Mary Ann Morrison, ♊

Biography:

• Born 1781, Londonderry, New Hampshire to John and Isabell (Reid /Reed ) Hopkins. Twin sister of Betsey Ann Hopkins. They reported to be born two days apart, not sure of birth order.
• Married Nathaniel Morrison Sept. 13, 1804.
• Children:

1. ELiza Felt ( Morrison); b. 1805 d. 1865
2. John H. Morrison, D.D.; b.1808 d.1896
3. Prof. Horace Morrison; b. 1810 d.1879
4. Caroline Morrison; b. 1813
5. Prof. Nathaniel Morrison LL. D.; b. 1815
6. Martha Morrison; b.1817 d. 1819
7. Samuel Morrison (twin)
8. James Morrison (twin)

• Husband Nathaniel Morrison died 1819. The twins were 4 months old.
• Died Aug. 27, 1848, Medina, Michigan; buried at Old Street Cemetery beside her husband, Nathaniel.

It is said of Mary Ann that she was considered to be a great beauty of her time, full of life and blessed with a beautiful singing voice. She was often asked to entertain at social functions and was very popular. She also had a talent for spinning and weaving and was the victor in many a afternoon spinning contest. It is said she could weave the most difficult of patterns, often using 12 spools at the same time.

She married Nathaniel Morrison when she was 26 years old. Theirs is a riches to rags story. Nathaniel accumulated a fortune and lost it through a series of bad luck and bad investments. Nathaniel Morrison would die in 1819 of yellow fever and leave her with seven children to raise.

Per account of her son Rev.John Hopkins, D.D. :

A month or two before when news of the falling through of the Natchez enterprise had reached this part of the country, the sheriff had come to our house and taken possession of everything that the law allowed him to take. After my father's death we remained in the old homestead through the winter till March or April, 1820. My mother had for her portion a shell of a house near the South Factory and $800. It required half the money to convert the old weaving shop into a tolerable residence. I remember well the earnest gaze and the deep sigh, with which on leaving our early home where all her children but one had been born, she looked back upon it with a baby on each arm and then turned slowly away towards her new home. She had been left alone in the fall of 1818 with seven children, the oldest thirteen years and the two youngest four months. All her means of support consisted in a half finished house, two cows and four or five hundred dollars. She had a most delicate. sensitive nature but a force of will and amount of executive energy such as I have never seen surpassed. In my remembrance of her as she was during the early period of her widowhood, I always think of her sitting at her loom working and weeping. She did not stop to indulge in discouraging apprehensions, but emphasized her grief by driving her shuttle with increased promptness and vehemence. With a resolution that almost broke her heart she put her two oldest boys, one eleven and the other nine years old, into farmers families to work for their living. Lessons of honest industry and helpfulness and self dependence were thus learned. If there was a great deal of suffering on their part and on hers, caused by severe labor and a divided household, habits were formed which contributed largely to whatever measure of usefulness or success they may have attained. The heaviest burden rested upon our oldest sister whose ability and willingness to help all the rest shut her out from the advantages of education which the others enjoyed

Source: The History of the Morison Or Morrison Family: With Most of the "Traditions ...;By Leonard Allison Morrison, Frederick William Leopold Thomas;Boston Mass.; A. Williams & Co.; 283 Washington Street; 1880

• Link:https://books.google.com/books?id=-RQ5AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA157&lpg=PA157&d...

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Per Account of Nathaniel Morrison: (Death of his mother while nursing her daughter, Caroline Moore)

Her younger daughter, a delicate and cultivated woman with much of her mother's energy of character, had married and moved to a log cabin in the wilds of Michigan. The severe trials of frontier life had broken her health and threatened her life, In the fall of 1846, her mother went out to see and to help her with no knowledge of the fevers of that new country, almost sure to be fatal to a person of her age. She brought to the heart of her invalid daughter all the comfort she expected to give, but in the summer of 1848 she took the malarial fever, so fatal to elderly persons, and after a few days sickness died at Medina Mich. August 27, at the age of sixty- nine. She was a woman of uncommon energy, decision and perseverance with a large fund of common sense to guide and control her with broad views, high aims and a loving heart and her children arise up and call her blessed.

Source: John Hopkins Morison: A Memoir; By George Shattuck Morison, Robert Swain Morison, Mary Moriso

• Link:https://books.google.com/books?id=b75NzTeLJIwC&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&dq=...

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David Weir '59 Creates Morrison Scholarship

David Weir's family connection to Exeter is like a friendship that keeps getting better over time. It is an association that extends all the way back to the 1820s. When David Weir's ancestor, Nathaniel Morison of Peterborough, New Hampshire, died of yellow fever, Nathaniel's widow and seven children were left impoverished, and the three older boys were engaged as farm hands and apprentices. The eldest son, John Hopkins Morison, tired of farm work, found a job in Gilman's store in Exeter. Carrying on his studies in the evening, he was brought to the attention of the Academy principal of the time, Benjamin Abbot, who accepted him as a "charity" student. All four of his brothers then followed him to Exeter, and four of the five sons went on to Harvard, which also became a family tradition. Says David, a member of the class of '59, "The Academy gave the sons of my ancestor the opportunity to get out of their impoverished circumstances, gain a good education and lead fulfilling lives, which they all did."

In honor of his family legacy, David has established a charitable remainder unitrust at the Academy that will one day create the Morison Scholarship to provide the same opportunities to talented students of today. Through the unitrust, David will be able to achieve his philanthropic goals for Exeter while retaining a life income for himself.

"It's a pleasure to give prospective students the same chance the Morisons got," says David.

"This scholarship is my family's chance to do for Exeter what Exeter did for them."

• Link:http://www.exeter.planyourlegacy.org/donor_weir.php

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• Note: See letter from Ezekiel Morrison to Mary Ann below:

Source: Shared and Spared; Old letters Saved From Obscurity

• Link:https://sparedandshared.wordpress.com/letters/1821-ezekiel-morrison...

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Her daughter Mary Ann, sister of James Hopkins, Esq., married Nathaniel Morrison of Peterborough and was mother of John H Morrison, D.D. of Milton, Mass., and Prof. Nathaniel H. Morrison LL. D of Baltimore, Md., and also Prof. Horace Morrison, president of the University of Maryland John.

Source: History of the Town of Antrim, New Hampshire: From Its Earliest Settlement ...

• Link:https://books.google.com/books?id=yAPPmgRzUj4C&pg=PA545&lpg=PA545&d...

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