A blacksmith's shop, a silver trumpet, and a charter roll: the Astoria life of a man who moved through nearly every institution the village had.
Before Cornelius R. Morris appeared on the charter roll of Advance Lodge No. 635, he had been Astoria's blacksmith, a village collector, a noble grand of the Odd Fellows, and chief of its fire department. The lodge's own records list him by trade, a blacksmith, and the newspapers of Astoria show what that trade came to mean in a village of its size. His name on the roll is one of twenty-one. The record around it shows a man who had already served Astoria in most of the ways a village could ask, usually alongside the same neighbors who would later stand with him when the lodge began. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Left at the Forge
In December 1861, the New York Herald ran a small notice with the feel of a village bulletin board. A bay horse, a wagon, and a set of harness had been left at the shop of C. R. Morris, blacksmith, Astoria. The owner could have them back by proving property and paying expenses. If no one came by Saturday, they would be sold at auction to cover the charges. (6)
The notice does not say how the horse came to be there. That leaves the shop looking like what it probably was, a place where people left things and trusted them to be looked after. It was a trade of fire, iron, and horses, practiced in a village whose roads still ran on all three.
The Collector's Rounds
Astoria's elections left their own trail. In May 1857, the Brooklyn Eagle reported on the village vote, describing the winning ticket as unmistakably Democratic in flavor. It carried five trustees, a clerk, a treasurer, and a collector: Cornelius R. Morris. (4)
Five years later, the Brooklyn Evening Star printed spring returns for the Long Island towns, and under Newtown, the town to which Astoria then belonged, the collector's name was again Cornelius R. Morris. Collecting taxes seldom makes anyone popular, and being named to the job at both the village and the town level says something about how Astoria regarded him. (7)
A Silver Trumpet
The best-documented evening of his public life came in early September 1860. The Brooklyn Daily Times reported that the members of Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 had gathered to present the newly elected Chief of the Astoria Fire Department with a silver trumpet, handsomely decorated and engraved. Their foreman, J. M. Whitcomb, spoke for the company. He called the gift a token of esteem for Morris as a man and as a “worthy chief,” and a pledge that the company would carry out his orders for as long as he held the post. The paper called the exchange a hearty one, and said it reflected well on the whole department. (5)
The foreman who made that speech was James M. Whitcomb. A few years later, he would be on the charter roll of Advance Lodge beside the man he had addressed. The chief and the foreman who had pledged him their obedience in 1860 were both there at the founding. (2, 5)
The Odd Fellows' Rooms
Astoria Lodge No. 155 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was instituted on October 10, 1850, at the rooms of William Green. Munsell's history lists the noble grands who served before 1863, and the list includes both C. R. Morris and James M. Whitcomb. Morris, in other words, had led an Odd Fellows lodge before he ever helped found a Masonic one, and so had Whitcomb. (3)
Seen together, the pieces form a pattern. The engine house, the Odd Fellows' rooms, and the new lodge drew on one group of Astoria men, and Morris and Whitcomb were two who passed through all three. In a village this size, a reputation made in one place traveled easily to the next.
A Wedding in September, a Funeral in February
The family record gives the same period a quieter weight. Advance Lodge worked under dispensation in 1866, and its charter followed in 1867. In September 1866, the Herald published the marriage of Cornelia, youngest daughter of Cornelius R. Morris, Esq., of Astoria, to John H. Moran, performed by the Rev. Ten Eyck. On February 17, 1867, the Herald announced her death, at eighteen years and ten months, giving her as the wife of John Moran and the youngest daughter of Cornelius R. Morris. The funeral was held at the Dutch Reformed church in Astoria on the afternoon of Tuesday, February 19. (1, 8, 9)
Munsell dates the organization of Advance Lodge to February 22, 1867, three days after that service. The records say nothing about how those events touched one another, and nothing here suggests they should be read as a story. What they do establish is that the lodge's earliest charter days overlapped with a private loss in a founder's household. (2, 9)
Twenty-One Names
Munsell's roll for Advance Lodge, of Astoria, lists the charter members: John R. Clark, John E. Oloft, Edwin A. Cadwell, James E. Torrey, Caleb J. Frances, Charles Cranfield, James M. Whitcomb, William M. Berger, Charles Risdale, Edward C. Graham, Cornelius R. Morris, Robert T. Wild, Charles C. Howell, E. I. Jenkins, Martin Willis, William B. Wilson, John L. Morris, Umshlag, Benjamin Maillefert, Charles L. Mann, and Joseph Curtis. Among them are a Civil War captain, a political figure who would soon be elected supervisor, and an underwater blaster famous for clearing the rocks of Hell Gate. Morris is not among the masters Munsell names, so whatever he did inside the lodge is recorded elsewhere or not at all. (2)
Four years after the founding, the Herald carried another family notice. Ann O., wife of Cornelius R. Morris, died at Astoria on Thursday, December 7, 1871, aged fifty-six, after a short but severe illness. Her funeral was held on Sunday, December 10, from her late residence on Academy Street. (10)
Most of what survives of Morris was written for other purposes: a lost-and-found notice, an election return, a presentation at an engine house, a funeral card. None of it set out to describe him, and together it does. A charter roll shows only a name, and the records around it show who stood behind it. Morris was a blacksmith whose shop neighbors trusted, an officeholder whom voters returned, a chief whose firemen gave him a trumpet, an Odd Fellow who had held his lodge's highest chair, and a father and husband whom the village's notices followed through its griefs. When Advance Lodge was organized, it began among people Astoria already knew well, and he was one of them.
Endnotes
Lodge and Organizational Records
- Advance Lodge No. 635, F. & A.M., membership records listing Cornelius R. Morris as a charter member, with occupation given as blacksmith. Dispensation 1866; charter 1867. Return to text
- Advance Lodge No. 635, F. & A.M. (Astoria): charter member roll and list of early masters, as printed in Munsell's history of Long Island City, Queens. Return to text
- Astoria Lodge No. 155, I.O.O.F.: institution date, first officers, and list of noble grands before 1863, as printed in Munsell's history. Return to text
Newspapers
- Brooklyn Eagle, May 12, 1857, p. 2: “Astoria Election.” Return to text
- Brooklyn Daily Times, September 7, 1860, p. 2: “Country Items,” presentation to the Chief of the Astoria Fire Department. Return to text
- New York Herald, December 19, 1861, p. 4: “Lost and Found.” Return to text
- Brooklyn Evening Star, April 7, 1862, p. 2: “Long Island Town Elections,” Newtown returns. Return to text
- New York Daily Herald, September 21, 1866, p. 9: marriage notice, Moran-Morris. Return to text
- New York Daily Herald, February 19, 1867, p. 9: death notice of Cornelia H. Moran. Return to text
- New York Daily Herald, December 8, 1871, p. 9: death notice of Ann O. Morris. Return to text
Research Notes
- Researcher's note identifying Cornelius R. Morris of Astoria as a blacksmith born in the United States. Back to article
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