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From: "Kevin Borland" <>
Subject: [OHCARROL] Carroll County in the mid 1800s: Essay by Margaret E. (Morrison) Price: Part 2
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 19:34:28 -0400


"ANOTHER LITTLE GIRL"
A Story of Life in an Educational Center of Pioneer Days

"My boast is not, that I derive my birth
From Loins enthroned and great ones of the earth;
But higher yet--my proud pretensions rise,
The child of parents passed into the skies."


On Friday, September 13th, 1850, a little girl came into the house of a
godly Scotch-Irish couple living in the village of New Hagerstown, Carroll
County, Ohio. The father [Alexander Morrison] was American born, but could
trace his ancestry back to the Stuarts of Scotland. The mother [Sarah Ann
Johnston] was born in Ireland, coming to America when she was eleven years
of age. They came to Ohio from [Congruity] Westmoreland County,
Pennsylvania. They settled first in Tuscarawas County, where the oldest
child, a son [Samuel Morrison] was born in [December 21] 1837. Shortly
afterwards they moved to Carroll County, where they lived for forty years;
that is, some of the family, and occupied the same house, except for a short
time during which the family home was being repaired.
The father was the "village blacksmith," a good man and, like his
predecessor, made famous by Longfellow's poem, "He went on Sunday to the
church and sat among his boys. He heard the parson pray and preach." It
was told of him that when the dirt and grime were washed away, he was often
taken for a preacher. There were five members of the family when the little
girl made her appearance. They were named respectively: Samuel M., Martha
B., John T., Nance E., and Mary J. and the little girl was named Margaret E.
She grew up, as all do, in the atmosphere of a loving, Christian home.
Almost the only recollection she had of her father was upon the day of his
funeral when she was about three years old and her oldest sister lifted her
up to look upon his face for the last time. The same sister told her how
fond he was of her, how he held her in his arms, rocking her and singing the
dear old famillar hymns of Isaac Watts.
Another child had come into the home, a son named Alexander J., who was
only three months old at the time of the father's death. There was nothing
unusual nor striking in her early years. She was fond of music and early
learned to sing. She also loved books, and it is related of her that one
day as she was holding a book and pretending to read, some one observed that
the book was upside down, and told her so. "Oh." she said, "I read heels
foremost." She learned to read early, and before starting to school at the
age of five, had read through McGuffey's First Reader. Her childhood and
school days were happy ones. She was a regular attendant at the old
schoolhouse on the hill and having a very retentive memory, made good
progress in learning, especially in spelling; and, when on Friday
afternoons, as was the custom then, the time was spent in spelling, she was
always the first one chosen byt the captiain. She was not a model pupil,
nor the teacher's pet, for she was too full of fun and eager to talk to
always please the teacher, but was commended for knowing her lessons. In
those early days, the pleasures were simle, but various. In summer the
girls would build play houses, modeled after the home, carpet them with the
green, velvety moss brought from the adjacent woods, furnish the home-made
cupboards with broken, discarded dishes brought from home, and then play at
keeping house. The cups and saucers were acorns. Then, as now, the girls
skipped the rope and had much the same games. In the evenings the boys and
girls fo the neighborhood gathered together in front of one's home, on the
beaten-down, hard earthen pavement (no concrete pavement then), and played
the same old games as now. In the winter they rode on sleds, snowballed,
waded in the snow, and made photographs therein. Oh, those were the happy
days! Then at night there were writing schools, literary societies, and
spelling bees. As they grew older and aped the ways of the older folk, one
leap year Margaret and her chum, Mary, made bold enough to ask two of the
neighbor boys if they could see them home; but they, more timid and perhaps
afraid of the laughter of others, staretd to run, and the girls catching
hold of their coat-tails, ran too until they reached their homes.

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