Alonzo Morris
a biography by John Franklin
Morris and William Lee Morris
written in January 2006
Alonzo “Lonnie” Morris was born in
Washington, D.C. on October 10, 1877.
His father Robert was a shoemaker and veteran of the Union Army; his
mother was the former Emma Orrell of Maryland. Robert and Emma Morris had an
amazing fourteen children, but only six survived; of these, Alonzo was the
youngest.
Little is known of Alonzo’s early
life; the 1910 Census lists him as a single 30-year old living together with
his widowed 70-year mother at 2200 Minnesota Avenue in Southeast Washington,
D.C. He is employed by the public school system, though it is unclear in what
capacity.
Alonzo
is seen in this group photo which appears to be a school picture:
Alonzo Morris standing at left with arms folded,
wearing a dark vest.
Another
old group photo shows Alonzo standing with an unknown group of baseball
players. A neighbor who knew him in his later years says that he often still
carried a baseball bat around with him.
Alonzo Morris standing at left, with his hands in his
pockets.
Alonzo’s
home was a small apartment above a grocery store, located in a
triangular-shaped building which occupied the acute angle formed by the
intersection of 22nd Street and Minnesota Avenue. The 1910 Census
also records Alonzo’s eldest brother Edward living nearby at 2226 Minnesota
Avenue with his wife and six sons, as well as his daughter, her husband and
their child.
On
March 11, 1916, Alonzo Morris married Anna Elizabeth “Betty” Bradfield in
Rockville, Maryland. The Bradfield’s lived about seven blocks away, on
Anacostia Road near Minnesota Avenue. Alonzo was thirty-eight at the time, and
Betty was just fifteen years and eight months of age. Their marriage, however,
would last for fifty years.
Their
first child, Clarence Walter Morris, was born four months later, on July 19,
1916 – six days before Betty’s sixteenth birthday. Sadly, Clarence would be
taken ill three months later, on Alonzo’s birthday, October 10. Clarence died two
days later, on October 12, 1916.
Lonnie
and Betty’s second child, Alvin William Morris, was born in their home at 2200
Minnesota Avenue on January 27, 1918. A daughter, Margaret Louise Morris, was
born a couple of years later, on October 22, 1920. Sometime after this, the
family moved down the street, to a location at 719 Minnesota Avenue.
Alonzo
had changed jobs a few times over the years. On his 1917 World War I draft
registration card he lists his occupation as a chauffeur, employed by the
Washington Steel and Ordnance Company. By the 1920 Census, he was working as a
night watchman for the railroad.
This
is a picture of Betty and the children at the railroad:
Unfortunately, tragedy was to strike
the family again in April 1936, when daughter Margaret committed suicide by
taking poison in a movie theater. The fifteen-year old was evidently a troubled
child, as she had run away from home the preceding October, only to be found in
Miami, Florida, and returned home in January.
Alonzo on the farm with an unidentified child
In
1941 Lonnie and Betty purchased a farm property in Churchton, Maryland, nestled
in a peaceful cove at the end of a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. The
farmhouse had been burnt down by the unanticipated explosion of a basement
still kept by the previous owners. Until the house could be rebuilt, they lived
in a small bungalow which had been built on the property in 1922. As they began
to till the fields to plant crops, it was not uncommon to dig up mason jars
full of moonshine which had been buried in numerous places. Corn was grown, and
cows and pigs were kept on the farm, along with the horses needed for the
plowing - the first tractor did not make an appearance until 1957. An apple
orchard stretched down to the waterfront; some of those trees still bear fruit
to this day.
One acre of the property was
later sold to a friend, Carroll Stone, who built a house for his family there.
A blue 1955 Chevrolet station wagon was purchased with the five hundred dollars
from the sale. Technology took another leap forward in 1962 when the first
telephone came to the farm.
This
is the house as it appeared in October 1967:
During
some of this time, Lonnie kept his job working as a china packer for the Woodward
and Lothrop department store in Washington, D.C. Betty would drive him to
nearby Edgewater on Monday morning where he would catch the bus for downtown,
and stay for the week in a ten dollar-a-week room before returning on Friday.
Alonzo’s job was to unpack china as it arrived at the store. This work offered
a fringe benefit, as the china came packed in grass which he would bring home
to use as bedding for the livestock – unwittingly contributing to the
introduction of a non-native species as he did so. It is said that certain
unusual, spiky weeds which still occur on the property can trace their own
genealogy back to seeds mixed in with those foreign grasses.
Alonzo also participated in the civil defense program.
Here is a photo taken at the Christmas party of a
group of air-raid wardens:
Alonzo is in the back by the tree, holding his helmet
in his hand.
Lonnie
and Betty lived on the farm for the rest of their lives. Betty passed away in
December 1966 at the age of 66, and Alonzo lived for only six months afterward,
passing away himself in June 1967 at the age of 89. They are buried together at
Woodfield Cemetery in nearby Galesville, Maryland. In 1964, a portion of the
land was used to build a home for their son William and his wife Dorothy; this
was sold upon Dorothy’s death in 1985. The bulk of the farm remains owned and
well-tended by Lonnie’s grandson, also named William.
Here
are Lonnie and Betty, along with their grandson William Morris and Trampy the
dog:
