Morris County

William Wright Morris was born in Halifax County, North Carolina, in 1805 and moved to Coosa County, Alabama, in 1840, where he taught school, studied law and was elected a judge. In 1847 he brought his mother, a widowed sister, her children and the family's enslaved people to Henderson, Texas. He was elected district judge in 1854, sat in the legislature and promoted the first railroad in East Texas. He died in 1883 and is buried in Henderson.

What the plaque says

Morris County Created and organized in 1875, with Daingerfield as county seat. Named for William W. Morris (1805-1883), who came to Texas in 1849, when the Civil War began in 1861, was in 8th Legislature that armed the state, enacted soldiers' families' relief laws and set up 2,000 mile frontier and coastline defenses. Also in 13th Legislature, 1873-75. Of the 254 Texas counties, 42 bear Indian, French or Spanish names. 10 honor such colonizers as Stephen F. Austin, "Father of Texas." 12 were named for Washington, Clay and other American patriots. 96 were named for men who fought in the Texas War for Independence (15 dying at the Alamo), signed the Declaration of Independence from Mexico, or served as statesmen in the Republic of Texas. 23 have the names of frontiersmen and pioneers. 11 honor American statesmen who worked for the annexation of Texas; 10, leaders in Texas since statehood, including jurists, ministers, educators, historians, statesmen; and 36, men like Morris prominent in the Confederacy during the Civil War. Delta and 8 others have geographical names. San Jacinto and Val Verde were named for battles; Live Oak and Orange, for trees; and Mason for a fort. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Daingerfield State Park — 2.4 mi
  A pine-and-hardwood park built in 1935-39 by a white and a Black Civilian Conservation Corps company, with a dammed lake, Bass Lodge and a 2.4-mile loop trail around the water.
• Lake Bob Sandlin State Park — 22 mi
  A 1987 state park on a 9,000-acre reservoir, where a Republic of Texas stockade called Fort Sherman stood in 1838 and the Caddo lived from A.D. 800 to 1860, now with fishing piers, trails and cabins.
• Jefferson Historical Museum — 29 mi
  A four-floor museum in Jefferson's 1888-90 federal post office and courthouse, with rooms for African-American history, Jewish heritage, the Caddo and Diamond Bessie, bought by the historical society in 1965 for $8,100.
• Excelsior House Hotel — 29 mi
  A brick-and-timber hotel at 211 West Austin that began as a river captain's boarding house in 1858 and was revived by a garden club in 1959, and still takes guests with rosewood furniture.

More markers nearby

• Daingerfield, C. S. A. — steps away
• Site of Chapel Hill College — steps away
• Rocky Branch — 5.7 mi
• Chalybeate Springs — 5.9 mi