Jackson L. Morrow


Jackson Lee Morrow was a Democratic member of the Oregon House of Representatives during the 1880s and the namesake of Morrow County.

Biography

Morrow was born in Kentucky in 1827. He moved with his family to Illinois in 1837 and to Iowa in 1840. In 1853, Morrow moved to Mason County, Washington, where was elected county auditor and was involved in the relocation of peaceful tribes during the Puget Sound War of 1855–56. In 1864, he moved to La Grande, Oregon, serving on the city council and as Union County treasurer, and in 1873 became the first resident of what is now Heppner, which he named after his business partner Henry L. Heppner, then located in Umatilla County.
Morrow was then elected to the Oregon House of Representatives, where one of his main accomplishments was the creation of Morrow County in 1885. He left the Legislature in 1887 and died in Heppner in 1899.
Morrow and his wife, Nancy McEwan of Indiana, had eight children, only one, James William Morrow, survived; he later served in the Oregon State Senate. His wife died in 1882.