Second Baptist Members in History: The Morrison's
This 1962 Daily Record article celebrated the 50th anniversary of Dick Morrison Jr.'s barbershop, a Wooster insitution.
Richard Morrison Sr., founder of Second Baptist, came to Wooster in 1880.
Richard L. Morrison, originally from Roanoke, Virginia, came to Wooster in 1880 to work as a barber, mostly serving businessmen and university professors. He also worked in the home of Jacob Frick, from whom he eventually purchased the land for Second Baptist Church. Morrison quickly earned a reputation as a leader within the African American community.1 His son, Richard “Dick” Morrison Jr. began working in his father’s barber shop as a young child, and soon opened his own shop in 1912.2 The Morrison Barber Shop, which stood in what is now the Daily Record building for over 50 years, became a Wooster institution. Dick Morrison served as a leader at Second Baptist Church and in the community at large, earning him recognition as Wooster’s Citizen of the Year in 1975.3
1“Dick Morrison, Colored Man Who Has Made Good, Arrived in Wooster Just Forty Years Ago Today,” The Daily Record, April 9, 1920, 3.
2 William Parker, “Woosterian Barbers Five Generations in Fifty Years,” The Daily Record, May 2, 1962.
3 “Dick Morrison Dies; An Era Ends,” The Daily Record, Oct. 11, 1977