Morrison, John
Section 28.8
ID # 281105

John Morrison
Monroe Co.

Nineteen Penitentiary inmates died of Cholera during the June 1833 Epidemic in Nashville. They were buried at Nashville City Cemetery. In 2016 wooden markers were placed at the cemetery for these Cholera victims.

Fred Zahn of the Metropolitan Historical Commission was responsible for the carving of the inscriptions on the 19 wooden markers and locating where to place them at the Nashville City Cemetery. To read about his work on the project, click here.

To read the account of John Hill, a contemporary of these men and survivor of his time in the penitentiary, click here.

For more information, and to see a listing of the inmates’ names & counties of residence prior to incarceration, please see the following newspaper article in the Nashville Republican and State Gazette, Friday, July 5, 1833.

Charles A. Sherill has given permission to quote from Tennessee Convicts: Records of the State Penitentiary, Vol. I. 1831-1850, by Charles & Tomye M. Sherrill, published 1997:

Page 74
“John Morrison was received in the Penitentiary 6 December 1832. He is 5′ 8 ¹/₂” in height, weighs 190 lbs. Black hair, hazel eyes, and good countenance, 54 years of age. Born in North Carolina and brought up in Blount Co., Tennessee. He has three daughters living near the Tellico Plains, Monroe Co., Tennessee. One married to Richard Miller, one to Martin Thomson and one to Robert Bohannon. Morrison is stout built. He has a scar on the middle finger of the right hand and one on each knuckle of the two middle fingers on the left hand, and one on the left cheek. Has generally followed farming. Was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter at the Circuit Court of Monroe County and sentenced to two years confinement in the Jail and Penitentiary House of the State of Tennessee. John Morrison died of cholera on the 14th day of June, 1833. [Ledger 45, p. 99]”

Research Report August 2017