Continued from last week... Both Leslie and Walter left Sierra City for the San Francisco Bay area as young men and never returned to live there. Leslie had two children, Bob and Joan; Walter, who carried on the Morrison carpentry tradition, also had two children, Florence and Marjorie. After living in various places, my mother and father returned to Sierra City in 1936 with their first two children, James and Calvin. In 1941, they moved into the house on Church Street with Clara, widowed by then, and I was the last (so far) Morrison descendent born in that house, in 1942. Bertha left Sierra City, married Eugene Austin and lived most of her life in Berkeley. She had one son, Edwin, who died without leaving children. Sierra City has continued to bind Morrison descendants to our mountain roots. George G.’s grandchildren Bruce and Marilyn maintain an interest in their mining claims; my brother Cal returned there in 1988 and, together with his wife, Marlene, created the popular High Country Inn at Bassetts; Cal died in 2001. I have inherited my birthplace, the Morrison family home on Church Street, and rejoice in the summer months I spend there with my husband, Hal, in that wonderful old house. I am grateful to the following family members who helped me with this account: My niece Lisa Busath, who has painstakingly tracked down our family’s genealogy; my brother, Cal Cartwright; Bruce Morrison; Bob Morrison and Bob’s half-sister and brother; Virginia Maxwell; and George Maxwell. Mountain Springs can be purchased at the Downieville Historical Museum, Sierra Country Store in Sierra City, Bassett’s Station, Graeagle Store, or directly by emailing lcrosen@yahoo.com.
Clara was a much loved part of the community throughout her life. As a young wife and mother, she was constantly in demand as a midwife. Her cooking and baking and her gardens were legendary. A cousin, Virginia Maxwell, fondly remembers the annual mass of purple iris in the picket-fenced yard on Church Street and the large raspberry patch that yielded daily platters of fruit in the summer. Martin later added on a section to the back of the house that became a kitchen, a bathroom without a toilet, and a workroom. In the 1920s he hooked up a generator from our own water source and the house had its first, rather dim, electricity. In 1937, a little enclosure for a toilet was finally built in the back workroom and the privy came down. My fun-loving Uncle Walter honored its demise with a 21-gun salute.
Clara Dietel and Martin Luther Morrison; their surviving children, left to right, Walter, Leslie, and Mabel