MORRIS FERRY. Morris Ferry was on the Angelina River fourteen miles northwest of Jasper in northwestern Jasper County. As early as 1907 the Jasper County Commissioners Court provided free ferriage for county citizens across the Angelina via the Morris Ferry. Traditionally, this was where the Old Beef Trail crossed the Angelina River. In 1916 the Western Naval Stores Company established a turpentine camp and distillery near the crossing. Over 100 employees tended nearly fifty boxes of raw turpentine at the site, and the population at the camp peaked at 350. The site was abandoned in 1920, however, and installations were removed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Newton County Historical Commission, Glimpses of Newton County History (Burnet, Texas: Nortex, 1982).
