One Township's Yesterdays Chapter XXVI  

MORRIS

ISAAC N. MORRIS, a native of Rush County, Indiana settled in Union Township in 1836. He was a pioneer of the Burr Oak Flats, where he located, about three miles from Culver. In 1850, he removed to the wild country about Lake Maxinkuckee and became the pioneer boat builder of the region. He died at the age of thirty-nine. His wife, EMILY THOMPSON, lived to be nearly eighty. There were two sons and four daughters.

The third child and second son of this family was Edmund, who was but three years of age when his parents fixed the homestead on the shores of Lake Maxinkuckee. This boy followed in his father's footsteps, for it was he who became Captain EDMUND MORRIS, sometimes known as Edward, the prominent builder and owner of boats used on Maxinkuckee. Born in Union Township, March 7, 1847, he grew to manhood close to the lake he loved, and early became an expert at his father's occupation. He assisted his father in the boat building business, and, besides, drove a hack and engaged in other kinds of work. Later, he set out for himself as a tiller of the soil, but finally went back to the boats and remained with them throughout all the sunset years of his life.