J W Morrison, Jr, son of J W and Nancy Grimes Morrison, was born January 10, 1843, grew to manhood on his father's farm, and at the breaking out of the Civil War, he left the county until peace returned, and then he began farming and stock raising, until 1868, when he was appointed Deputy Sheriff under his father, an office that he held for four years.

On June 15, 1871, he married Martha T McClung a woman of exemplary character of Nicholas County, a daughter of Fielding McClung. To this union were born Charles H, Alpheus, Edwin, Mary E, Ernest, Lucy, Anna [other children: unnamed infant, Earle & Tom].

In 1885. he was elected to the State Senate and having served his people faithfully, was again elected to represent his district for a second term. He was named one of the Prominent Men of West Virginia in 1890 in a book of the same name by GW Atkinson & AF Gibbens.

In 19.... he sustained an injury by a carriage fall, which, together with the exposure incident to the lumber trade with its rigor of winter crossing swollen streams, brought on a complication of diseases that after several years of intense suffering, his great energy and physical powers gave way, and he died, having accumulated a valuable estate.

Hardesty's West Virginia Counties
Volume 3
Pg. 96

James W Morrison, Jr, fourth son of James W, is a farmer, merchant and lumberman. He is a member of the firm of Morrison & Bros, in Sutton, and is extensively engaged in the lumber business. His farms contain 500 acres, mostly grazing land. In 1866-7, he rode as deputy sheriff under George H Morrison, and he rode the four years his father served as sheriff, as deputy under him June 15, 1871.

In Nicholas County, West Virginia, he was joined in wedlock with Martha T McClung, who was born in Nicholas County, and their children are seven, all still gathered under the parental roof: Charles Homer, born May 27, 1872; Alpheus, September 5, 1873; Edwin, May 9, 1875; Mary Ella, April 27, 1877; Ernest, April 19, 1879; Lucy, February 28, 1881; Anna, January 7, 1883.

Contributor: Alex Brady (50144495)

Prominent Men of West Virginia (1890), pp. 869 and 870:
JAMES WESLEY MORRISON.
No endowment of our Mountain State affords employment to more laborers, or is so inviting to the investment of capital as that of the timber of our rich forests, which grandly grace our pure streams and dots picturesquely our everlasting and mineral supported hills. In this endowment, and its uninterrupted transportation down Elk river to better markets, the State Senator named above takes a pride, and has, from practical knowledge, advocated legislation accordingly.

His ancestors were originally from Scotland, first settling in Pennsylvania, then moving to the Valley of Virginia. His father located in Braxton, in 1830, and there died at over eighty years of age, November 12, 1886. The son received only a limited education in the ordinary schools of the locality. In 1866 he was deputy, and to 1870 Sheriff of the county, and gave general satisfaction.

In 1884 he was elected Senator from the counties of Kanawha, Clay, Nicholas, Webster and Braxton. He was returned by the same constituency to serve from January, 1889, to December 31, 1892. In this hard-contested campaign he won over the Democratic candidate by a flattering majority of 795, running 550 votes ahead of the National Republican ticket. In the session of 1889 he is upon the committees of Privileges and Elections, Banks and Corporations, Railroads, Immigration and Agriculture, and chairman of that upon Public Library.

His official life has been honest, active, manly, open and commendable. Among the measures advocated by him in the Legislature are: to increase levy for school purposes from ten to twenty cents, laws to encourage the development of our natural resources, to promote the laborer's interests. He is opposed to any responsibility being assumed by West Virginia in the payment of the Virginia debt.

He received the approbation of his entire constituency in his efforts to relieve the lumbermen of his district from the imposition of the Elk River Boom Company, which held the exclusive control of the river, and compelled the lumbermen of the entire stream to float their logs to Charleston to be manufactured. This chartered institution had prevented the development of the Elk Valley region in the way of railroad construction, from the fact that no boom could be erected for the stoppage of logs above Charleston. By his efforts, persistent and well directed, he succeeded in passing a bill through both houses which repealed the Elk River Boom Company's charter, so far as it related to his native county, and thereby secured the building of a boom at the town of Sutton, which was immediately followed by the construction of a railroad from Weston to that point, and eventually to the State capital.