Frank and Ellen Morrison immigrated from Scotland in 1872 with their two children, Frank Jr. and Janet. One of their first homes was at 1310 W Locust, but by 1896, they were proud owners of a home at 802 E Front Street and Frank's plumbing business was at 206 E Front. This home was featured in the 1896 edition of Illustrated Bloomington along with the grander homes of wealthier residents the city. This book and others like it were a sort of vanity publication in which residents could show their pride in their city and their homes.
In this relatively modest home they raised eight children: Frank, Janet, Robert, Charles, Ellen, John, Margaret and Isabella. Their sons were business men, two joining Frank in the plumbing business. Both of the younger daughters worked outside the home, Margaret as a milliner and Isabella as a stenographer. Margaret and Isabella both married, Margaret to Dwight Beal, a prominent attorney and Isabelle to Harry K Johnson, one of the owners of Johnson Transfer. After marrying, they lived next door to each other at 1315 and 1317 E Washington Street and went on automobile vacations together with their husbands. This happy state of affairs ended when Harry Johnson took his own life in November of 1927. Worries over a new company he had purchased caused him great distress and led to this tragic event. Harry and Isabella had only been married twelve years, so their daughters would have been very young.
In 1885, before his youngest daughters were even born, Frank Morrison was working at the reform school in Pontiac and received very bad burns to his face. It was feared that he would be blind in one eye. No mention was ever made of his scars or his eyesight after that accident. Such accidents and visible injuries must have been a common sight in Bloomington in those years. Working men were subject to many dangers and amputations were common in the railroad yards. Frank Morrison Sr. died in 1917 at the age of 73. His son Frank died in 1922 from complications of influenza after three years illness and his daughter Ellen died in 1925. The mother, Ellen, died in February 1934 of old age. She lived at 1328 E Grove Street, very close by her two married daughters, and with her sons James and Charles and daughter Janet.
The last of this large family to die was Margaret Beal in 1976. She had never had children and was survived by two nieces and one nephew.