Morrisons in Lachine

The Morrisons were a large well-known family in Lachine, Michigan at the turn of the 20th century. Many of them left, as did most of the young people over the last 60 years. Some of my earliest memories are of visiting Bob and Pat Morrison in Las Vegas, NV in the winter of 1955 and being impressed with their son Dougal. When Deirdre and I moved to Las Vegas years later we renewed our acquaintance with Bob. He once related as to how he had a crush on my aunt Florence many years ago. Bob was a long-time dentist in Las Vegas who moved to Glasgow, KY last year, and Dougal, who is no longer a 10-year old shooting ducks in the Vegas wash, is now a well-established optometrist in Las Vegas. I came across this newpaper account of Bob Morrison's grandfather Walter's passing, and thought I would include it. Bob is a great raconteur and I hope to get some of his stories as time goes by. He has a great store of tales when Vegas was a town of 20,000 and he was dentist to stars like Bing Crosby and mobsters like Bugsy Malone and every stripe of character in between. His brother Clyde, a Ph.D. scientist with the NBS/NIST (National Bureau of Standards/National Institute of Standards and Technology) for many years, assembled part of "The Herron Family of Alpena County." All of the pictures on this page were scans given to me by Richard Lomba. He is the son of Robert Lomba and Lylis Morrison Lomba. Lylis is Dougal Morrison's daughter and Bob's and Clyde's sister as well.

I got some clarification from Richard Lomba. Ab Morrison was originally christened Abram Clark Morrison. He later used Albert C. Morrison. Doug was originally named Dougald MacFayden Morrison after his mother's family. He later changed the spelling to Dougal. I grew up with people who knew these people so it's seems natural to pronounce his name as Doog. Richard pointed this out, and I realized most of our sources are well in their '80s now so the knowledge pool for this first-hand information is dwindling rapidly. Therefore, it seems reasonably important to pass on the bits oral history that we do know. With that in mind, Doug was Doog, not Dug.

Ed Sanborn and Bob Morrison in front of the Dougal Morrison house. Bob is Dougal's son. I believe the house was built by Walter Morrison and taken over by his son Dougal. The dedication stone is dated either 1913 or 1917, I believe. If it is 1917 then it may indicate it was built in response to fire referenced in photos on the testimonial page from the Alpena News. I knew it as home to Grace Morrison Atkinson. She was Dougal's daughter and mother of Billie Ann, Tom, and Bob Atkinson who went to school with me. I had a big crush on Billie Ann when I was in the seventh grade. The house stood on the NE corner of M-65 and M-32. I was saddened when it was demolished.