Iron County register., 1896-06-04
Maj. j. N. Morrison.

erals Office necessarily covers much
wider field of legal subjects than that
in the office of a judge-advocate OF
military department., and educated
and trained lawyers of wide expert
ence ere required; and this, it is said,
was the cause of the president going
outside of the army for his appoint
ment to fill the place given to Maj.
Morrison. And Maj Morrison, Tor
this reason, will probably be kept on
duty at Washington sduring the whole
of his term of active service. His ex-
tensive experiences in the courts, add
ed to the long term he has had in the
judge-advocate-gen Office, consti-
tutes an advantage which other mem
bers of the corps have not had the
benefit of.
His pay and cash allowances as
major at the beginning are S3,076 a
year, and will be increased to S3, s76
year when he becomes a lieutenant
colonel, and has had five years in the
army; and to S4,57O when he becomes
a colonel. Ten per centum is added to
the salary at the end of each period OF
five years service for the first &c years
service.
Maj Morrison is well known TO the
newspaper fraternity of Missouri, be-
ing at one time connected with the
Greenville CWayne county, Journal.
He was born at the Morrison Old
Homestead" the Otter Creek valley,
in Wayne county, Mo-, March IL,
1s49. His boyhood covered the war
period and the devastations of
the war brought many hardships
and privations upon him. his
father (who, while in comforta bic cir
cumstances before the war, was never
a wealthy mani, losing everything he
had except his lands by the war. The
father and mother dying soon after the
close of the war. and without having
recovered from the effects of it, young
Morrison was left with six younger
brothers and sisters on his hands to
take care of, and but little with which
to do it. He, however, accepted the
responsibility cheerfuliy. and at cost
to him of a good many Thousand dol
lars, and considerable care and atten-
ton during many of the best years of
his life, he reared and ed lcated them
creditably while making lis own way
in the world. He was educated
principally in the common schools of
Wayne county and the Fruitland
normal institute at Pleasant Hill, in
Cape Girardeau county. After leaving
school he studied law five years while
teaching, and was admitted to the bar
in April, 1875. He was elected in
1872 as the superintendent of public
schools of Wayne county. and as pros
ecuting attorney of Wayne county in
10
serving as prosecuting attorney OF
Wayne county he was building up
good general practice in that and the
eighboring counties of Butler, Stod-
dard, Ripley and others. His practice
became as extensive, and probably as
lucrative as that of any other lawyer
of that part of the state, and his stand
ing in the profession there was in the
very foremost rank. He, however,
after having practiced nearly 13 years,
believed that his clients were not
being properly treated in the courts in
which the principal portion of his
practice was, and vigorously resented
the supposed injustice to them. This
resulted in ugly and unpleasant differ
ences between him and the judge,
which led finally TO his abandoning his
practice there in March, 1888, and ac-
cepting the chief clerkship of the of
fee of the judge-advocate-general of
the army in the war department at
Washington. In this new position he
almost Immediately took high rank as
a lawyer, which he has maintained to
the present time with such entire satis-
faction to his superiors in Office that
he was not only retained in the posi-
ton through changes of administra-
ton, but was also heartily supported
in his application for the position
to which he has recently been
appointed by the Judge advo-
cate general and the present
secretary of war and all the ex-secrc-
taries of war under whom he had
served. He has for a number of years
stood high as member of the bar in
Washington.