This is a continuing project. One advantage of publishing the history on the Internet is that it can easily be corrected and updated. If you see mistakes or omissions, please let me know.

For up-to-date contact information, check my web site http://www.paullevalley.com

I am beginning to think about a second edition with historic pictures (after the 2010 census). If you have any old pictures to share, I would like to see high-resolution electronic scans of them.

All of this information is available for free on the Internet through the Morrice web site http://www.morrice.mi.us/village_history.htm, or the Shiawassee County web site http://www.shiawasseehistory.com/morrice2.html.

If you prefer something for your bookshelf, an order blank for the 34-page softcover booklet can be found on my web site. Please enclose an $8.00 check payable to Paul LeValley. That will cover postage and handling as well. (The price may change in the future.)

CONTENTS

I The Pioneers (1836-1876)

II Boom Town (1876-1884)

III Turn of the Century (1884-1911)

IV Reaching Out (1911-1929)

V The Sleepy Years (1929-1973)

VI Ideal Home Town (1973-present)

Population Index

Acknowledgements:

Dr. Henry P. Halsted recorded the early history of Morrice.

Susan Fear Winegar got me started on this project many years ago.

Nina Mortimore has jumped into gathering on-the-spot information about recent years.

Thanks to these people for help in preparing this updated version:

Harold and Thelma Hayes
Gary Kingsley
Dorothy LeValley
Sharon Freeman Lewis
Frances Sayles Michalek
Beth Howard Poe
George and Etheljane Rothney

Morrice has the minor distinction of being the first settlement in the township (then Bennington and Perry combined). In the fall of 1836, twenty-year-old Josiah Purdy (1816-68) built his cabin on the south side of what is now Britton road, between the intersections of Main and Gale Streets. (Most histories are mistaken--placing it east of the first high school, instead of the Purdy school. The house is clearly visible on the earliest maps.) Mr. Purdy made friends with the passing bands of Indians, who sometimes crowded into his cabin to sleep, or lightened their load by leaving their guns stacked in a corner for weeks at a time. In the spring of 1837, he plowed his garden--the first plowed land in the township. The northern half of his land eventually became the village of Morrice; the southern half (including the house) went to his son when he died at age 52. His wife, Diantha, had died two years before him.

In 1839, William Morrice bought 160 acres near the Purdys' claim. Born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, he had come to America two years earlier. After working for a year at the Shiawassee mill race, he went to Detroit, where he married his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth Cooper. By then, she was 35, and he was about 43. On their new land, they built a cabin. Without a bed at first, they slept on the ground, while wolves howled outside the door. The next year, his three brothers settled nearby, though one quickly moved on. William Morrice was a modest and well-liked man. A Republican politically, he never accepted a public office--though he did serve as a justice of the peace for several years. He had four sons and a daughter, but the oldest son died in the Civil War. A few years before his own death in 1873, he divided his land (by then one of the largest holdings in the county) among his remaining sons. His wife lived until 1892, when she died at age 88. Their sons William G., John, and Frank, as well as grandson William H., would carry on as leading citizens of the village named after this family.

The early settlers, all being Scotsmen, formed in 1839 The First Presbyterian Church of Bennington (Township)--a name later changed to Morrice. They founded their church on abstinence from liquor. People met at each others' houses, and later at the school.

On March 15, 1841, the southern half of Bennington Township split off to form Perry Township. The new board immediately established school districts. The settlement that had grown up around the Purdy and Morrice farmsteads happened to fall in district #1, which meant that students walked to Perry each day. Seventeen years later, in December of 1858, the eighteen taxable households of Morrice petitioned to be set off as school district #5. Residents at the first school meeting decided to locate the Purdy School on the southeast corner of Morrice and Britton Roads. After some squabbling, it finally went up in late 1862. It had benches all around the wall. A small extension in 1877 could not keep up with the increased enrollment of 125 students, so in 1879 another room and a second teacher became necessary.

1867 saw the founding of the Chicago & Port Huron Railroad Company. Munro Halsted, brother of the man who would become the trusted doctor of Morrice, drove the first spike at Battle Creek. After a few years, the line extended from Chicago to Lansing, and from Flint to Port Huron. The company ran out of money before they could complete the fifty-mile gap from Lansing to Flint. After a few more years, a new company formed to close the breach--and extend the line on into Canada. Railway vice-president, Isaac Gale, had the job of locating the depots along the line. As a resident of Morrice, Mr. Gale first made the neighborly gesture of offering to detour the railroad via nearby Old Perry Centre (located about a mile south of present Perry), if the people of Perry were interested in helping to defray the cost. When they refused, he established the depot at Morrice. Railway regulations required at least seven miles between each depot, so that meant Perry could have none.

Isaac Gale (1809-92) had been born in Bern, New York, of German and English descent. He came to Michigan in 1831, returning to New York in 1840 to marry Miss M. A. Wilbur. He then exchanged his land for some in the combined Bennington Township. He served as township supervisor for 15 years, and justice of the peace for 36 years. He also spent four years as record judge in the Shiawassee county court. In his later life, Mr. Gale sold his productive land and moved to Morrice. Semi-retired, he pursued his three main interests: railroads, banking, and Morrice. A sociable man, he was one of the few Democrats in the vicinity. He believed in living within one's income. Before he died a wealthy man, he had established the first bank of Morrice, and made the town a place on the map.

A county atlas, published in 1875, showed in the place where Morrice would rise, only four houses on Morrice Road, and six more on Britton road. The next fall, in September of 1876, Isaac Gale officially established Morrice as a village. (Some histories wrongly put the date one year later, but all eyewitness accounts agree on the 1876 date.) After the ceremony came the first social event of the new community: a picnic where Main Street is now, with railroad officials invited. After lunch, the village was platted, with three lots reserved at the north end of Main Street for an eventual high school; then people bought lots. Others rode the train, or went up in a hot-air balloon. Mr. Gale attempted to have the village named Galesboro, but the state refused to ratify it or other names that he suggested, because of their similarity to the names of other Michigan towns. Finally, he named the place after his best friend, William Morrice.

II Boom Town (1876-1884)

Frederick Cummins, son of county treasurer James Cummins (1815-92), opened the first store in Morrice. It contained a cracker barrel, a molasses barrel, some tobacco, and not much else. He soon began stocking hardware. The little wooden building still stands (converted into a house) on the northwest corner of Main and Third Streets. The elder Cummins was for 14 or 16 years the only Democratic officer in county government.

In the village's first year, townspeople donated $300 to Henry Horton to establish a sawmill. They also gave Benjamin F. Rann $600 to build a flour mill. Powered by a steam engine, the completed project had two run of stones, so it could grind flour for two customers at a time. Located south of the railroad on the east side of Main Street, the large wooden building later served in turn as a livery stable, a bearing factory, and finally a wire factory.

Jesse Turner ran the cider mill. He was also responsible for furnishing the village with the unusual delicacy of oysters for all of its social events. The first such event was the celebration of the village's first Fourth of July in 1877. Merchants completely decorated Main Street with pine boughs. Amid peanuts and pink lemonade, there were horse races, sack races, running and jumping competitions. Not to be left out, the remaining Indians in the area climaxed the event by demonstrating an authentic war dance in the middle of Main Street.

By the fall of 1877, Morrice boasted the following list of businesses:

George O. Austin doctor and drug store
Bessinger & Peter Wagoner general store
Gaylord Colby builder
Frederick Cummins & George Evans hardware
Seneca Gale grain elevator
L. D. Goss dry goods & groceries
Henry P. Halsted doctor
Henry Horton sawmill
Moxley & Ives meat market
Lew Lyons & John Minter blacksmith
O'Neil doctor
Benn Rann flour and saw mill
Jesse Turner cider mill
George Warden drayman
Giles Waters harness shop
Wilson hotel
_______ (a black man) barber

Giles Waters ran his harness shop for nearly fifty years, and did it barefoot the whole time. Each day, except in the dead of winter, he walked barefoot into town from his home on the Looking-Glass River. Not having wasted a lot of money on shoes, he died a wealthy man. Actually, many farmers came to town barefoot.

The village had a raw frontier look. The only building that had not been thrown together was the hotel, the Wilson House. The white-painted building stood three stories high, with a wide porch and a balcony, on the northeast corner of Third and Main Streets. Behind its lobby was a barroom, with drinks ranging anywhere from sweet cider to hard cider. The large hall on the third floor accommodated community dances and cultural programs. North of the railroad stood only woods. The south half looked just like it, except that it was swampy with water all over, and some of the trees had been cut. Residents said there were more than a dozen stumps for each person. People had a hard time weaving their way through the stumps in Main Street after dark; they sometimes found themselves literally up a tree.

The village also boasted one touch of the east: a village commons. On that plot, as well as everywhere else, roamed the numerous cows, pigs, and sole donkey of the village. The cowbells which each farmer had attached to his "Bessie" made a distracting racket. One night the bells disappeared, never to return to the village scene. Years later, the widow of Seneca Gale (Isaac Gale's son) happened to mention her husband's distaste for cowbells, and the thirteen bells with cut straps in their basement. Incidentally, Seneca Gale's son had a pet crow with a split tongue, that the boy taught to fly around town calling, "Seneca, Seneca."

By 1878, residents of Perry realized their mistake concerning the depot. They petitioned the state of Michigan for a sidetrack where Perry is now. The state forced the railway to allow such a track. The company conceded, but refused to spend any money. So people of Perry built their own sidetrack. Then they put all of their wooden buildings on wagons, and moved the entire town from Old Perry Centre to its present site. About that time, the Morrice depot mysteriously burned. Both settlements set up temporary depots in stores near the tracks, but the trains stopped in Morrice, and merely tooted their horns through Perry.

Again Perry sought aid from the state. In a compromise solution, the railroad agreed to stop only at the village which could erect a depot first. The race was on.

The popular story goes that both towns were looking over the same piece of timber, which belonged to a man from Perry; Morrice offered the highest price, and he sold. People of Perry were furious, and one morning, the residents of Morrice woke up to find their new pile of lumber over in Perry. With this stolen lumber, citizens of Perry worked in shifts, around the clock, to get a depot built. They finished late on the seventh night. According to legend, Perry held a gala celebration, and by the wee hours, the whole town was reeling. When the bedraggled inhabitants began to sober up, about noon the next day, they learned that railroad officials had already inspected and approved their handiwork--but the building happened to be standing in Morrice at the time.

Another less sensational (and less believed) source states that the Morrice depot was honestly built faster than Perrys, and that the lumber stolen to Perry, and the building stolen back was a section house. Unaware of the colorful history, railroad officials demolished the old Morrice depot without warning one day in 1974.

Whatever the true facts, the squabble set off a rivalry between the two towns that lasted long after people had forgotten why they were fighting. When Perry was moving from the Old Perry Centre, Isaac Gale had invited the people to keep on moving--into Morrice, and make one big town. They declined, and many potential settlers were driven away by the knowledge that two towns so close together could never develop.

Firmly in possession of the depot, Morrice tried unsuccessfully to make itself, rather than Perry, the township capital. Officials of Perry appealed to the state a third time for an injunction against the railroad. This time, railway officials got by through pointing out that the Wilson House, now under the management of Harry Nethaway and Joe Litchfield, was the only place between Flint and Lansing with eating facilities. Another reason, which they did not mention, was that the railroad workers enjoyed the liquors which had come into the hotel with the new owners. It did not take Perry long to build a hotel with eating facilities, and, this claim being diminished, the trains eventually stopped at both towns. But even in the late 1950s, Perry had to petition the state again for a second railway crossing--unlike smaller Morrice which had long enjoyed two.

All through the Perry furor, there were peaceful developments in Morrice. The First Methodist Episcopal Church had organized in 1865 with seven members. The First Baptist Church of Perry (Township) organized in October of 1877. All three churches met in the Purdy School. That soon changed when the Baptists decided to build in Perry, and the big white Presbyterian Church (later known as the Morrice Community Hall) went up in 1878. The Methodists helped in construction of the $4,500 wooden building, and got the use of it one Sunday of each month. (Another report says every other Sunday.) One of the finest churches in the county, it stood on south Main Street on what was then called Piety Hill. People of all three Protestant religions sent their children to the Union Sabbath-School, a long-running experiment unique to Morrice. Charles Elliott, the first minister of this joint conglomeration, also served as minister at Argentine.

Except for a few years in the 1920s, Morrice always shared its Methodist minister with one or two congregations in other villages such as Perry, Antrim Township, Nicholson, Shaftsburg, Bennington, or Pittsburg. Because the national organization moved its ministers frequently, approximately 50 pastors have served in Morrice.

The Womans Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church organized in May of 1880. This, too, turned out to be an interdenominational community project, with members of each church belonging. (At this point, I have to insert an incident from the 1950s. Irene Brown was president of the Ladies Aid Society, as it was later called. She also had a lot of chickens and sold eggs. One day, she saw Rev. Merrill in the bank, and reported that she was depositing the Aid money. He did not hear clearly, but seeing the large wad of bills, answered, My, those old hens must really be cackling.) Ninety-five years after the women organized, the men got together as the United Methodist Men.

The Methodists did not build their own church until 1887, when they bought out the floating sawmill that occupied the only swamp left in town. With $5,000 and local bricks, they built the oldest church still standing in the village. Unlike most churches, it had no center aisle, but two side aisles. The building went through much remodeling in 1955 and 1984.

Although the people of Morrice were predominantly Protestant Scots, Catholic Irishmen settled east of town along Cork Road in Antrim Township. Meanwhile, the Alling school district had put up a new building on the southwest corner of Britton and Cork Roads. They offered to sell the old schoolhouse that stood on a hill a third of a mile to the east. In 1875, the priest in Owosso arranged for its purchase, and he conducted weekday services there once a month. But when the church also attracted a good-sized following from Perry, they decided to relocate in Morrice, midway between their two congregations. With only 35 families in the parish, they boldly built the brick St. Mary's Church with a seating capacity of 300. It opened in September of 1892. (They then sold the old schoolhouse/church to a neighboring farmer, who used it as a barn until lightning struck it and it burned. Three graves in the abandoned churchyard were moved to Corunna, because Bethany Cemetery on the south edge of Morrice did not open until about ten years later.) But St. Mary's remained the most populous and prosperous church on the mission circuit, and was not raised to full-fledged parish status with its own priest until 1926.

The church has produced two priests of its own. Father Peter Jordan was ordained in 1913. When he died in 1957, he was pastor of The Church of Epiphany in Detroit. Father George C. Michalek (son of Frances Sayles Michalek) was ordained in 1978. The church also produced at least three nuns: Agnes Jordan, Josephine Schmitt, and Dora Lezovich. Of the nearly thirty priests who have served in Morrice, Fr. William Cogley stayed the longest--eighteen years from 1946 till his death in 1962. He purchased a pipe organ, and encouraged the singing of hymns well before Vatican II made that a regular part of the worship service. A widely read man, he left many of his books to the high school library. The original church in Morrice burned April 16, 1953, and the congregation decided to erect a bigger one next door. The new church opened in May of 1955.

The Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, published in 1893, reported that Morrice, with its four church groups--three in their own buildings--had as many congregations as any other village in the county.

Morrice also boasted the following list of fraternal organizations:

Independent Order of Good Templars #53-founded January 1878.
Juvenile Templars--founded January 1879.
Knights of Honor #1519--founded October 1879.
Patrons of Husbandry (The Grange)--founded 1873, declined and surrendered charter, reorganized July 1879.
Patrons of Industry

These organizations met at Sagers Hall, the convention room of the Sager House, Morrices second hotel.

Built in 1878 by crate manufacturer C. [Charles] W. Sager (1830-1924), it was called one of the most well-furnished and commodious hotels in the county. It stood three stories tall on the west side of Main Street, just south of the railroad. Wags pointed out that the Sager House had the prestige, but the Wilson House still had the business.

The only club to have much influence on the community was the Patrons of Industry, who swept a Democrat named Abraham Lincoln Beard (1860-1936) into office in Morrice. He was soon after elected county clerk. Reminding people, in his actions, of his namesake, he started a bank in the village in 1890. He reorganized it in 1929 as the Morrice State Bank, semi-retiring into the position of vice-president. The bank remained independent for 79 years, before being swallowed up by one banking chain after another.

The most unusual organization at this time was a brass band, founded and directed by Mr. William Wells. The band consisted of over twenty businessmen and schoolboys who played at all public occasions. Outsiders poked fun at the group and some of its barefoot members as they marched their winding way among the stumps of Main Street; but the people of Morrice felt proud of their fine band. The band broke up when Mr. Wells left because of poor health.

In the history of Morrice, two outsiders stand out as changing the history of the village. The first of these was, of course, Isaac Gale. The second was Doctor Henry P. Halsted (1850-1934). He had been born near Cayuga, New York. In 1871, he graduated from Michigan Agricultural College, and the next year he taught school at Bedford, Michigan. The year following this found Mr. Halsted prospecting near Denver, Colorado. Soon he was back teaching school, this time in Kansas. That lasted only a year, for he then attended the medical department of the University of Michigan, from which he graduated cum laude in 1877. For the next 15 years, Dr. Halsted made his home in Morrice. At first, people felt rather skeptical of the dapper, inexperienced young man, but he soon won their respect. After a few years, he married the red-headed schoolmarm, Miss Jennie Northrup. Being interested in the problems of the community, Dr. Halsted tried to teach the farmers new methods of farming. He planted an experimental garden to prove his points, but the experiment fell through when the neighborhood cows devoured his masterpiece. It was a long time before the farmers would accept his advice on agriculture, without ridiculing his failure. Some of the rural inhabitants even went so far as to demand that the newfangled Michigan Agriculture College move to Ann Arbor, but the village merchants squelched that clamor.

Finally, ill health caught up with the beloved doctor, and forced him to move to Guthrie, Oklahoma, where he became the medical examiner for the entire territory. He sold his practice in Morrice to Dr. William Shaw--just one year out of medical school. A bespectacled man with a huge walrus mustache and sideburns, Dr. Shaw would stay in Morrice until his death in 1932. His son, Dr. Milton Shaw, would later become the chief of staff at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing. A Dr. Watson also set up practice in Morrice in 1892. So when Dr. Halsted returned to the area in 1894, he re-established his business at Perry, where he wrote several newspaper reports on his earlier life in Morrice. Dr. Halsted served for many years on the Owosso Pension Board. A Quaker and a Republican, he belonged to both the Odd Fellows and the Elks. It is through him, the only person to leave any written record of life in early Morrice, that much of its early history is known.

Dr. Arthur Ames came to Morrice in 1904, and stayed until his death in 1936.

William Gavin Morrice (1839-1919)--not to be confused with his father William Morrice, or with his son William H. Morrice--carried on in his fathers footsteps as leading citizen of the village where he had been born. With his older brother off fighting in the Civil War, William G. stayed home and helped the family--marrying in the meantime, Miss Ella Smith. They had six daughters, and one son. Their daughter Lena married George Winegar, Sr., and lived past 100--long enough to send me some of the information in this history. Mr. Morrice was noted for always helping young people to get a start; his own children all had college educations. He was a Republican, and a member of the Odd Fellows.

His wife had been born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, coming to Shiawassee County in 1854 with her father, George Smith (1816-1911). The fathers history is interesting: He had joined his brothers whaling expedition, only to find their boat frozen in the Greenland ice for 18 months. After settling in Morrice, he returned to Europe nine times, trying to establish his claim to the George Ames Stowe estate, valued at 20,000,000, or roughly a hundred million dollars. He lost it to people somehow connected to a former Viceroy of India. Another of his daughters, Elizabeth, became an ancestor of the Rothney family of Morrice.

John Morrice (1841-1900), a younger son of the founder, served as township supervisor for many years. He was also the Morrice postmaster, and built an early pair of stores in the village. He was another barefoot merchant.

The third surviving brother, Francis "Frank" G. Morrice (1844-1908) was supervisor for the township for 12 years. He also served for a time as town clerk, and for 4 years as county sheriff. He married Irene Waters, and they had three daughters and one son. Daughter Maude taught art in the Owosso and Corunna high schools. People referred to all three Morrice brothers as honest, respected, and charitable.

The businesses in Morrice prospered; new ones appeared. In 1879, the village donated $1,000 to induce Joseph F. Shultz of Lansing to build a barrel stave and heading factory--thereby saving the freight charge of shipping their lumber to Lansing. The factory employed around 20 men and boys, and each day turned out 7,000 to 9,000 headings (or barrel ends) and 6,000 staves for the sides.

David Tyler, had gone to California with the 49ers and discovered a bit of gold. He used it to establish another blacksmith business in Morrice. Charles and David F. Tyler, Jr. soon built the present grain elevator. Will B. Tyler, carpenter, undertaker, and musical instrument salesman, even tried to establish a circulating library at this time--an attempt which failed.

Moxley and Ives, who ran the meat market, soon quit. John Roleson stocked the building with groceries, and opened shop. But he had to leave town quickly when people discovered that his scales registered 14 ounces to the pound. Squire B. F. Grout then took over the building as a general store. A kind-hearted person, he made a poor businessman. But he won respect as an honest justice of the peace. When he knew the details, he often carefully decided a case over in his mind before even entering a courtroom. <

Then there was the clever village inventor. At age nine, Clark Crane (1839-1928) accompanied his widowed mother to the Morrice area. He later built a floating sawmill in the swamp where the Methodist Church now stands. He could easily move the logs around by himself. He further used his ingenuity by sawing the villages many walnut stumps into veneering sheets, and even sold the remaining sawdust to doorknob manufacturers. He invented the first shipping tag, but was cheated out of his patent. A tall skinny man, he remained a life-long bachelor.

In the early twentieth century, Frank Graham (1855-1945) became known for inventions used in shoe repair.

Morrices first writer, Dell Hair, was born in 1871 on Morrice Road near the Looking Glass River. Known as Joe Hairs fool kid, he skipped school, wrote satirical rhymes about the businessmen, and finally ran off to join the army. In Oklahoma, his impish ways landed him lots of time in the guardhouse, where he wrote more verses. After brief unsuccessful tries at running a hotel in Perry, then farming near Shaftsburg, he took a job as policeman in Toledo, Ohio. There he became known as the rhyming cop. He self-published five books of verses before writing Nature Beautiful. Though there is little likelihood of that book ever being mistaken for great literature, it does mention some Morrice scenes and names.

By 1881, the list of businesses in Morrice had jumped to the following:

Austin, George O. Doctor Drug store
Burrell, H. H. Grocery
Chaffin, Miss D. F. Millinery shop
Courtney & McKeon Hardware
Crane, Clark R. Lumber yard & Hardware
Davis, D. E. Mason
Flynn, William Furniture
Goss Brothers Dry goods & groceries
Grout, B. F. General store Halsted, Henry P. Doctor
Horton, Henry Lumber yard Heading factory
Howard, H. Carpenter
Jones, M. L. Railroad & express agent
Litchfield, J. Wilson House
Minter, John Blacksmith
Nethaway, H. F. Saloon
Norton, William Cooper
Park, J. Carpenter
Potts Wagon-maker
Quick, Abram F. Carpenter
Quick, Mrs. A. F. Millinery shop
Rann, Benjamin F. Flour mill
Sager, W. C. Sager House
Tyler Brothers Grain elevator
Tyler, Will B. Carpenter
Waters, Giles M. Harness-maker
Wells, W. B. Mason
Whitney, O. C. Watch repair & jewelry

More businesses quickly followed. Francis Purdy built a creamery in 1886. L. D. Goss built and ran a cheese and butter factory. Almond Clark started another bank (though it went bankrupt in 1893 because of his leniency). Carpenters, masons, and painters seemed everywhere.

The ten households of 1875 had exploded into a population of 229 by 1880. Morrice in the early 80s bristled with activity. Teams hauling logs for the stave mill lined the street, while the mill ran to capacity. The sawmill ran 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The two elevators and the flour mill all stayed busy. Milk wagons roamed on the roads most of the time gathering milk. People of Morrice set high hopes for their growing village.

In November of 1884, Morrice officially incorporated as a village with the state of Michigan. The 23 votes cast in the first election in December of that year established Dr. Halsted as the first village president. Act 3 of the 1895 session of the Michigan legislature nullified all such individual charters, and established 248 General Law Home Rule Villages, of which Morrice was one. Under this arrangement, the village, as well as the state, can amend the charter without the others consent. Morrice automatically became a member of the Michigan Municipal League.

Soon after becoming incorporated, villagers of Morrice signed a petition to become voting precinct #2 in the township. The petition was granted with some bitter feeling. In fact, some of the farmers signed another petition to get back into precinct #1, but their effort failed.

In the same year that the village incorporated, they also built the first high school at the north end of Main Street. The new five-room brick building stood two storeys high, with a tall central tower. The first class of two boys graduated in 1888. At Christmastime just two years later, graduates formed the Morrice Alumni Association. The group has met every year since then, except 1896. For years, they claimed to be the oldest continuously meeting high school alumni association in Michigan, but it now appears that they are the second-oldest. Concord beat them by a few months. In the association's first century of operation, Frances Sayles Michalek served as secretary for 35 years from 1954 to 1989.

Traditions of the Alumni Association have included an annual banquet, during which an older relative welcomes the new graduating class. Memorials for deceased members have grown less personal as the numbers have increased.

In 1885, new sets of adjoined brick stores went up on both sides of the business block of Main Street. Those on the east side still stand. The bricks were manufactured a quarter mile east of town, just north of the railroad tracks. Other local bricks went into the Methodist and Catholic churches, the first high school (scraped and reused for the second high school), and a few houses still standing. The village installed board walks, and a street lighter made his nightly rounds to light the kerosene street lamps. Electricity came in 1906.

Miss Hulda Phelps arrived in Morrice in 1886, and opened a millinery store on the ground floor of the new southernmost store on the west side of the business block. She stayed there until the building burned down 44 years later. Women traveled to Morrice from miles around just to buy her hats--imposing winter hats with huge cabbage roses made of silk, then summer straw hats decorated with tiny moss rose buds, or forget-me-nots, or daisies. When ornate ladies hats went out of style, she added accessories, fine English china, and childrens books to her stock. In 1936, at age 88, she celebrated 50 years in business--longer than any other woman in Michigan. She died in the early 1940s.

Social organizations at this time included the Odd Fellows, Beard Post of the Knights of Maccabees, Grand Army of the Republic, and others.

A world atlas published in 1886 estimated the population of Morrice at 375--which seems about right. Interestingly, the same atlas listed Perry's population at 325--or 50 people fewer than Morrice. By 1890, the U.S. census reported that Morrice had grown to 422 people. The 1900 census showed growth leveling off at 476, and remaining at 470 in 1910. (While some books published at the time gave estimates ranging from 500 in 1905, to 450 just a year later, such fluctuation seems unlikely.)

Maps from the turn of the century show streets that probably never existed, except in the plans of expansionists. There was supposed to be another north-south street east of Gale. Nearly a century would pass before it happened. Market Street, running east-west north of Third Street, was nothing but a glorified alley, and eventually closed. Maps show several short streets running west off of Morrice Road: south from the railroad tracks, the names read Oak Street, Elm Street, an extension of First Street, then Wells Street. Oak and Elm streets remained on some later maps.

By 1906, the flour mill had a capacity of 50 barrels a day. The elevator averaged 3 railroad cars of grain and beans each week. The sawmill produced $150,000 of lumber in a year. Morrice also had a canning factory (costing $8,000) and an apple dryer. The village had three churches--the Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal, and Catholic. There was a graded public school and a bank. Western Union telegraph, National Express, and the local telephone company all served the community. The village by then had electric lights, cobblestone streets, two miles of cement walks, and two mail routes.

William H. Morrice (1884-1944) carried on the work started by his father, William G. Morrice, and his grandfather, William Morrice. In 1907, William H. Morrice married Miss Beulah Alling, a local girl. She was still a familiar sight on the streets of Morrice half a century later. He was serving as township supervisor in 1939.

Edward G. Dippy was beginning a long tenure on the Shiawassee County Board of Supervisors. At that time, he was the youngest officer in the county, and probably the state. A Democrat, he belonged to the Odd Fellows and the Gleaners.

Ed Dippy later remembered these businesses from the turn of the century, but it appears that this list covers several years, and thus some old and new owners of the same stores:

Austin, George O. Drug store
Beard, A. L. & L. Clark Bank Hardware
Britton, George Saw mill
Davis, W. E. Creamery
Goss, L. D. Shoes
Grout, Squire B.F. Meat market
Halsted, H. P. Doctor Drug store
Holmes Grocery
Cates, Frank Meat market
Martin, T. S. Hardware
Phelps, Miss Hulda Millinery
Pierce, H. V. Clothing
Rann, Earl & Mort Clothing
Riley Pool room & cigar store
Robinson Livery stable
Roleson, John Grocery
Tewksbury, Thurston Sager House
Tyler, John Furniture
Tyler, W. B. General store
Walters Lumber yard
Waters, Giles M. Harness shop
Yankee Dan Notions
Unknown Barber
Blacksmith
Brick yard
Clothing
Furniture
Grist mill
Grist mill
Hardware & implement
Harness shop
Jewelry
Meat market
Millinery
Saw mill
Saw mill
Stave mill

The Wilson House burned about this time, and was replaced by Robinson's Livery Stable, the largest in the county. Kate Stanley served as postmistress.

The following map was constructed from the fading memories of Ed Dippy and several other people; it could be flawed.

IV Reaching Out (1911-1929)

In 1911, another external event affected Morrice. An electric railway (officially called the Michigan United Traction Line, but known locally as the Inter-Urban Line) began running south from Owosso to Morrice, where it turned westward toward Lansing, then south on to Jackson. (There was at least one other branch going north from Lansing to Alma.) The ticket station on Morrice Road had a waiting room and a loading platform where many farmers sent their milk to Owosso each morning. Cars ran four times in both directions each day.

Charles Gale sat behind the wheel of the first automobile ever to chug through Morrice. But reports vary as to who actually owned the first car. It was either Rev. Stuart or Mr. Bancroft, one of the flour mill owners. In 1916, Leslie Hawkey owned a Maxwell car dealership in the village.

Other businesses in 1915 were:

Alling, Henry Shoemaker
Atkins, Bertha A. Millinery
Beard, A. L. & Co. Bank
Bishop Creamery
Bryant, R. R. Cigars & tobacco
Blossom & Cates Meat market
Carl, Scott E. Blacksmith
Conley, William A. Drug store
Davis, Harry E. Flour & feed
Davis, Norris C. Groceries
Davis, Wallace E. General store
Halsted, T. H. Morrice News Clipper
Keeney, A. M. Livery stable
Martin, T. S. & son Hardware
Phelps, Hulda A. Novelties & variety
Pierce, H. V. General store
Rann, Benj. F. Furniture
Rann, Earl E. General store
Tewksbury, Thurston W. Sager House
Towner, F. M. & Co. Grain & hay
Walters, Giles M. Harness shop
Vreeland, Egbert L. Photographer

The new forms of transportation seem to have initially brought new settlers to Morrice. But the migration soon turned dramatically outward, as residents began commuting to better-paying jobs in Owosso or Lansing, then moving closer to their work. When people shopped for better bargains in other cities, many merchants also left. Morrice had become an outgoing commuter town that could no longer support itself.

The population figures are a bit tricky. The U.S. census shows a steep decline from 470 in 1910, to 372 in 1920. But the drop may have been more dramatic yet. Old-timers interviewed in the late 1950s all stated that Morrice had once been much bigger than its current population of 528. Indeed, Charles Moore's History of Michigan estimated the population of Morrice at 600 in 1915. Such a rapid rise would be similar to the rates of increase that occurred three other times in Morrice history: the 1880s, the 1960s, and the 1990s. It would agree with businessman's daughter Dana Pierce, who testified that the Inter-Urban at first brought in many new people, but the tide turned to a massive exodus around 1917. And the figure would verify those long-time residents who stated that the town had lost about half of its population between 1915 and 1920. Whatever the true numbers may have been, residents of Morrice lived through the next 50 years convinced that the village was smaller than it had once been. But as long as the Inter-Urban line kept running, that didn't matter; Morrice was reaching out, and the school was making exciting progress that had nothing to do with population.

On April 6, 1920, the first high school burned. Though the volunteer fire department owned two chemical trucks and a pumper, their hoses could not reach the roof of the tall building, and the whole structure burned. The Michigan Rural Agriculture Act provided for state aid to any three or more school districts that consolidated into one. So in July, by a margin of 144 to 1, people of the Alling (to the east), Gale (to the north), and part of the Austin districts (to the northwest) joined the Morrice district to become the Morrice Consolidated School. A steam engine hauled the one-room Alling school from the southwest corner of Britton and Cork Roads on into Morrice. (It was actually the third Alling school building; the first one had been sold to the Catholics, and the second one burned after a short time.) In town, the building served another 55 years as the high school shop (until 1942), the kindergarten room (until 1968), and finally the art room (until 1975). The new three-storey building opened in January of 1921. It had six large classrooms (some of which were always subdivided). Chemistry and Home Economics originally occupied the bottom level, with elementary students taking up the second floor.

Bus service began the next September with four private home-made busses. These wooden boxes had benches along each side, and a removable bench in the middle, so that the farmer-owners could also use them in the summer to haul grain. The structures sat on a Model T chassis, but could also be put on sled runners and pulled by horses during heavy winter snows. On occasion, schoolboys as young as 14 drove the busses. The school replaced these contraptions with four real school busses in 1936.

To keep a favorite teacher (and former graduate) who had recently married, the school board offered the superintendency in 1920 to her husband. People of Morrice first knew Claud J. Shufelt (1893-1964) as Miss Cohoons husband. When he finally stepped down in 1951 to continue his career at the county level, he left a school that had become a model for vocational education. In addition to the traditional college-preparatory curriculum, he introduced full programs in shop (1921), home economics (1921), agriculture (1923), and business (1937). The high school orchestra also began in 1921. In 1936, the University of Michigan rated Morrice High School as one of the two outstanding schools in the state with a practical modern curriculum.

Mr. Shufelt was also president of the Morrice State bank for 23 years. He started the Shiawassee County Teachers' Credit Union in 1937, and served as its president for 12 years. As chairman of the Shiawassee County Health Department advisory committee, he authorized the state's first treatment of children's teeth with flouride, before it became available in toothpaste. Mrs. S. A. Shufelt started a school hot lunch program in 1923--long before other schools had anything like it. Girls in her Home Economics class fed over 100 students at an average cost of 35 a week.

Boys' sports went back to at least 1892. There was nothing unusual about that, but opportunities for girls' sports remained rare in most schools. Yet the Morrice high school girls' basketball team organized as early as 1924.

Also in the 1920s, the traveling Chatauqua educational and cultural program set up its tent in Morrice for a week or so each summer. With a family ticket, residents could partake in children's activities in the morning, skits in the afternoon, and a different drama performance each evening.

In that same decade, the Oliver Munro family took their "Sunshine Kiddies" musical vaudeville act on a bus tour through the northern states each spring and fall, played southern states in the winter, and spent their summers in Morrice. Some years, they took an extra kid or two from Morrice with them. Oliver's sister-in-law, Elsie Munro (1885-1971), had graduated from the Detroit Conservatory of Music, so she went with them a couple of years. During the era of silent films, she played the organ at two theatres in Owosso. She later conducted the Morrice high school orchestra during the depression, when the school couldn't afford to pay anyone. Even as an old lady, she played the organ at the Methodist Church.

Morrices fiftieth birthday as an official village came in 1926. The village held a huge semi-centennial celebration on September 11 of that year. Merchants in surrounding towns closed their stores to attend. Nearly 3,000 free barbeque lunches were served that day, going through 40 pounds of donated coffee. Events included music performances all day, an address by the local congressman (from Saginaw), every kind of footrace from regular to three-legged to wheelbarrow, bicycle race, obstacle race, wrestling matches, tug-of-war, pie-eating contest, greased pole climbing, plane rides and a parachute jump. That evening, ladies from the three churches combined to put on another feast. The original minister returned to preach in the Presbyterian church the next morning, and the same local quartet who sang at the church's opening sang again. Scattered old-timers came back and pieced together the history of Morrice during its first fifty years.

Many of those reminiscences appeared in the Morrice News-Clipper, which, since its beginning in 1902, never had been anything more than a page in the Perry Journal. Thaddeus H. Halsted (1884-1967), the good doctors son, owned and edited the joint publication from Perry. Much earlier, around 1886, there had briefly been a newspaper called The Morrice Moon, but that also appears to have been part of The Perry Sun.

Businesses that took out ads to sponsor the 50-year celebration included:

Cates & Blossom, dealers in fresh, salt, and smoked meats, staple and fancy groceries, fish and oysters in season.

L. E. Sutherland, staple and fancy groceries, restaurant and ice cream parlor.

Victor Spaniolo, fresh fruits, ice cream, sodas, cigars and tobaccos.

Mrs. Ida Waters, [live]stock foods, harness, drugs, candy, gloves, tablets, pencils, flour, etc., etc. Ray Crouse, tonsorial artist. [barber]

Scott Carl, general blacksmithing (45 years in business here)

Morrice Grain & Bean Co., shippers of grain, beans, hay, seed and wool; dealers in coal, cement, plaster, lime, brick and tile

Clifton Ward, trucking and draying (long distance trucking)

E. L. Vreeland, photo studio. See our line of wall paper

O. Gruber, dealer in groceries, gent's furnishings and footwear

The Morrice Co-Operative Shipping Association. We ship every Monday. Please list your stock early. Farmers who are not shipping co-operatively, ask your neighbors about it.

Miss Hulda Phelps, dealer in fancy goods, dry goods, ladies' furnishings and fancy china.

B. R. Francisco, tonsorial artist. [barber]

Harry E. Davis, miller; dealer in lumber, lime, cement, tile, salt and coal; wholesalers of Challenge flour, bean & feed.

W. L. Radtke, buyer and shipper of eggs, cream and poultry.

C. W. Munro, garage

W. E. Davis, general merchandise

In 1929, the Inter-Urban Line shut down--no longer able to withstand competition from automobiles. Now isolated, people began to notice how many buildings had stood empty for the past ten years. Morrice was looking like a ghost town. Several fires took care of that problem. The biggest fire (around 1930) started at the livery stable, jumped the street to the Sager House, then traveled south to take out the entire west side of the business block. That side of the street still has small detached twentieth-century buildings, in contrast to the older compound stores across the street.

In 1929, the dwindling congregation of the Presbyterian Church closed their doors for the last time, and turned the building over to the village as a Community Hall. Besides hosting many wedding receptions and meetings, the building would serve as the high school gymnasium for twenty years. The big old wooden structure was torn down in 1999.

As mentioned, the 1920 population had plunged to 372. This hardly changed over the next decade, and the 1930 census showed 370. Then the numbers began to rise ever so slowly: 452 in 1940, 501 in 1950, 528 in 1960. Those numbers still fell short of the estimated 600 population in 1915. Old-time residents basked in past glories.

All through the 1930s, Miss Susan Fear (1889-1967) reigned as County Superintendent of Schools. A Canadian orphan, she had been raised by two aunts in Morrice. She insisted that the one-room country schools teach such niceties as music and dancing, so she brought in many state programs to provide traveling vocal music teachers. Each year, she sponsored a county-wide Spring Music Festival, as well as a county-wide eighth-grade graduation and picnic. She also arranged zoo trips for students who had never been outside the county. At age 50, she married Rev. Harold Moody, who died a few years afterward. In later years, (as Mrs. Clare Winegar) she presided as the grand lady of Morrice, known for her elegant hosting. Halloween trick-or-treaters knew she always had the most lavish spread of fruits and brownies and popcorn in town, but they also knew she would demand a song or a poem before they could help themselves. She sparked my interest in the history of Morrice, and introduced me to several people with long memories.

There were a lot of college-educated women in town. In 1936, they organized the Morrice Reading Room. In 1955, they moved into the new Library and Town Meeting Room.

For about thirty years, starting in the 1920s, people came into town every summertime Saturday night for the Morrice Free Show. People sat on outdoor benches--first at the north end of the east side of the business block, then at the south end of the west side, and later across the street. The school band might play on the stage before the show, and local kids might tapdance during intermission. Until about 1930, the films were silent; later came black-and-white classics. Everybody loved Laurel and Hardy. For a few years in the 1930s, there were also winter movies at the Community Hall. But those weren't free; people paid 5 each to cover heat and electricity. The Free Shows ended about 1955, a victim of television.

A village baseball team played all through the 1930s and '40s.

The Morrice Women's Club began in 1929, with Elsie Munro as president. They joined the county organization in 1951, and federated with the state organization in 1970. Some of the same ladies belonged to the Morrice Garden club, which met from 1952 through 1974. Besides putting on flower shows, they engaged in beautification projects, decorated neglected graves, supervised Christmas lighting, and started an early recycling program. In 1969, they organized a Junior Garden Club of second-grade students.

The Morrice Lions Club organized in 1946. The next year, and for about 45 years, they sponsored the Morrice Homecoming each summer. They blocked off Main Street, and the community organizations set up booths offering food. There was a parade. Cakewalks and an Ice-Cream Social occupied the evening hours. From 1964 to around 1990, the celebration moved to a corner of the school grounds. In 1976, the Lions Club established a village park.

The Morrice Boy Scouts organized in 1928 as Troop 63 out of the Lansing council--soon changed to Troop 91 (later 391) of the Tall Pine Council, headquartered in Flint. High school teachers served as early scoutmasters. Fire destroyed the records after 1933, but they do show a reorganization in 1944. Except for a break in the late '60s, the troop functioned almost continuously through 1986--a documented total of at least 45 years. Long-time scoutmasters included Floyd Grinnell, Frank Cook, Paul LeValley, and Ron Grinnell. Over the course of time, an estimated 400 Morrice boys traveled north to Camp Ta-pi-co near Kalkaska for a week of wilderness camping. The Morrice troop usually chose one of the primitive sites, approachable only by canoe or by walking logs laid end-to-end through the swamp.

Morrice Explorer Post 91 operated 1957-1961. In 1957, they took a memorable hundred-mile canoe trip down the Manistee River. (The water was still clean enough to drink, and eagles perched on the branches just overhead.)

Justin "Jud" Freeman was the post's longest-serving leader. Eagle Scouts from Morrice are:

Alan Dutcher, 1959
Ed Cook, 1960
Richard Ross, 1960
Bill Rothney, 1964
Bob Strachan, 1984

Morrice Girl Scouts started when the Shiawassee Council organized in 1944, but they functioned only sporadically. Around 1970, they joined the Fair Winds Council out of Flint, and became much more active. Anne Schliska served as a leader for more than 25 years. Lucille Lowrie directed the Crooked River Day Camp near Bancroft for 26 years.

When Girl Scouts were inactive in the 1950s and '60s, young ladies instead perfected their sewing and cooking skills through 4-H. They competed for ribbons each year at the Shiawassee County Fair. Long-time leaders included Mary Lezovich and Mary Jane LeValley. Mary Jane (as Mrs. Edwin Hoag) later went on to be named Texas College Business Teacher of the Year in 2001.

Wallace Davis had apprenticed at the Goss creamery and associated general store, before buying the businesses. Farmers and townspeople would gather around the stores heating stove, while Mrs. Davis typed stories for the Union Sabbath-School paper. Their son, Ellsworth Davis, continued to operate the grocery store until 1962.

Dorothy Sutherland married Tom Hathaway, and they continued to run her familys grocery store. In 1946, they converted to self-service aisles. Tom took great pride in aging his cheeses just right. If customers wanted cheese a few days before it was ready, he would save them another trip into town by selling it, but he would make them promise not to eat the cheese until the date he specified. He also taught Red Cross first aid classes.

Jasper Cady had installed the Farmers Rural Telephone Exchange in Morrice in 1903. According to the original rules, no one could call after 9:30 at night (except in extreme emergency), no calls could last longer than five minutes, people were not supposed to let their non-subscribing neighbors use the phone, and private conversations had to stop whenever someone requested the line to transact business. Harry Riley, who owned the telephone company from the 1920s through the '50s, listened in on everybodys party-line conversations. People rang the operator, and asked for the person by name rather than by number. Since Riley knew everybodys business, he would then ring the store or neighbors house where he figured the person would be by then. One interesting feature of the telephone system was the emergency ring of one long and several shorts. Everybody on the line would rush to the phone to find out where the emergency was, or whose cows got out. Then they dropped everything and ran to help their neighbor. Volunteers did the same thing whenever the fire siren went off.

People who lived on gravel roads around Morrice often spent snowy days hauling stuck vehicles through the drifts. Students got a spring vacation only if the school had not already been shut down many days for snow or mud. In some muddy springs, the busses could travel only the paved roads, and students had to walk the rest of the way.

Around 1943, Mrs. Shufelt started the May Festivals that would last until 1959. Under the great oaks where the gymnasium later stood, elementary students performed dances of various countries, the fifth graders wreathed a maypole, then the sixth graders both wrapped and unwrapped their maypole. A high school senior presided as May Queen.

The high school newspaper did not begin until 1946, when Joan Brown and other girls in the sewing class started The So and Sew News. The next year, they changed the name to The Trumpeteer, a newspaper that has won several journalism awards over the years. The first high school yearbook appeared in 1949, with regular publication since 1952.

In 1947, the high school orchestra converted into a marching and concert band. In 1950, uniforms replaced the hand-sewn orchestra capes. The band (and the entire school) gathered at the depot in 1952 when president Truman passed through town. Then Governor G. Mennon Williams selected the band to play at his 1955 inauguration. From 1957 through 1959, conductor Donald J. Milano demanded more of students than they ever knew was possible. Stepping high and mighty fast, they quickly became the spunkiest little marching band in the area, and also took first place in district concert competitions. Over the years, Morrice has had about as many women band directors as men.

Students also revered a dignified white-haired teacher named Harry R. Atkinson (1883-1968), who taught at Morrice from 1951 through 1963. Born in Canada, the son of a blacksmith, students' laundry. He attended the very first Rose Bowl football game in California, and later became one of the early organizers of the Michigan High School Athletic Association. The last high school Greek teacher in Michigan, he was principal of Battle Creek High School for nineteen years. He quit to become the Michigan director of Canadian Wire Products just before the Depression hit and the business went bankrupt.

Out of work, his red hair turned white with worry. He then served as city treasurer of Battle Creek for sixteen years, finally retiring to live in the Amos Gould Mansion which he had recently inherited in Owosso. But he found retirement boring, so at age 68 he began his second teaching career at Morrice. Ill health finally forced him to retire again at age 80. In his years at Morrice, he taught English, football, history, mathematics, and Latin. He read seven languages, but hesitated to admit his knowledge of Spanish because he considered that language too easy.

Over the years, the six-room brick school had been subdivided and expanded one room at a time, until grades kindergarten through twelve occupied 16 classrooms. (This included one shower and changing room used by boys and girls at different times of the day.) In 1950, the school added a new gymnasium designed by alumnus Gerald Quinn. Today it survives as the Senior Center. Some of the country school districts had long paid tuition to send their elementary students to Morrice. Five such schools officially closed and joined the Morrice district in 1956. Seven more schools joined in 1962, when the state shut down most of the remaining one-room schoolhouses. These expansions necessitated a completely new elementary building in 1957.

An addition ten years later doubled its size. At least twice, voters defeated proposals to merge the Morrice and Perry schools. The tall ceilings of the second high school had proven just too inefficient to heat, so the building was torn down in 1975, after the new third high school opened. During construction projects, some elementary classes met in the two church basements.

With just two churches in town and a population half Catholic and half Protestant, most organizations steered a middle course. At school functions, one clergyman would be called on to open the event, and the other to close it. Baccalaureate services rotated between the two churches every other year. The Scouts likewise rotated their annual visits for Boy Scout Sunday. That way, everybody learned to understand the religion of their friends and neighbors.

The Seventh-Day Adventists, who had been meeting south of town in the Antrim Town Hall, began building their own church entirely by volunteer labor in 1960. They added an addition in 1983, but the church closed in the early 1990s.

These were the businesses of Morrice in 1962:

Abrasives and Ceramics, Inc.
Ames Jeweler (& barber) Harold Ames
Browns T.V. Service Donald Brown
Central Michigan Bar Products
Davis Grocery Ellsworth Davis
Dr. Wendell Taylor, D.O.
Enos Well Drilling Earl Eno
Flood Texaco Service Donald Flood
Gambles Grocery John Gamble Harlachers Variety Store Edward Harlacher
Hathaways Groceries Thomas Hathaway
Jacks Electric Jack Short
Morrice Grain and Bean Co. George Rothney
Morrice State Bank Carl Eckfeld
Morrice Tin Shop Clarence Ferrigan
Peter Pan Beauty Shop & Shoe Repair Ardis & William Pease
Post Office Jay Fournier, Postmaster
Town Tavern George Talbot
Towner Hardware Albert Towner
Turners Coffee Shop Virginia Turner
Walker Sales and Service (appliances) Wellington Walker

Of course, any complete history must deal with the crime statistics. At one time, wooden two-by-fours formed a two-cell jail in the back end of the fire station. No one seems to remember anyone being locked up, but the caretaker slept in one of the cells so he could keep the stove going to prevent the water in the fire truck from freezing. Most people left their houses unlocked and their car keys in the switch. In wintertime, people left their engines running while they shopped, so the car would stay warm. But by the early '60s, the county sheriff decided people were driving a bit fast through town, so he deputized Jay Bliss to slow them down. After a few tickets, someone stole the little blue light off of Jay's pickup. Such was high crime in Morrice.

The ladies of the Garden Club had created a tiny picnic area at the north entrance to the village, with carefully-tended flowerbeds and a sign declaring:

Appreciation of Morrice's home-town virtues came slowly over the next twenty years. Growth came slower yet. Perhaps the rebirth of local pride can be dated to 1973 when Mr. David Fahrenbach inspired his junior high history students to do archaeological digs in Morrice. They mostly found old bottles, but they also asked farmers to donate old tools, and then put the whole caboodle in a small Farming Museum that had once been the high school Chemistry laboratory. Mr. Fahrenbach's pupils eagerly gathered statements from old-timers, and his class two years later put together a photo history of the village. His student Nina Mortimore published the results.

The new information they uncovered has been included here. The kids also listed these Centennial Farms owned by the same family for 100 years:

Roger Scribner farm, Bath Rd.
Frank Mortimore farm, S. Bancroft Rd.
Harold Ellsworth farm, Winegar Rd.
Lawrence Tyrrell farm, Cork Rd.

Meanwhile, Nina's father, Frank W. Mortimore, had long been calling attention to the earlier Indian heritage of the area. The Morrice Boy Scouts were on hand when he unveiled the county's first historical marker commemorating the trading post at Knagg's Bridge. Mr. Fahrenbach's classes honored Mr. Mortimore as part of a program celebrating the U.S. bicentennial in 1976. But in the national excitement, no one noticed that 1976 was also the centennial year for the village of Morrice.

In fact, Morrice celebrated its centennial eight years late on June 16, 1984 (100 years after incorporation with the state, rather than the laying out of the village). It was much smaller than the 50-year celebration in 1926. There was a parade with lots of floats and antique cars. People could go up in a balloon, compete in log-rolling, or join the footraces for all ages. The Morrice post office used a special "Pioneer Days" cancellation mark that day.

The Perry-Morrice-Shaftsburg Ambulance service organized in July of 1969, and moved their headquarters from Perry to Morrice in 1993. Beginning as a volunteer organization, they are now tax-supported. Their three ambulances serve a wide area. In 1982, several ministers organized the Perry-Morrice-Shaftsburg Emergency Relief Council to stock a food pantry for fire victims and the needy.

A summer recreation program began with Little League in the early 1960s, and has expanded to include softball games for girls and other sports for small children.

The high school has continued living up to its progressive reputation. In 1976, they began bussing students to Perry for low-enrollment classes such as French, business machines, and agriculture. Perry pupils came to Morrice to study drafting and other subjects. Some students drove to Owosso or Corunna for vocational classes. In June of 1989, Morrice was among the first schools in the area to begin sharing teachers by television transmission. Students can now study such remote classes as Japanese and astronomy--as well as advance-placement college courses. The school boasts a high number of computers.

In the early 1980s, nearly every high school sports team went on a winning streak. The Alumni Association celebrated their hundredth anniversary in 1987 with a yearbook that included much new research on history of the various school organizations. That information has also been included here.

This 1987 list of Morrice businesses shows an almost complete turnover of ownership during the 25 years since 1962. This list also includes several businesses operating in the surrounding countryside:

Banuras Superette Arturo Banura
Benjamins Garage Ralph Benjamin
Bill Begole and Co. William Begole
Country Kitchen Debra & Donald Rockafellow
Dick Bolek Construction Richard Bolek
Dicks Auto Parts Dick Kalmbaugh
Fletcher Printing Dave & Carol Fletcher
His and Hers Hairline Gloria Olsen
J Bar J Tack Shop & Repairs John & Marilyn Partridge
Kingsley Construction Gale Kingsley
Mikes Lounge Michael Judd
Morrice Branch of Old Kent Bank Doris Hallock, Manager
Morrice Collision Richard Dietrich
Morrice Grain and Bean Co. George Rothney
Morrice Hardware David Robertson
Morrice Library Connie Grover, Librarian
Morrice Tin Shop Robert Ferrigan
Mortimores Garage Arnold Mortimore
Murphy Electric Dale Cole, Paul & Keith Ross
Post Office Shirley Shaw, Postmistress
Proudfoot Electric Elwyn Proudfoot
Pump and Shop Duane & Kathy Russell
R.J. Realty Jack Jennex
Rebuilt Farm Equipment David & Donna Narhi
Rundell Gravel Donald & Robert Rundell
Ryans Painting Kenneth Ryan
Service Electric Terry Johnson
St. Vincent De Paul Store
Tom Davis Logging Thomas Davis
Village Silhouette Monia Stevenson

The village suddenly grew as the World War II "baby boom" generation began having children in the '60s. Of course, the same thing was happening everywhere. The 1970 census jumped to a record 734, held steady in 1980 with 733, but then dropped down to 599 by 1990 as those same children grew up and left town.

Then in the late 1990s, Morrice began to expand again. People in Lansing, especially professors at Michigan State University, started thinking of Morrice as an ideal home town to raise their families. It was one of the few communities remaining with no chain stores or franchises; people could do business directly with the owners. And everybody knew their neighbors. Families moved in, and soon voiced their expectations for higher standards in the school. In 1988, John Peckham had proposed a modular home subdivision called Morrice Meadows on the east side of town. But it took nine years to overcome opposition to the project, by which time the original planner had sold out to a local corporation. Finally, in the summer of 1998, people started moving in.

In 1999, several state legislators came to help Habitat for Humanity build a house on Morrice Road just north of Britton Road. Visiting dignitaries included Jack Kemp, former Housing Secretary and recent candidate for vice-president of the United States.

By 2000, the population of Morrice had jumped to 882. Furthermore, as the state's people shifted northwest, the census bureau identified little Morrice as the population center of Michigan.

Several people from Morrice went on to create names for themselves elsewhere. Some rose to distinction in their chosen profession. Others established regional reputations so their names were known more than 50 miles from where they lived. Distinguished sons and daughters of Morrice (not already mentioned) include:

Joani Hawes Anderson '60, artist in California.
Ora L. Bristol 1888, superintendent of Morrice High School 1893-96.
Chuck Church '52, wrestler.
Kathleen Cutlar '30, professor at Cornell and Michigan State.
Aleath Garrity '12, principal of Morrice High School in the 1920s.
Roy Greenman '24, roadside park named for him on US-45 in the upper peninsula.
Jeff Hargrove '82, professor of biomedical engineering at Kettering University in Flint, working on a cure for fibromyagia.
Denzel Hankinson '33, professor, dept. of Food Science, University of Massachusetts.
Edwin Hoag '62, landscape painter in Texas, retired from Texas A & M University.
Mark Jager '76, professor at Concordia University in Oregon.
A. Tom Jordan 1900, professor.
Charles Jordan 1897, superintendent of Morrice High School 1904-08.
Jack Kinney '45, major league baseball pitcher, athletic director at University of California Santa Barbara.
George Klee '62, biology professor, Kent State University.
Clyde LeValley, realtor listed in Who's Who in the Midwest, 1974-75.
Ellen Howard Mortimore '45, nursing supervisor at Memorial Hospital in Owosso.
Jim Pavlica '47, baseball player with Chicago White Sox.
Miss Carrie Purdy 1890, principal of Traverse City Schools in 1905.
Inez Ashley Ross '48, author of at least three books, including a novel.
Rev. Tom Trimmer (Episcopal) '59, United Nations election observer.
Miss Mary Winegar '19, principal of Utica Schools in the 1920s.

U.S. census figures for Morrice, Michigan:

1880............229

1890............422

1900............476

1910............470

1920............372

1930............370

1940............451

1950............501

1960............528

1970............734

1980............733

1990............599

2000............882