HARRISTON – Members of the family of Harvey John Morrison recently presented Masonic Lodge officials here with a certificate recognizing their father, Harvey John Morrison, as a third degree Mason a century ago.
Morrison, who was born in Minto Township and once farmed on the 6th Line, was initiated as a Mason on Oct. 11, 1920. He advanced to second degree status on Nov. 17, 1920 and was raised to the third degree on Jan. 10, 2021.
Morrison was born in the former township of Minto on April 24, 1894 and later moved to the Owen Sound area and then Allenford, before moving back to live in Harriston. He later acquired a 150-acre farm on Minto’s 6th Line.
“I have very fond memories of growing up on that farm with my family,” said Morrison’s daughter Marjorie Tremble.
Tremble recalls wading through waist-deep snow after a major storm in her youth, in order to get out the barn “and make sure all the kitties were okay” and learning to milk a cow by hand.
Sharing the story of how her parents came together, Tremble explained her mother, born Margaret Josie McGregor, was living in Calgary, engaged to be married and expecting a baby.
When Margaret and her sister went to pick up her fiancé, an oil field worker, at the train station one weekend, they learned “there had been and accident and he was killed.
“So she had quite a dilemma, because in those years to be pregnant without a man was like…”
Devastated, Margaret put “a write up” in the local newspaper about her situation, which was seen by Morrison, who was in western Canada on a cattle-buying expedition.
“So he went to meet her. And they fell in love,” said Tremble who notes she isn’t sure if the couple were married in Alberta or Ontario, “but nevertheless, he brought this beautiful lady to the farm.”
Morrison died in 1959. Three years later the farm was sold and the family, which now included one son and two daughters, moved to Mount Forest.
“The certificate of my father being received into Free Masonry hung proudly in the back kitchen. My sister and I found it in one of the boxes marked ‘farm,’” said Tremble.
Realizing the certificate was 100 years old, Tremble explained, “We wanted the document where everyone would honour and appreciate the achievement.”
On Nov. 8 Tremble and her sister Isabelle Bowman, who both now live in Kitchener, brought the document and some other memorabilia to Harriston and presented it to Harriston Masonic Lodge secretary Allan Lee and Grand Master Ron Faulkner.
