STORIES OF DE WITT FAMILIES

Names In Alpha Order

GERSHOM S. MORRISON.  FROM PHYSICIAN TO HOTEL PROPRIETOR

The following information was provided by Mrs. Cloyd Morey, Jr.,
P. 0. Box 285, Earlham, IA 50072.

Gershom Samuel Morrison was born 14 December 1805, in Steuben Co.,
NY, the bon of Alexander Morrison.  On 20 December 1829, in Steuben Co.9
NY, Gershom Morrison married Lura Coston (born 7 May 1809, New York).
They were the parents of nine children.  Elihu, b. 12 February 1831,
Wheeler, NY, Elizabeth, b. 12 Feb 1831, Wheeler, NY; Margaret Coston,
b. 14 January 1833, Steuben Co., NY; Harriet Lucena, b. 20 May 1835t NY;
Warren, b. 20 February 1837, NY; Wallace, b. 20 February 1837, NY; John
Coston, b. 17 August 1838, Concord, IN; George Newel, b. 7 November 1841,
Concord, IN; Ruth Adaline, b. 31 July 1847.  Three of these children,
Elizabeth, Warren, and Wallace, died in infancy.  Only one of the Morri-
son children was born in DeWitt County, Illinois--Ruth Adaline Morrison,
who latex married a Brackett.

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In 1904 Margaret Coston Morrison Nisley, daughter of Gershom S.
Morrison, compiled a short "Morrison Family History,” which appears ver-
batim below:

Gershom S. Morrison born Dec. 14, 1805
Lure Coston born May 7th 1809, both N.Y. State

Gershom S. Morrison & Lure Coston was married Dec 20th, 1829, in N.Y.;
their first children Twins Elihu &- Elizabeth  were born in Wheeler, Steu-
ben Co., N.Y. Elizabeth died Feb 28th aged 2 weeks & 2 days.  June 14th
1833 Margaret Coston Morrison was born in Steuben Co. N.Y. Harriet Lu-
cena Morrison, born May 20th i835, next.  Twins Warren & Walace Morrison
born Feb 20th 1837.  Warren Morrison died May 27th 1837; Wallis Morrison
died June 19th 1837.  Ruth Adaline Morrison was born in DeWitt County,
Ills., July 31st, 1847. 1 think about that time they started West &
when they got to Concord, Elkhart Co., Indiana, my bro John C. Morrison
was born Aug 17th 1838.  November 7th 1841 George Newel Morrison was
born, same place.  They then continued their journey to DeWitt Co., Ills,
where I remember was a very new country, no schools for some time &
churches was continued from house to house & player meetings appointed
the same & Methodist camp meetings were conducted out on a nice flatt
quite out of the neighborhood (where every body went).  My paper is now
laying on the Holy Bible, which I learned my A, B, Cs in standing beside my
Father's knees.  My father practiced Med ever since my first memory where
he studied for the profession I know not but seemed to be very successful
in practice his charges were light, he did not take the last penny for
his services & a child never had to pay to get a tooth pulled as is the
case now a clays.  He always said they had enough to endure, he was a
child's friend in every respect, I never knew him to utter an oath or allow
his boys to in no case.  Pa sold out in Dewitt Co, Ills & went north into
Lee Co., there settled & kept what is now termed Hotel or what then was
half way house between Peru & Dixon & kept P. O., they called it Hay Hill;
people did not keep up correspondence then as now, postage was dear; so I
had no chance to learn of my grand parents or uncles, aunts or cpisoms un-
till cousin Cordelie Fitch & I undertook to write often.   We kept it up un
till her death in Oakland which was in 1901. Her husband had her body em-
balmed and sent to Anita, Iowa, to have her buried beside her Mother & Fath-
er. Aunt Ruth Pitch is buried there.  Aunt Ruth Fitch was Pa’s youngest
sister; she was quite aged when she died.


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From the History of Cass County, Iowa (no date or pages provided):

The territory now known as Grant township constituted a part of what
was called Lura township, one of the seven original subdivisions of the
county, named after the wife of the pioneer settler, Dr. Gershom S.  Morri-
son.  Lure township was organized by order of the County Court, in March,
1858, and the warrant for the first election was issued to Dr. Morrison, as
organizing officer.  It took place at his house, on the 5th of April..

Dr. G. S. Morrison was the pioneer of the northeastern portion of
Cass County, which was embraced, in his lifetime, under the name of Lure
township, and in which there were probably not more than a score of families
at the time of his death in 1863.  His wife, after whom the township was
christened, died four years later.  In August, 1853, Dr. Morrison came
from Bureau county, Ill., and entered a large tract of land about a mile
southwest of where Anita now stands.  Upon it he erected a large double log
cabin, and, with his wife, proceeded to make himself at home.  He dropped
his professional practice almost entirely and did what he could to develop
the country, building roads and bridges and ably assisting in civil organi-
zation.  In order to support himself and wife in this wild country of their
choice he became what, in ancient times, would have been called "a mighty
hunter." As a sample of his achievements, during the winter of 1855-6 he
killed in the neighborhood of one hundred and fifty deer.  In the pre-
ceding winter Dr. Morrison, Peter Kanawyer, R. D. McGeehon, and J. R. Kirk
spent about two months in staking out a road and bridging the streams for a
distance of about forty miles, from Dalmanutha, Guthrie county, to the
Nishnabotna river, about two miles from Indiantown.  At that time all such
work was clone by the settlers without pay, as the taxes were not sufficient
to make such improvements.  In May, 1855, the lieste3.m Stage Company put a
line of four-horse coaches from Des Moines to Council Bluffs, the new road
built by the citizens of Cass county named above became a section of its
system and Morrison’s Grove and his log house constituted a regular sta-
tion of it.  The doctor and his good wife opened a sort of a hotel, and
were such popular personages that Morrsion’s Station became noted from one
side of the State to the other.


THE SHREVE FAMILY

Contributed by J. M. Shreve

From L. P. Allen's The Genealogy and History of the Shreve Family from 1641, published 
privately in 1901 in Greenfield, IL, page 129:

Minnie J. Shreve, daughter of John Scott Shreve and Alice Elsbery, was born in New Marion, Ind.
May 1, 1876, married William Cole New Marion, Ind. Nov. 19, 1893 and (in 1901) was living in 
Dewitt, Ill.

(The contributor notes that Minnie J. Shreve was the direct descendant of Samuel Shreve, who
fought in the Revolutionary War.  Samuel was a brother to James Shreve, the direct ancestor of
the contributor.  In the 1600's the Shreve family lived in West Jersey (New Jersey), and 
following the Revolutionai7 War, they migrated to various parts of the country.)

HIRAM AND ISAAC WEBB AND THE 41ST ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY

by Lola Webb Glenn

The 41st Illinois Volunteer Infantry had a long and varied service during the Civil War.  This 
is a brief record of its activities taken from a variety of sources.  According to State of 
Illinois records, Hiram Webb joined the army, 8 March 1864 and was mustered into Federal service
on 3 May 1864.  His brother, Isaac Newton Webb, joined at the same time.  Isaac and Hiram were
sons of Henry and Mary Ann Lash Webb.  Henry war born in Virginia in 1822.   Mary Ann was born
in Ohio in 1825.  She died in DeWitt County in 1858. They were married in DeWitt County 22 
February 1844.  Isaac was born in DeWitt County 21 September 1847 and died 3 December 1910 in 
DeWitt County.  Hiram was born 4 April 1849 in Dewitt County and died 15 May 1924 in Clinton. 
Hiram married Parthenia Miller in March 1873.

The 41st Illinois Volunteer Infantry was. organized in Decatur during July and August of 1861.
Col. Isaac Pugh, formerly a Captain of the 8th Illinois Infantry, was its first commanding 
Officer. Companies C, F, & K were from DeWitt County.  The 41st  was mustered into Federal 
Service 5 August 1861, and on the 8th it moved to St. Louis.  In early September it moved to 
Paducah, KY, along with other troops under the command of Ulysses S. Grant.  The regiment spent
the winter in the Kentucky area. It marched to Tennessee and arrived at Ft.  Henry on 5 
February 1862, just as Flag Officer Foote was hauling his gunboats into line for the bombardment
of that Confederate-held fort.  Ft. Henry surrendered with Grant suffering no casualties among
his infantrymen.  On the 11th, the 41st moved upstream where it participated in the attack
against Ft. Donelson, suffering 200 casualties in killed and wounded. Col. Pugh allegedly had
eleven holes shot in his clothes.  The Confederate force surrendered unconditionally on 16 
February.  The regiment fought with Hurlbut’s Division at the bloody Battle of Shiloh and was
engaged near that part of the field referred  to later as the "hornet's nest.'' For the second 
time in less than two months, the regiment lost 200 man killed and wounded. Its effective 
strength was now reduced to about half.  The 41st participated in the siege of Corinth, Miss.,
and during the summer months it campaigned in Miss. and west Tenn.

In 1863 the 41st Illinois participated in the siege of Vicksburg, and it was there when that 
stronghold surrendered on 4 July 1863.  Immediately thereafter, the regiment left for Jackson, 
TN. At Jackson, division commander Gen. Lauman overrode the orders of Col.  Pugh, now commanding
the brigade, and ordered the 41st, along with the other brigade members, 3rd Iowa, 26th 
Illinois, and the 53rd Illinois, to charge the strong Rebel works.  It was a foolhardy assault,
and the brigade lost heavily.  For this display of incompetence, Gen. Lauman was relieved of 
his command by Gen. Sherman.

The regiment campaigned along the Mississippi River until spring of 1864. The men of the 41st 
had enlisted for three years service, and their three years would be up in late summer. In 
March, 1864, those who chose to re-enlist for the duration of the war and be designated
"veterans"  were given a furlough home.  Nearly 200 members of the regiment did so.  Regiments
home on furlough recruited heavily to fill up their depleted ranks, and thousand of new recruits
joined the army in early spring of 1864. Most who joined up were young men who had been mere 
boys in 1861 or older men who had come to feel a need to do their part regardless of family 
responsibilities.  According to State of Illinois records, it was at this time that Isaac N. 
Webb and Hiram Webb joined the 41st Illinois Infantry. (Isaac would have been 17 years old and
Hiram 15 years old.)

The 41st Illinois returned to the South during the Atlanta campaign, joining Sherman’s advancing
army on 5 July 1864.  The regiment campaigned with Sherman’s army until the fall of Atlanta on 
2 September.  During this time the "non-veterans" of the 41st, as they were called, who did not
re-enlist, campaigned in Mississippi and were sent home when their enlistments ran out.  The 
41st Illinois participated in Sherman's famous March to the Sea, moving with the right wing 
under command of Gen. Howard.   After the "non-veterans" had gone home, the re-enlisted veterans
and those men who had joined in the early spring of 1864, were consolidated into what was called
the 41st Veteran Battalion.  In January 1865, at Savannah, Georgia, Sherman again consolidated 
his unit.,  now reduced further in numbers by the toll of the rigorous Georgia campaign.  The
41st Veterans Battalion was attached to the 53rd Illinois Regiment for the remainder of the war.
The 53rd Illinois participated in the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina.  Thirty-eight days
later Confederate Gen.  Joseph Eggleston Johnston surrendered to Gen.  Sherman, three weeks 
after Lee had surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House.

After the war the men of the 41st Illinois, now attached to the 53rd Illinois, participated 
proudly in the Grand Review as Gen. William Tecumseh  Sherman's victorious troops  marched 
triumphantly through the streets of Washington, D. C. The regiment was mustered out of Federal
Service 22 July 1865.  My grandfather Hiram and his brother Isaac were mustered out at 
Louisville, Kentucky, 22 July 1865.
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