the railroad. Their friendship endured over the years. Each year, Col. Cody invited thirty to fifty people to accompany him in the Wyoming Mountains to hunt big game. Each person was given a gun to use during the trip and to keep as a memento. One of these guns was passed down to my family. Our family tradition was that Col. Cody also gave him a silver saddle, though if true it is certainly in a museum now.
Charles Henry Morrill became a member of the Board of Regents of Nebraska State University in 1890, and was President of the Board between 1893-1903. In that position he was a strong benefactor, funding the Morrill Geological Yearly Expeditions. The Expeditions populated the University Museum with a wide array of dinosaur and mammoth bones. A new type of early American Indian arrowhead was discovered by the Expeditions and named a Morrill Point. Mr. Morrill collected thousands of American Indian specimens in the course of his dealings with the local tribes, and these were donated to the University Museum. When Mr. Morrill retired, the University used a portion of his cherry desk to carve a Morrill coat-of-arms, which is now in my possession.
On the back of this undated photo is a notation written by my grandmother: "Grandpa [Charles Henry] Morrill and Joe, his chauffeur and valet, in Mr. Morrill's model 1901 Pierce Arrow in front of the Morrill home in Lincoln, Nebraska, corner of 18th and E Streets."
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