Granville Dula Morrison, 1905-1976
I got my start in family history as a 19-year-old undergraduate student at BYU. I was definitely interested at a younger age, but I had a couple of hang-ups. One: Genealogy was for old people and those microfilm machines were super-intimidating. And, two: my uncle already had done our family tree. So, it turns out young people can and should research their genealogy and microfilm machines are really not that complicated (and not even very relevant these days). Also, my uncle had paid someone to research his tree. I believe he had completed himself and four generations total, just back to his great-grandparents. It turns out that there was so much more to research. And, that was just my dad's side, of course. My mom had done some research on her side, but still much, much more to do. I've made progress over the years, but I'm confident that I will spend the rest of my life researching and still not feel finished.
When I began researching in 1995, I started first with the Morrison side. Morrison is my maiden name and, like many just starting, I was drawn to the line of my last name.
I'll start with the oldest Morrison that I have met, my great-grandfather, Granville Dula Morrison. I "met" him as a newborn baby just one time. He was in a Northern Virginia hospital in the last days of his life and the story goes that my dad snuck me up a back stairway so that he could see his newest great-grandbaby before he died. Now, I'm wondering if I am the oldest great-grandchild. I'll have to ask my dad. I was never close to my great aunts or their offspring.
Granville Dula Morrison was born 19 Oct 1905 in Roaring River, Wilkes County, North Carolina. Roaring River is a small community right on the edge of Western North Carolina. He married my great-grandmother Laura Isabel White (my namesake) in 1925 in Davie County, North Carolina. They were the parents of three daughters and one son.
Granville and Laura moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina before 1929. He worked as both a telephone operator (for the Southern Railway) and he owned a small grocery store. When I asked my grandfather (his son) about the Great Depression, he said that he never remembered going hungry. One story that is told of this store: An illiterate woman returned to the store with an empty can. She wanted to get another can of the same because her husband liked it so much. It turned out to be a can of dog food. As kids, we always thought this was funny. It doesn't seem funny anymore.
Granville and his family moved up to Greenbelt, Maryland about 1939. Greenbelt was a new community, a public cooperative community, part of the New Deal Era. The intent was utopian and the plan was for it to be a self-sufficient cooperative community, established for federal government workers. In order to live there, your application had to be approved. There was a school, firehouse, library, store and more.
Granville and his family later moved to Lorton, Virginia. He restored an old farmhouse on what is now Old Ox Road. I have many fond memories of visiting that home and walking down to the pond. Now, a six-lane highway cuts the property in half and the house is home to a Korean church.
My grandfather had diabetes and died at 70 years old, apparently not in good health. His widow, Laura, would live another 13 years.
When I began researching in 1995, I started first with the Morrison side. Morrison is my maiden name and, like many just starting, I was drawn to the line of my last name.
I'll start with the oldest Morrison that I have met, my great-grandfather, Granville Dula Morrison. I "met" him as a newborn baby just one time. He was in a Northern Virginia hospital in the last days of his life and the story goes that my dad snuck me up a back stairway so that he could see his newest great-grandbaby before he died. Now, I'm wondering if I am the oldest great-grandchild. I'll have to ask my dad. I was never close to my great aunts or their offspring.
My great-grandfather is not in the above picture. It is of his parents and three oldest siblings, taken five years before he was born. (I love the barefeet!)
Granville's family moved to this house when he was 11 years old.
Granville and Laura moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina before 1929. He worked as both a telephone operator (for the Southern Railway) and he owned a small grocery store. When I asked my grandfather (his son) about the Great Depression, he said that he never remembered going hungry. One story that is told of this store: An illiterate woman returned to the store with an empty can. She wanted to get another can of the same because her husband liked it so much. It turned out to be a can of dog food. As kids, we always thought this was funny. It doesn't seem funny anymore.
Granville and his family moved up to Greenbelt, Maryland about 1939. Greenbelt was a new community, a public cooperative community, part of the New Deal Era. The intent was utopian and the plan was for it to be a self-sufficient cooperative community, established for federal government workers. In order to live there, your application had to be approved. There was a school, firehouse, library, store and more.
Granville and his family later moved to Lorton, Virginia. He restored an old farmhouse on what is now Old Ox Road. I have many fond memories of visiting that home and walking down to the pond. Now, a six-lane highway cuts the property in half and the house is home to a Korean church.
My grandfather had diabetes and died at 70 years old, apparently not in good health. His widow, Laura, would live another 13 years.
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