Fonds - Morris Family Fonds

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Morris Family Fonds

General material designation

  • Textual record

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Level of description

Fonds

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Statement of scale (cartographic)

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Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • 1898-1999 (Creation)
    Creator
    Morris Family Fonds, Trinity, Trinity Bay NL

Physical description area

Physical description

167 cm of textual records

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Archival description area

Name of creator

(1917-2000)

Biographical history

Stephen Rupert Morris was born in Carbonear on August 3, 1917, to Fred J. Morris and Winifred (Hollands) Morris. He was the eldest of three children, Barbara Jean born in 1920 and Eric Roy in 1922. His Newfoundland roots go back to a great grandfather who arrived at Trinity in 1765 from Carnarvon in Wales.

He completed his high school education and went on to St. John’s where he attended Memorial University College for two years before returning home in 1936 to enter the family business. On April 17, 1941 Rupert joined the Canadian Army and served in the Royal Canadian Engineers in Canada and Overseas until the end of 1945 when he was discharged. He then completed a year of business school at the Maritime Business College at Halifax and returned home in 1946 to rejoin the family business, and oversaw the change over to Morris & Co. In 1947 he married Jean Barbour and they had one child, Ian Roy.

In 1948 Rupert and his father opened Trinity Cabins, the first tourist cabins in Newfoundland, which were operated by Rupert until 1995 when due to poor health he was forced to retire. The Cabins were subsequently sold and purchased by Glenn and Correine Johnson of Trouty and are still in operation.

Rupert’s father died in 1961 and Rupert carried on the company (Morris & Co.) until 1970, when changing times, coupled with a decline in the trading area population, made the continued operation of the company on a much smaller scale unwarranted.

In 1964 the Trinity Historic Sites Committee was formed at Trinity and Rupert became its first president. Following a successful archival display which was put on by the committee for “Come Home Year” in 1966, the Trinity Historical Society was formed in November of that year. Rupert was elected to the position of president and held this office until 1995. On January 8, 2000, at the age of 82, he passed away at the Health Sciences Centre, St. John’s.

Custodial history

The scrapbooks were assembled by Mr. Morris between the years 1967 and 1999 and were created for display at the Trinity Museum, to provide information on the history of Trinity to visitors. The scrapbooks were transferred to the archives in 1999. In 2001 the contents of each scrapbook was photocopied and all original clippings, programs and photographs were removed and placed with already existing fonds.

Two scrapbooks have been removed from the collection: one containing original correspondence and documents from the Trinity Court, and the other a compilation by Mrs. Florence Murrin on her father the Rev. Edmund Hunt, the contents of both of these scrapbooks have been placed within their own separate fonds.

Dr. Ian Morris, son of Rupert, placed on permanent loan with the archives the material relating to the Morris family business and the Trinity Cabins on August 8, 2001.

January 10, 2004, Mr. and Mrs. Glen Johnson donated the following records that belonged to the Morris family business when it was named Joseph Morris and Sons. These records were stored in the basement of Trinity Cabins: Daily Credit Pink Sales Sheets, 1904 - 1911; Transfer Ledger Sheets 1904 - 1922, 1909 - 1948 and 1908 - 1937 and Daily Receipts 1911 - 1915, 1914 - 1922 and 1923 - 1929.

Scope and content

The Stephen Rupert Morris fonds consists of ledgers, 1898 - 1904; daily credit pink sales sheets, 1904 - 1911; transfer ledger sheets, 1904 - 1948; journals, 1904 - 1923; cash books, 1906 - 1923; and daily receipts, 1911 - 1929 for the Morris family companies of Joseph Morris; Joseph Morris and Sons; Fred J. Morris; and Morris and Company; cash books 1948 - 1970, expenditure book, 1948 -1970 and a journal, 1948 - 1970 for the Trinity Cabins; a photocopy of the Morris Family and Morris Business History; a collection of Christmas cards and 15 scrapbooks which contain photocopies of clippings, extracts, photographs, programs and other information relating to Trinity and the Trinity area.

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      Status

      Draft

      Level of detail

      Partial

      Dates of creation, revision and deletion

      Created - August 26, 2013

      Language of description

      • English

      Script of description

        Sources

        Accession area