Lt. Commander, USNRF

Erie native Morrison (1869-1956) graduated from the Peekskill Military Academy in 1887 and joined the Pennsylvania Naval Militia in 1911, assuming command of the U.S.S. Wolverine (formerly U.S.S. Michigan, the first iron-hulled ship in the U.S. Navy, commissioned in 1844) when the Navy transferred the ship to Pennsylvania in 1912.  Before the First World War, Wolverine trained men for the Naval Militia, the forerunner of the Naval Reserve.  With the exception of World War I service, in European waters, as 1^st Lieutenant of the battleship U.S.S. Utah (BB-31), Morrison remained in command of Wolverine until the ship was laid up in 1923 due to engine failure. 

Morrison then avidly sought funding from the Navy and the State to repair Wolverine.  When these efforts failed, he tried to gain support for preservation of the ship as a museum.  When these efforts were exhausted, Wolverine was scrapped in 1949.  Morrison raised funds to preserve a portion of the iron steamer's bow as a memorial to the ship and the men that had served on her.  The monument to the ship became a ceremonial meeting place for Morrison and other Wolverine crewmen to place wreaths and remember their shipmates.  In 1954, a plaque in Morrison's honor was placed at the monument in honor of the ship's last captain.  This plaque and the ship's anchor are now located in front of the Erie Maritime Museum; Wolverine's bow section is proudly displayed inside the Museum where it forms the centerpiece of an exhibit on the ship's amazing history.

Captain Morrison's most lasting achievement may be the spearheading of efforts to raise and reconstruct the U.S. Brig Niagara in 1913 for the centennial of the Battle of Lake Erie.  Niagara was then triumphantly towed around the Great Lakes by Wolverine, under Morrison's command.

Morrison was also an avid yachtsman, a founding member and second commodore of the Erie Yacht Club, 1904-05.  A member of the State Parks & Harbor Commission, he was instrumental in the creation of Presque Isle State Park, and was appointed the first superintendent of the Park in 1922.  He also served two terms as a State Representative, 1923-26.

Mark T. Weber, Erie Maritime Museum 1/08

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