W. D. Morrison and James Morrison Collection

Dr. William Brown Morrison was born June 12, 1877, in Lexington, VA. He graduated from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA, and one year later began his teaching at Rockville Academy, Rockville, MD. He then went to Beaumont, TX and had his own school, the Beaumont Classical Academy. He later became principal of Beaumont High School. In 1902 he became Vice-President of Durant Presbyterian College. On December 25, 1902 he married Christine Dorman Barton. In 1904 he moved to Williamson, West Virginia, where he was in charge of the Williamson Presbyterial Academy. Later he was principal of the high school there and at the same time was editor and publisher of the Williamson Enterprise. In 1920 he moved to Durant, OK, and became president of Oklahoma Presbyterian College for girls, a position which he held for 13 years. He resigned to enter the bookstore business. In 1925 he was a member of Southeastern State College faculty in the history department. He had poems published in the Anthology of Poetry by Oklahoma Writers, and among the books he published are Red Man's Trail, An Oklahoman Abroad, Out in Oklahoma, and Military Camps and Forts.He was a charter member of the Durant Lions Club, of which he was president 1 year and secretary 16 years. He was a member of the Masonic Blue Lodge, Knights Templar, Knights of Pythias, and the Woodmen of the World. W. B. Morrison had three sons -- James Davidson Morrison, Lieutenant Ross Morrison, and Lieutenant (jg) William Morrison, and two daughters -- Mrs. Natalie Virginia Denison and Mrs. Elizabeth Chapin Stephany. At the time of his death, which occurred on March 20, 1944, he also had three grandchildren: Gertrude Ann Morrison, William Barton Morrison, Jr., and James Harris Denison. James Davidson Morrison is the son of William Brown Morrison. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma, and in 1951 submitted a thesis on "A Social History of the Choctaws, 1865-1907". He was Dean of Instruction at Southeastern State College in Durant, OK. He was also a history professor at Eastern Oklahoma College in Wilburton