End of an Era. . . .

Aunt Bobbe's passing is an end of an era in my family. She was the last of her generation and so it now falls to my generation to be the matriarchs and patriarchs. The corner stone today of our family remains Angeles Plantation, or Morrison Farm, Inc.

We, the family, the heirs, are the owners of the corporation, run by a board of relatives. Our inheritance for the most part are shares. There is the infamous Usufructs Agreement regarding the areas on the front of the farm to be used by the various family branches. It all seems for naught now, as we are all settled in here and there across the nation. But then, maybe one our children will wish to make use of the agreement. Perhaps they will even keep it going, who knows.

Some years ago, in the early 1980s when all the original heirs were still living, they had a corporation named the W. C. Morrison Farm, Inc. But they disbanded the corporation to escape double taxation. It returned to a partnership owned by the original four heirs of Walter Christian Morrison, Sr. Those heirs were John, Edna, Walter and Farnham, bothers and sister. They sold I believe one sixth of one eighth of their royalties. The Wilbert well, now abandoned, was in production and thus they could not release the land but they could sell part or all of their royalties. And that's what they did and all of them got a nice chunk of money.

Then nothing happened. Gas exploration stopped. The Morrison's were left high and dry. There were wells to east, to the west and to the south but none on the Morrison holdings. It was released later but for only a short while.

So time past and members of that original group began dieing off. Then in the late 1980s only Aunt Bobbe and Daddy (John) remained alive out of all of the heirs. I became concerned that the place would be left in fractions of ownership like 13/16s etcetera. We needed to reincorporate the plantation but Daddy was loathe to bring up the subject with Aunt Bobbe.

Aunt Bobbe, right or wrong, always wanted to live out on the plantation. That was not to happen, Walter who diligently farmed the place raised his family there while Aunt Bobbe and Uncle Ham resided in Baton Rouge. So Daddy decided incorporation was too tough an issue to raise with Aunt Bobbe. I said I would do it.

So I went to see Aunt Bobbe in Baton Rouge on Clematis Drive. Into the infamous den I went as we all did when visiting with Aunt Bobbe. We chatted about for awhile and I raised the topic of what we should do with the plantation. Aunt Bobbe said, "I don't see why we have not reincorporated the place." I did not press the subject as to why or why not but did say I would talk to Daddy and we could get the place back under an umbrella of a family corporation.

Daddy was both relieved and pleased. We approached Catherine Morrison Townsend to get her husband to draw up the articles of incorporation. Townsend consulted with both Daddy and Aunt Bobbe and in a fairly short time we had a new corporation, now known as Morrison Farm, Inc. There was a hundred shares and each family branch got 25shares.

When Daddy died I inherited 8.33 shares. Herrise did the same but John Jr's children had proportionately different but equal amounts. Some years later, at a family meeting I offered that we should split the stock to 10,000 shares so that we would not end up dealing with an heir that had 2/3's of a share or some outrageous fractional holding. At first it was of concern that it would cost a lot of money to do a split but consultation with "Bubba," Walter's son who was a lawyer too, it was determined that it cost perhaps $50.00 to make the change. So we did so and reissued stock certificates accordingly. Now, I know that my children will split up 833 shares of stock instead of 8.33 shares of stock. It is just easier to do the math.

There remains an ownership problem or potential problem. When the farm was re-incorporated, the minerals were left out. We did not know how much they were worth if anything. The could be worth millions of dollars or nothing of great value at all. History tells us that there probably are significant minerals rights, so those are inherited and owned directly. That will indeed lead to fractional ownership but until developed, the shares of mineral ownership remain a great unknown.

Little things come along, like most recently the cell phone tower was erected on the back of the place. It generates about $600.00 per month rent. That goes into the corporations coffers for later family distribution. A number of years ago, the pipeline paid the family for a 99 year lease for an acre of so of land to construct a pipeline clean out point. And the rail road built a passing track and wished to get a right of way to a few more feet of land across the back of the plantation. This is land that can not be farmed as it is to close to the existing railroad, so it was of no great consequence to the family or farm. We granted the right of way and collected a little bit of money for it. Our neighbors, the Thibauts did not and consequently got nothing out of the deal as the rail road determined it has sufficient right of way to construct the passing track anyway. And they bought borrow pit dirt from us too. That is how the Morrison family has always approached it civic duties.

We said goodbye to Aunt Bobbe last Friday, October 3, 2008, with interment in the St. Mary's Cemetery Mausoleum. The funeral Mass was held in Baton Rouge at St. Aloysius Church, she being a charter member of that congregation. Nice church, nice service and nice final grave side prayers.

As I said, it is the passing of the torch, it is ours now to do with. May be do as well as our ancestors.