• Son of Robert William and Isabella (Kewley) McMorran.330, p 886

• Little is to be said of Mr. McMorran’s honorable career, which is now in its zenith. He has enjoyed, is enjoying and will continue to enjoy the confidence and respect of the people of his city. The citizens of Port Huron have repeatedly shown their appreciation of his untiring industry and sterling integrity, and there is every reason to feel that there will be no departure from the confidence they have always shown. His executive ability is of a high order. Both in his official and in his private life, Mr. McMorran deserves and has the highest esteem of his fellow men.330, p 887

• The Mills Transportation Company was formed February 4, 1878, with a capital stock of $250,000, divided into 10,000 shares of $25 each. Nelson Mills, of Marysville, held 2,812; Barney Mills, 938; August C. Gray, 1,250; Henry McMorran, Port Huron, 2,500; and Charles Neal, Bay City, 2,500 shares.330, p 547

• He was elected as a Republican to the fifty-eighth Congress. He was reelected and served five consecutive terms from March 4, 1903 to March 3, 1913. He was not a candidate in 1912.
Speaker of the House Joseph G. Cannon publicly commended Mr. McMorran for his service to the nation. He credited the Port Huron industrialist with saving the country large sums of money by closely watching government expenditures.1937

• McMorran, Henry Gordon, a Representative from Michigan; born in Port Huron, Mich., June 11, 1844; attended the Crawford Private School; engaged in the wholesale grocery business in 1865 and also in the milling, grain, and elevator business; member of the board of aldermen in 1867; city manager of Port Huron in 1875; general manager of the Port Huron & Northwestern Railway 1878-1889; member of the State canal commission; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-eighth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1903-March 3, 1913); chairman, Committee on Manufactures (Sixtieth and Sixty-first Congresses); was not a candidate for renomination in 1912; engaged in numerous business enterprises at Port Huron, Mich.; organized the Great Lakes Foundry Co., serving as its president; died in Port Huron, Mich., July 19, 1929; interment in Lakeside Cemetery.1938

• 1850 Census: Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan. Age 6, b Michigan.1939
• 1880 Census: Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan. Age 35, b MI. Mill owner. Father b Scotland; mother b Isle of Man.1934

• RIVERSIDE TURNPIKE CO.
The Riverside Turnpike Co. was organized in 1880 for the purpose of improving the River Road south from Port Huron toward Marysville. Principal subscribers were Henry McMorran of Port Huron, N. Mills and A. C. Gray of Marysville.
This portion of the River Road had always carried heavy travel for those days, because of several things, viz;
(1) St. Clair was the county seat prior to 1871, which required many people from Port Huron to make the journey to county offices, and it was an all day journey.
(2) Marysville was a saw-mill town, and daily (rain or shine) while the mills were operated, a fleet of one horse wagons carried wood and sawdust into Port Huron for fuel, kindling, stable bedding, etc.
(3) Previously, from 1850 to 1862 a saw mill was operated on Gratiot Turnpike by Williams & Mills, much of the products being carted into Port Huron.
(4) Brick yards at St. Clair and on the Bunce farm where Morton Salt Co. plant now stands, added a large volume to the traffic over the road from Bunce Creek north.
With this volume of traffic the road was almost impassable during a large part of the year. Even during dry times the condition was very bad, particularly over the sand hill where now the plant of Pressed Metals Co. is located, and at the mouth of Bunce Creek where the old road dipped do into the gulley and over an old wooden bridge and corduroy filling. South of the creek the road came out to the riverside and continued south through the Bunce mill settlement, over the worst imaginable road to Marysville.
N. Mills drove this road daily in his business, and H. Mcmorran drove it weekly to visit his wife’s relations in Marysville, and they conceived the idea of making a pavement from a point just south of 10th Street, to Bunce Creek, and collect toll from the traffic, according to then existing laws.
The first pavement was of wooden cedar blocks, eight feet wide, from Port Huron City limits (south of 10th Street), and a toll-gate was placed at Moak Street, with another on the north bank of Bunce Creek (which is now in the city of Marysville). The latter was afterward moved to the Wooden Track in order to intercept traffic which came in by that thoroughfare.
These gates were operated until the advent of the electric inter-urban railway, and the extension of city limits of Port Huron to Ravenswood Avenue (the old Wooden Track). Port Huron paid a small sum of money to obtain the abandonment of all rights of the toll-road company, which at the time of abandonment consisted of about 3 1/2 miles of tarmac [gravel crossed out] surface road.
[Side margin handwritten note: 20¢ for team; 10¢ for rig; free for pedestrians]360