History and My History

Back in 1914 there was a small grocery store owned by a man named John G. Morrison in the Salt Lake City area. One night as he was closing up his store with his two sons Arling and Merlin, two men with bandannas covering their faces entered the store. Shots were fired and the two masked men fled. Poor Merlin found his brother Arling lying dead on the floor with a pistol in hand and his father barely clinging on to life. John Morrison later succumbed to his wounds and died in the hospital. This greatly affected the community because John Morrison was a good man and well-known since he was a local grocer.

That night there were a few suspects arrested but when a man named Joe Hill turned up at the hospital with a gunshot wound the police were convinced they had found the man responsible. He claimed that the gunshot had come from a dispute over a woman but he was still arrested, convicted and later hanged for the murder of the Morrison’s. Who knows if he really killed them or not, it is still a mystery. One thing is for sure though my family claims that Joe Hill was the murderer. This is a story close to home because John Morrison was my great-great-great grandfather. His murder was a small event in history but it impacted many lives. The lives of those who lived in the area and knew John personally and the lives of my family. I remember being told this story when I was younger and thinking it was so fascinating that something that I usually only saw on TV actually happened in my very own family.