MORRISON, DONALD (1852-1920)

MORRISON, DONALD, businessman and MLA; mayor of Newcastle, 1900-04; b. Burnt Church, 27 Nov 1852, s/o Alexander Morrison and Elizabeth Loggie; m. 1878, Elizabeth Jane Fish, d/o James Alexander Fish and Elizabeth MacAllister; d. Newcastle, 4 Sep 1920.

Donald Morrison moved to Newcastle when he was a young man and worked as a clerk for several years for William Park. In 1878 he opened a dry-goods and grocery store in the town. Later he sold dry-goods and furniture. In 1910 he was one of the founders of the Newcastle Steamship Co., of which Patrick Hennessy was president, and at the beginning he was managing director of the company.

Morrison was a county councillor for nine years and was elected warden in 1889. He failed to win a seat on the first Newcastle Town Council in 1899 but became the town's second mayor in 1900 and served four successive one-year terms. He was defeated as a Conservative candidate in the provincial elections of 1895 and 1899 but was successful in 1903. He was re-elected in 1908 and was chosen speaker of the session held that spring. He then resigned in order to run for the House of Commons, but after losing to William S. Loggie in both the 1908 and 1911 federal elections he retired from politics.

In 1913 Morrison was appointed a fisheries inspector. At the time of his death he was inspector for the counties of Northumberland, Kent, Westmorland, and Gloucester. The Chatham World stated that he was an ideal officer, fearless and uncompromising.

Morrison sat on the board of trustees of St James Presbyterian Church and was active in the Masonic and Orange orders. He was survived in 1920 by his wife, E. Jane Fish, three sons, and a daughter.