HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes,
Lewis Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, Vol. III,
pp. 1213-14.   [Franklin County]

CHARLES HARWOOD MORRIS, attorney-at-law, is the gifted son of a gifted
father, both of them holding high place among the members of Kentucky's
legal profession.  Although it is probable that Mr. Morris' career has not
yet reached its summit, he has already had the incumbency of several
important offices, and his efficiency has displayed itself as being of a
distinctively high order.  He belongs to the South by ties of birth and
sentiment his ancestors for a number of generations having lived in
Kentucky and Virginia, his mother's family, in fact, having been founded
in the "Old Dominion" as early as 1690.
     Charles Harwood Morris was born in Shelbyville, Shelby county,
Kentucky, March 20, 1871. He is the son of James S. and L. Maggie (Scearce)
Morris, the former born in Mercer county, Kentucky, August 10, 1844, and
the son of Joseph Morris, a Virginian.  The mother is also of Shelby
county, where her birth occurred September 4, 1845, her parents being
Shelby R. and Martha (Newton) Scearce, the former dying in the home county
in 1891.  Her mother, Mr. Morris' grandmother, was Martha Newton, a
Kentuckian and a daughter of Samuel Newton of Buckingham county, Virginia,
a lineal descendant of Matthew Agee, a French Protestant driven from his
native county in 1690 by religious persecution and finding a haven in
Virginia.
     Mr. Morris' father, James S. Morris, now a resident of LaGrange, is
a lawyer by profession and for seventeen years was commonwealth's attorney
for the old seventeenth judicial district, his incumbency including the
years between 1876 and 1893.  During that time he resided in Shelbyville,
but in the year following removed to Oldham county and located at LaGrange,
where he has ever since resided and engaged in the practice of the law.
He gave splendid service by his representation of the district composed
of Oldham and Trimble counties in the legislature of 1906, and he has
served as special judge in a number of counties in Eastern Kentucky.  His
is the enviable distinction of having been paid a personal compliment for
his services as commonwealth's attorney in the Constitutional Convention
of 1891.  His loyalty to the Democratic party is well known and it takes
the form of activity in its behalf.  He was one of the presidential
electors in 1904 for the Seventh district.
     Charles H. Morris spent his early years at Shelbyville and there
received his common school education.  When he was twelve years old he
entered the Scearce Select Academy for Boys with the view of preparing for
a collegiate course, but after four years of study within its portals he
drifted into the mercantile business and was engaged in this field from
his sixteenth to his twenty-fourth year.  He then reverted to this first
idea of taking up a profession, and began to study law in his father's
office.  He was subsequently admitted to the bar and practiced at LaGrange
for four years, when his health failed and not until 1904 was he able to
resume his active practice.  Upon January 1, 1905, Mr. Morris was appointed
to the position of law clerk with General N. B. Hays, attorney general,
with whom he served for four years and was then retained by General James
Breathitt in the same office, a compliment of unusual force since Mr.
Morris was opposite in politics to General Breathitt.
     By all the arguments of heritage and personal conviction Mr. Morris is
a Democrat, and for twelve years was a member of the Oldham County
Democratic Committee and ten years chairman of the same.  He is an
enthusiastic lodge man, finding great pleasure in his fraternal relations.
He is high priest of the Frankfort Royal Arch Chapter of Masons and present
exalted ruler of the Frankfort Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
     Mr. Morris was married, May 10, 1910, to Miss Agnes White Crutcher,
daughter of R. L. and Emma Crutcher, of Frankfort.

Morris Scearce Newton Agee Hays Breathitt Crutcher
=
Shelbyville-Shelby-KY Mercer-KY LaGrange-Oldham-KY Buckingham-VA

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/franklin/morris.ch.txt