GEORGE JAMES MORRISON.
 



	George James Morrison has been connected with the hardware busi-
ness ever since he came to Moose Jaw eighteen years ago, a young man
of twenty-two.  Today he is president of the firm owning the store in
which he started out as a clerk and is doing a prosperous retail and whole-
sale business. Although he is still a young man to hold such an important
position, an examination of his career will show that "luck" has had little
to do with advancing his fortunes. On the contrary, the good old-fash-
ioned ingredients of industry, ambition and continuity of purpose seem
to be the chief materials from which he made success.
	George J. Morrison was born in London, Ontario, on the 4th of Sep-
tember, 1884, the son of George and Annie (Ray) Morrison, who are now
living in Birr, Ontario, which has been their home ever since the father
retired from active life as a farmer. Both Mr. and Mrs. Morrison were
brought to that province as children by their respective parents, grew to
maturity and were married there.  George Morrison is an Orangeman,
a member of the I. 0. F. and in his political views is a Conservative. Both
he and his wife are communicants of the Anglican church. Their son,
George James, is their only living child.
	George James Morrison was sent to the public schools of Birr at the
age of six and when he had completed the work of the common schools
he entered the high school at Lucan. Until he was twenty he lived on the
home farm, where he helped with the work after school and during his
long vacations. His first experience in the world of business affairs was
as a clerk in a general store near his home. In 1906 he came west to Moose
Jaw, with a capital of fifty dollars saved from his slender earnings  and
high hopes of making his fortune in the new country. He was not to be
disappointed. At the age of twenty he had learned from his experience
on the farm that men reap what they sow; that good crops come only from
good seed. Nor was he slow to apply this precept to the business world.
Starting out in a humble capacity in a hardware store owned by John
Hawke and run under the name of the Moose Jaw Hardware Company, he
applied himself to his duties in a conscientious, intelligent manner that
soon brought him promotion.  Moreover, he became the master of the
hardware business in all of its phases, studying out every new situation
that came to his attention. In 1912, just six years after he entered the
store, Mr. Morrison purchased the interests of his former employer,
Mr. Hawke. In the spring of 1918 he established a wholesale department
and since then has continued to operate a wholesale and a retail business,
under the name of Morrison & Blackwood, Limited, of which he is the
president. Four traveling men are now kept busy covering the southern
Saskatchewan territory for this firm, which has built up an excellent busi-
ness in the Moose Jaw trade territory. Since Mr. Morrison is the founder
of the enterprise in its present form and the guiding spirit in all of its
operations, the greater share of the credit for its success is due to him.
As a business man of tried ability and great powers he deserves the very
creditable position he holds in Moose Jaw commercial circles.
	In 1917 Mr. Morrison was married to Miss Jean Kirkland, and they
have become the parents of one child, a daughter, Elizabeth June. Mrs.
Morrison was born and educated in the city of Toronto. She is prominent
in the work of various societies of the Methodist church, while Mr. Mor-
rison is serving as a member of the church board. He has also taken a
deep interest in the work of the Young Men's Christian Association in
Moose Jaw and is at present holding the presidency of the organization.
The Rotary Club claims him as one of its valuable members and fraternally
he is a Royal Arch Mason. In the chapter of this order he spent four years
in the chairs, advancing as far as the rank of senior deacon. By inherit-
ance and conviction a Conservative, he always upholds that party at the
polls, but he has never sought a political career for himself, preferring
to devote his attention to his business pursuits.



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