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| A grand Victorian-style home of west Morris (B.W. photo) |
I got to remembering the slogan Sunday (7/14) as we made our weekly
jaunt through west Morris. We visit friends at West Wind Village. It's
no routine matter driving from Pacific Avenue to WWV. We finally decided
our usual street was no-go. So I looked for an alternative street. Not
much better if at all. The solution will probably be to avoid Pacific
Avenue completely. We can get on Park Avenue from the highway or from
West 5th Street.
You may be aware that many of the streets in west Morris are in
just awful shape. They are so deteriorated, they hardly seem like paved
streets at all. Potholes are a ubiquitous annoyance. You have to slow to
a crawl. You steer frantically as if you're trying to avoid land mines.
You feel concern for the condition of your car as you cover such
terrain. Indeed, it practically seems as though "the pavement ends" as
you leave Pacific Avenue (and go west).
Pacific itself has never been a prize-winner of a road. Morris was
originally set up for Pacific and Atlantic to be co-equal. The plan was
similar to how Benson turned out. Morris backed away and settled on
Atlantic Avenue for the heart of the business district. This isn't to say west
Morris didn't have its attributes or its heyday. Going back over a
century, west Morris was actually associated with great prosperity. The status
of Pacific Avenue was apparently not a factor.
West and east Morris came to have nicknames based on their
perceived level of prosperity. I have always been a little puzzled
hearing about this chapter of Morris history. First we had the nickname
"Piety Hill" which denoted the west. It grew out of the fact the three
English-speaking churches got established there. These were the
Congregational Church, the Episcopal Church and the Methodist Church.
I'm a little puzzled because I don't notice anything like a hill in west
Morris. Perhaps the term was just grabbed out of pragmatism.
Along came a fellow named John House, a successful implement
dealer, who lived on the east side. He decided we needed a dichotomy. If
the west was "piety," well then let's call the east "poverty." Hence,
"poverty hill." There is a much more discernible hill on the east side
than west. The old public school capped the elevation. That old school,
now home to pigeons and Lord knows what else, is set to be razed any day
now, I guess. It's about time. I told Bob Welle of Fergus Falls
Monuments that I hope he isn't downwind when it happens.
Welle's business occupies the old Stark's Grocery. I told Mr. Welle
that Stark's is where I obtained most of my once-massive baseball card
collection. A fellow sold that collection on commission for me in the
1980s for a considerable amount of $. The baseball card market has
deflated because of saturation. I bought my cards as a kid (a nickel a
pack which included a hard stick of gum) with no thought to them
becoming collectibles. We were always looking for Twins of course (like
Zoilo Versalles).
So, east Morris was once "poverty hill." Not the kind of nickname
you'd like to bandy about a lot. I'm reminded of Burlington IA which has
a park called "Mosquito Park." (Maybe they've changed it by now.) There
was an element of jest in offering a term like "poverty hill."
Seriously, there was an element of competition between east Morris
and west Morris. I sense nothing of the sort today. I just think there
ought to be grave concern about the state of many of the streets of west
Morris. Maybe horses will become the more practical means of
transportation there.
The early days of Morris saw the so-called Yankees (not to be
confused with the baseball players) settle on the west side. They
attended those three English-speaking churches. The Congregational
Church was located across from the Carnegie Library. That church is now
gone, and the library is now the museum. The more recent European
immigrants settled on the east side of Morris. They attended churches
using their native languages or the Catholic Church which used Latin for
worship.
"Status" accrued from living on the west side. Morris was home to
several members of the state legislature in those olden times. All opted
for "Piety Hill" (west) as their home neighborhood. Let's recall who
these distinguished gentlemen were: Representatives J.D. Good, H.H.
Wells and L.C. Spooner; and Senator E.J. Jones.
The "Yankees" had natural advantages. We can also call them
"old-stock Americans." They had no special adjustments. English was
already their language. They in fact established the culture that others
had to adapt to. These Yankees had their origins from England or the
British Isles. Some even had a family tree going back to the Mayflower. I
believe former Morris mayor Lee Swanson can trace his lineage back to
that seminal settlement.
The Yankees of 19th Century Morris respected Puritan ethics. They
largely set cultural standards. The east side got the original
courthouse which had an auditorium. The likes of Ignatius Donnelly and
Knute Nelson gave addresses there. Donnelly gave us the dream of
"Nininger."
The late 19th Century, which stood as Morris' first chapter, wasn't
all work and no play. There were lawn socials, whist parties, formal
dinners and dancing through the night! Civilization was quite possible
without cable or satellite TV, or Facebook either for that matter. We
read of a gala open-air party that included a hundred Japanese lanterns.
Oh, but the adversity in those times could be ample. I wrote
recently about the grasshopper invasion of 1876, from the perspective of
both Morris and Cold Spring. "Rocky Mountain grasshoppers" were sheer
invaders. Oh, there were blizzards. Prairie fires too. Nevertheless,
Morris residents in the 1880s began putting up large and quite opulent
homes. I wrote recently about one such home, likely the most noteworthy
old home in Morris: the home (originally) of Lewis Stanton. Yes, it was in the
"Piety" (west) side of town, along Park Avenue which in those days was
the most grand drive in Morris. Another significant early home was that
of farm implement dealer A.A. Stone.
The prosperity of that time owed itself partly to the good
reputation of the Morris school, we learn. The Lincoln School was an
early school in Morris. Click on the link below to view a picture of it
from the Minnesota Digital Library.
I attended the school called "Longfellow" on the west side (grades
1-3). It was there I was informed of the assassination of JFK. Word came
from my third grade teacher Lillian Peterson, now Lillian Ehlers, who
has been blessed by living over age 100. She lives at West Wind Village
and we often see her to say hello and to chat.
The Morris newspaper of the 1880s made note of all the budding
developments. It made note of the building boom. Also, of that "splendid
school." And, the "various church accommodations." The paper lauded our
town for its "desirable society and good police regulations." And then
there's this sentence: "We were going to say fourthly the good condition
of our streets, but we guess we won't."
I guess we won't in the year 2013 either.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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