This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: MORRIS, Earl, La Compte, Brownell, Evans, Schenk, Van Natta, Jones,
Classification: Biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Ii.2ADI/647
Message Board Post:
This book has no cover, and no index, and no author. I bought it on Ebay; it just has the
insides, but it is full of Indiana biographies. I am not researching this family, just
thought I would share. I do not know anymore about these families or these surnames.
Typed by Lora Radiches:
Surnames in this biography are: MORRIS, Earl, La Compte, Brownell, Evans, Schenk, Van
Natta, Jones,
WILLIAM E. MORRIS. The confidence reposed in the Union County National Bank by thousands
of depositors rests upon a sound basis able directors; capable officers; well-trained,
loyal employees; modern methods and equipment; the mature experience of sixty years of
sound banking at Liberty. Decades of progress have proved not only this bank’s strength
and stability, but also its capacity for furthering the interests of its depositors.
Businessmen who have arrived and those on the way find this bank a congenial connection,
and its president, William E. Morris; with his associates are wise counselors and
financial advisors to the people of this community. William E. Morris was born at
Liberty, Indiana, October 14, 1865, a son of Dr. James E. and Sarah Maria (Earl) Morris,
he born at Dover, Maryland, and she at Granville, New York. The paternal grandparents were
William and Priscilla (La Compte) Morris, natives of Dover, Delaware. They moved to
Bellbrook, Ohio, after thei!
r marriage, and became farming people. Dr. James E. Morris worked his way through Miami
University at Oxford, Ohio, and was graduated in 1852, having as his classmates Whitelaw
Reid and Benjamin Harrison, the former later a towering figure in Republican politics, and
the latter President of the United States. Subsequently Doctor Morris was graduated from
the Medical College at Starling, Ohio, and from Bellevue College, New York City. In 1858
he located at Liberty, and here he continued in practice the remainder of his life. In
1872 he organized a private bank, the Union County Bank, but two years later it was
nationalized under the present name of the Union County National Bank. Before taking his
medical course, in 1852, he traveled in Colorado with a party, and visited Denver, then
composed of seven log cabins, and climbed Pike’s Peak. The maternal grandparents of
William E. Morris were Joseph and Mary (Brownell) Earl, and they never lived in Liberty,
his ministeri!
al duties as a Baptist preacher confining him to the East. For a long period he held a
charge at Whitehall, New York, where he died. His daughter came to Liberty as a public
school teacher, and here she met and later married Doctor Morris. Both Doctor and Mrs.
Morris are now deceased, he having passed away in 1913, at which time he was still
president of the bank. Thomas LaCompte was born in Maryland, in 1796, and died in that
state. He was the maternal grandfather of Doctor Morris. The only child of his parents,
William E. Morris was carefully reared, and he attended a private school with Doctor
Bishop, and later the Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, from which he was graduated in
1889, and returned to Liberty. In that same year, 1889, William E. Morris was
married to Miss Anna May Evans, who was born at Franklin, Ohio, a daughter of William and
Anna (Schenk) Evans, natives of Franklin. After their marriage Mr. And Mrs. Morris lived
at Liberty for three years and !
then moved to Brookston, White County, Indiana, to develop 640 acres, of wild land, and
while doing that Mr. Morris, with John C. Van Natta, organized the State Bank of
Brookston, of which he continued president. Following his mother’s death he and Mrs.
Morris returned to Liberty to look after his father, and when the latter died Mr. Morris
was made president of the Union County National Bank. He sold his banking interests at
Brookston, but still retains the farm. Mrs. Morris died in May, 1923, having borne her
husband the following children: Catherine Earl, who married Stephen W. Jones, born at
Madisonville, Ohio, a son of Judge Oliver B. Jones, and they are residents of Cincinnati,
Ohio, where Mr. Jones is a practicing attorney; and Ruth, who is a noted violinist and is
a member of the faculty of Shorter College, Rome, Georgia. Mr. Morris is an independent
Republican. A high Mason, he belongs to the Blue Lodge of Liberty, the Consistory and
Shrine of Indianapolis !
and the Commandery of La Fayette. He is a member of the Cincinnati Club, and an ex-member
of the La Fayette Club. Mr. Morris is an example of the type of banker who particularly
deserves success because he persistently uses his position of power for safeguarding the
interests of the community. Bankers of this type are invaluable protectors of the public
prosperity from sudden storms or from injurious attacks. Liberty may a well be proud of
such a citizen and businessman. It hopes to profit by his wise counsel and his steadying
influence in financial affairs for many years to come.