Bio-Sawyers
SURNAMES:  BURRELL, NORTON, THOMPSON

A native son of California, Albert E. Morrell was born on the Morrell ranch on the Summit, Santa Clara County, October 8, 1874. His father, H. C. Morrell,(see bio below) a native of Maine, came via Panama in 1853. His mother, Clarissa Burrell, was born in Ohio. Grandfather Lyman J. Burrell came to California in 1849, crossing the plains in an ox-team train. He returned East for his family in 1852 and brought them around Cape Horn and located in Santa Clara County. He purchased land in the Santa Cruz Mountains, being about the fourth or fifth to locate on the Summit, residing there for many years until he retired. Clarissa Burrell came to California when six years of age.

Mr. and Mrs. Morrell engaged in farming and improved the Morrell ranch, now one of the best fruit ranches in the district. Some years ago they retired to San Jose arid there Mrs. Morrell died in February, 1922, at the age of seventy-six years, while her husband survives her aged eighty-seven years old. Their family comprised five children: Lizzie, Mrs. H. D. Norton, of Grants Pass, Ore.; H. C., Jr., and J. B., of San Jose; Minnie, Mrs. W. W. Thompson, of San Francisco, and Albert E., who received his education in the local school and at Los Angeles. From a youth he learned horticulture under his father on the home place. In 1908, with his brother J. B., he leased the Morrell ranch until 1911, when he bought his brother's interest and the partnership was dissolved, and he continues to lease the 3000 acre ranch and cares for the 150 acres of orchards on the place,  devoted to prunes, plums and pears, being considered among the finest in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

In San Jose Mr. Morrell was united in marriage with Edith Hammon, who was born in Oregon but reared in California, this union having been blessed with three chldren, Dorothy Claire, Edwin Albert and Shirley Mildred.  Mr. Morrell is keenly interested inthe county where he has spent his entire life, and he has become a well-infomed horticulturist.  Fraternally he is a member of the San Jose Lodge No. 522, B.P.O. Elks, in which he is a popular member.

, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California,  published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 1094

HIRAM C. MORRELL

 Bio- Pen Pictures
SURNAMES:  CLIFFORD, BURRELL

was born in Waterville, Kennebec County, Maine, April 25, 1835. His parents, Ephraim and Achsa (Clifford) Morrell, were both natives of Maine, and are still living in Waterville. They had a family of eight children, six of whom are living, four sons and two daughters. Hiram was the fifth child. He was raised in Waterville, and educated in the High School there. He lived on his father's farm till fifteen years old. He then went into a store and clerked about a year and a half, when he went into a machine shop, but afterward went back into the store. In 1854 he came to California and mined for about a year on the north fork of the American River, in Placer County, and was interested in mines there for three or four years after that. He then went into the saw-mills of that county and sawed sugar-pine lumber for about three years. From there he went to Humboldt Bay, where he ran an engine in a saw-mill for one winter. Next he came to Santa Clara County in 1860, and ran a saw-mill for Howe & Welden, where the Forest House now stands, near Alma; was there one season, when he went into the employ of McMurtry & McMillin in the same capacity; was with them four years, on the Los Gatos Creek. In April, 1867, he bought his present place and moved there, where he has since resided. Mr. Morrell has been engaged in lumbering for a great many years. He now has timber land and a saw-mill in Santa Cruz County, sawing lumber for Santa Clara County.

        He was married, November 15, 1864, to Clarissa R. Burrell, daughter of Lyman J. Burrell, deceased. They have five children: Lizzie M., Clifford H., Jesse B., Minnie C., and Albert E.(above) His ranch contains 250 acres, of which 100 acres are set to fruit, fifty being in fruit and fifty in vines, all in good bearing condition. He has some apple trees thirty years old; has thirty acres in grain, and the rest is timber and pasture land. Mr. Morrell has been a member of Santa Clara Lodge, No. 52, I. O. O. F., for twenty years.

 

Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888.

Pg. 599-600

RETURN TO SANTA CLARA COUNTY FAMILY CHRONICLES

SANTA CLARA COUNTY The Valley of Heart's Delight