Judge William Wright Morris

The Handbook of Texas says William Wright Morris moved to Texas in 1847 with his family and enslaved people, settling about three miles north of Henderson. In 1859 he was appointed to the Eighth Legislature to fill John N. McClarity's unexpired term. He died on June 3, 1883, at his plantation home. Morris County was established in 1875 and, the Handbook says, was probably named for him. His household arrived in a county where 2,136 people were enslaved in 1850, over a quarter of the population, and 6,132 in 1860.

What the plaque says

Judge William Wright Morris (1805-1883) Born in Halifax County, North Carolina, William Wright Morris moved with his family to Coosa County, Alabama, in 1840. He taught school, studied law, and was elected judge. In 1847 he brought his mother, widowed sister Martha (Morris) Spivey, her three children, and family slaves to Henderson. The judge practiced law and built a fine plantation home (3 mi. NW) for the family. An influential man, he was elected district judge in 1854, served as a Texas legislator, and helped promote the first railroad in East Texas. Morris County was named for him in 1875. (1980)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• New London Museum and Cenotaph — 10 mi
  A volunteer-run museum beside the pink granite cenotaph for the March 1937 school gas explosion, holding a model of the school, a blackboard from that day and an odorizer device.
• East Texas Oil Museum — 16 mi
  A Kilgore College museum that rebuilds the 1930s oil boom in a full-scale Boomtown with a general store, drugstore and newspaper office, plus dioramas, films and antiques given by East Texans.
• Tex Ritter Museum and Texas Country Music Hall of Fame — 27 mi
  Carthage's country music museum, with Tex Ritter's boots, guitars and saddles in a room styled like a movie theater, and exhibits on other Texas stars, Jim Reeves among them.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Henderson — steps away
• Henderson — steps away
• The 1860 Henderson Fire — steps away
• Merritt Building — steps away