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KANAWHA COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: MORRIS, Harvey Hansford
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
September 24, 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 271-272
Kanawha County
HARVEY HANSFORD MORRIS, who maintains his residence
and business headquarters in the City of Huntington and
who is prominently concerned with coal-mining operations
in his native state, is of distinguished American ancestry
on both the paternal and maternal sides. His paternal grand-
father, Fenton Mercer Morris, was born at Crown Hill,
Kanawha County, Virginia (now West Virginia), in the
year 1815, and his death occurred at Boomer, Fayette
County, in June, 1892. He was extensively engaged in
farm enterprise and also was a leading figure in the timber
industry, he having resided for varying intervals in
Kanawha, Nicholas and Fayette counties. His wife, whose
maiden name was Rebecca Lloyd, died in Nicholas County.
William Morris, father of Fenton M., was born in one of the
eastern counties of Virginia and was a resident of Kanawha
Falls, Fayette County, at the time of his death. He served
as sheriff of Kanawha County, was a farmer and timber
operator and was for a time a resident of Peters Creek,
Nicholas County. He first married Sarah Hansford, and
after her death contracted a second marriage, the family
name of his second wife having been Chapman. His father,
Joshua Morris, a native of Virginia, was one of the pioneer
settlers in what is now Cabell County, West Virginia, and
he developed a large landed estate, and was one of the
progressive pioneer exponents of farm industry in Cabell
and Kanawha counties. He had served in the early Indian
wars and was also a patriot soldier in the War of the
Revolution. In Orange County, Virginia, was solemnized
his marriage to Frances Simms. He was a son of William
Morris, who was born in England, in 1722, and who first
located at Philadelphia after coming to America. In 1744
he initiated operations as a farmer or planter in Culpeper
County, Virginia, and there occurred his marriage to Eliza-
beth Stepp. In 1773 he came with his family to what is
now Kanawha County, West Virginia, and located at the
mouth of Kelly's Creek, near the present Village of Cedar
Grove. He was the first permanent white settler in that
county, and his was the first will probated in Kanawha
County. He had the spirit of a hardy adventurer and true
pioneer, and as a farmer and hunter he was a prominent
figure in the early development of what is now West Vir-
ginia. He had given gallant service as a soldier in the
Revolution, became guardian of Kelly's Post in Kanawha
County, and at that point lie died and was laid to rest. He
reared a family of eight sons and two daughters. His son
William gained fame as "Major Billy" Morris, gallant
commander of patriot forces in the War of the Revolution.
Major Morris married Catherine Carroll, a descendant of
Lord Carroll, the Maryland colonist.
Albert Gallatin Hansford, maternal grandfather of Har-
vey H. Morris, of Huntington, was born at Crown Hill,
Kanawha County, and there his death occurred shortly
before the inception of the Civil war, he having been a
merchant, having conducted a cooper shop and having been
a shipper of coal and salt. His wife, whose maiden name
was Nancy Harriman, was born in the present Cabell
County, West Virginia, in 1818, and died at East Bank,
Kanawha County, in 1904. Albert 0. Hansford was a son
of Maj. John Hansford, who was born in Eastern Virginia,
and who was a pioneer in Kanawha County, where he be-
came a farmer and was the first to ship produce from the
Kanawha Valley, he having served as a major in the War
of the Revolution and his remains being interred in a
pioneer cemetery at Crown Hill, Kanawha County. He mar-
ried Jane Morris, a daughter of Maj. "Billy" Morris, men-
tioned above. Mrs. Fenton (Morris) Brown, sister of him
whose name initiates this review, is, in 1922, organizing at
Pratt, on the Kanawha River, a chapter of the Society of
the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the same
will be chartered as William Morris Chapter.
Harvey Hansford Morris was born at Coalburg, Kanawha
County, West Virginia, April 11, 1873, and is a son of
Chapman and Sallie Summerfield (Hansford) Morris, the
former of whom was born in Nicholas County, in 1847, and
the latter at what is now East Bank, Kanawha County, in
the same year. Chapman Morris died at Coalburg in
October, 1873, and his widow survived him by forty years,
she having been a resident of Richmond, Virginia, at the
time of her death, June 15, 1913. Chapman Morris was
reared in Nicholas County and was a young man at the
time of his removal to Kanawha County, where his mar-
riage occurred and where he passed the remainder of his
life, he having been associated with coal mining in that
section and also with the construction of the Chesapeake
& Ohio Railroad through that county. He was a democrat,
a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he
and his wife were zealous members of the Baptist Church.
Of the children, the elder is Fenton, who in 1892 became
the wife of William S. Brown, he having been a leading
lawyer and prominent politician and having died at Tornado,
Lincoln County, in June, 1912. Mrs. Brown now resides
at Atlanta, Georgia, an enthusiastic member of the Daugh-
ters of the American Revolution. The younger of the
two surviving children is he whose name introduces this
article.
Harvey H. Morris attended the public schools in Kanawha
and Fayette counties, and at the age of sixteen years he
began an apprenticeship to the trade of telegraphy. As
a skilled operator he was long employed by the Chesapeake
& Ohio Railroad Company, in the service of which he con-
tinued twenty-six years. He advanced through the various
grades of promotion, train dispatcher, train master, assist-
ant superintendent, and, finally, a superintendent of division,
in which office he succeeded C. P. Snow at Huntington,
January 1, 1911. He continued his service at Huntington
until November 15th of the following year, when he was
transferred to Richmond, Virginia, where he served in the
same capacity until September 1, 1913, when he became
superintendent at Ashland, Kentucky. In February of the
following year he was transferred to Clifton Forge, Vir-
ginia, where he remained until the 1st of the following
October, when he returned to Huntington. Here he con-
tinued his effective service as superintendent until December
1, 1915, when he resigned, after a record of long and
greatly appreciated service of most effective order.
In December, 1915, Mr. Morris engaged actively in the
coal business as an operator, and he is president of the
West Virginia Standard Coal Company of Huntington; the
Kentucky Elkhorn By-Products Coal Company of Dorton,
Kentucky; the Mary Elizabeth Coal Company of McGraws,
West Virginia; and is a stockholder in the Southern States
Coal Company and the Huntington By-products Coal Com-
pany. His office headquarters are in suite 518-20-22 Lewis
Arcade Building at Huntington.
Mr. Morris retains the ancestral political faith and is a
stalwart democrat. He and his wife are members of the
First Presbyterian Church of Huntington, he is an active
member of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce, and holds
membership in the Guyandotte Club, the Guyan Country
Club and the Kiwanis Club, all of Huntington. His Ma-
sonic affiliations are here briefly noted: Huntington Lodge
No. 53, A. F. and A. M.; Huntington Chapter No. 6, R. A.
M.; Huntington Commandery No. 9, Knights Templars;
Beni-Kedem Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., at Charleston; West
Virginia Consistory No. 1, at Wheeling, in which he has
received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite.
September 7, 1892, recorded the marriage of Mr. Morris
and Miss Anna Bell Davis, of Kanawha County, and her
death occurred January 25, 1920. Mrs. Morris is survived
by one child, Julia Summerfield, who is now the wife of
Lieut. Robert Francis Carter, an officer in the United
States Army, a graduate of West Point, and now stationed
at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Lieutenant Carter has charge
of the training of students for entrance into the United
States Military Academy at West Point, and in the World
war period he was in active service with the American
Expeditionary Forces in France.
On the 16th of March, 1920, in New York City, Mr.
Morris wedded Mrs. Mary Elizabeth (Van Weinkin) Snyder,
daughter of John Van Weinkin, who is engaged in the real
estate business in St. Louis, Missouri.
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