Cicero Morris

Cicero's paternal grandmother was said to be full blooded Cherokee Indian, and that his grandfathers wife Lucy was not the biological mother. His father James Gadison (Gad) Morris served as a Private in Company C, 40th reg. Georgia Infantry and was captured twice, at Vicksburg, Mississippi on May 1st 1962 and again in July 1964. His mother Elizabeth (nee Wanslee) bore 11 children

BY DARYL JAMES

FROM 'JAMES/HATCH ONE MINUTE HISTORIES' (1994)

    Cicero Morris was born in Des Arc, Prairie County, Arkansas, on Sept. 12, 1871, to Gad Morris and Elizabeth Wanslee.

Cicero was the youngest of 12 children. Two of these were twins who died at birth 18 years before Cicero was born. The rest lived to adulthood.
Cicero came to Arizona in the autumn of 1877 when he was seven years old. He came in a covered wagon, drawn by oxen, with his parents and nine surviving brothers and sisters. The family moved west with a company of Saints after joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Arkansas.
The family crossed the Colorado River on a ferry boat and settled at Brigham City, Ariz., near the town of Winslow, Ariz. The family lived there a short while when Cicero's father died and left his mother to care for the large family alone. Cicero, the youngest child, was seven at the time and George, the oldest, was 25.
The family found it too difficult to make a living at Brigham City, so they moved to the Gila Valley in southeastern Arizona. In the Gila Valley they raised corn and lived in huts for shelter. They enjoyed little schooling and little entertainment.
When Cicero was 11, the Wright brothers from his town were killed by Apaches. Cicero was among the group of men to bring their bodies to Layton, Ariz. He remembered this as a gruesome experience.
When Cicero was 23 he married Almira Merrill on Oct. 14, 1894. The couple settled in the area of Safford, Ariz., and together they had 13 children. Cicero worked as a farmer and freighter. He drove a United States mail stage for President Christopher Layton before he started his lifetime occupation of farming.
The land was dry, hot and barren except for mesquite. This made farming difficult, especially since there were no irrigation systems. Water had to be pumped or hauled by hand. Cooking was done on a wooden stove with wood that was cut by hand. Laundry was done on a scrubbing board. The only transportation was horses.
According to his daughter, Lorene Morris Umland, Cicero was a hard worker. She said he loved his farm animals and took good care of them. He loved his family and had a good disposition. Lorene said everyone liked him and thought him to be a good man. He was well known in the area of the Gila Valley.
Gerald Heber James, a grandson, remembers visiting the Morris farm as a boy. He said the Morris house had five rooms: a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom, a sitting room, and one bathroom. These rooms seemed large to Gerald at the time, but looking back, he said they were probably pretty small for a family so large.
Gerald said there were chickens in the yard and corn and watermelon. On Jan. 18, 1955, Cicero passed away at Safford at the age of 84. His wife died later the same year at 77. "They were people of faith, humbleness, kind-hearted, understanding, and full of love," Lorene Umland wrote in 1976. "Their posterity honors them."
-- Sources: 1. Typed history of Cicero Morris, by Lorene Morris (daughter). 2. Typed, 2-page autobiography of Norma Morris. 3. Tape-recorded interview with Gerald Heber James (grandson); October 1994; Glendale, Arizona.