Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

lyS ANNALS OF OUR ANCESTORS
separated for more than a day or two at a time, and so we
found this reunion all the more full of joy. In looking back
over those far-away days, now more than half a century ago,
I understand how important was this period in the life of our
elder brother.
We found the Morris family a leading one of that country.
Mr. Isaac Morris was a man who by honesty and industry had
improved his inheritance. The Green Tree Tavern had stood
for a number of years then, having been built in 1832 by one
Ichabod Corwin and sold by him to Nathan Sharp. The latter
had been one of the head Shakers and privileged to wear an
eight-dollar hat, but tradition tells us he departed from the
colony with money enough to buy the Green Tree, and it was
he who sold it to Mr. Isaac Morris. The first Isaac Morris
was a wagonmaster general in the Continental Army. He
removed with his family from Morris County, New Jersey,
when Benjamin Morris, the father of the master of Green Tree,
was fourteen years old. It may be interesting to note here
that both the Morris and Watkins families came to southern
Ohio from New Jersey, though Isaac Morris the first preceded
our grandfather, James Watkins, by two years in his emigration
from that state. This Morris ancestor took up a considerable
body of land from government; at the time of our
visit the original property was owned by the North family
of Shakers. Great-grandfather Isaac Morris was an ardent
man, passionate and excitable and very religious, formerly a
Presbyterian but later becoming a member of the religious
body called "New Lights" or "Bible Christians," though
they preferred the simple designation "Christian." It is
said that he became so strongly opposed to Calvinism that
he wanted his grandson Isaac to write an article against the
Apostle Paul for being a Calvinist! His wife, Rebecca Hathaway
Morris, was a woman of moderate stature and remembered
as very industrious. She died on the property afterwards
owned by the Shakers, and was eighty years of age
at the time of her death.
When we were at Green Tree, Grandfather Benjamin
Morris was living there. I remember him as a small, dark.