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Gordon Alexander McMorran
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Editor and publisher.
Born at Walkerton, Ontario on 9 January 1885, son of Robert Wallace McMorran (1851-1929) and Margaret Elizabeth Findlay (1886-1956), he was educated at the public schools of Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.
The family came to Manitoba in 1889 where the father taught school, homesteaded, and founded the Somerset Century newspaper. He learned the printing business with his father and worked on papers in Langham (Saskatchewan), Vancouver (British Columbia), and the Manitoba Western Canadian at Manitou. He moved to Souris in 1912 and purchased the Souris Plaindealer from William Jack Barclay. In 1933, he founded the first rental and tourist agency in Riding Mountain National Park that published a weekly newsletter called Wasagaming Guide to Riding Mountain National Park into the 1960s.
On 28 December 1909, he married Dora Jackson Ullyot (1886-1956, daughter of George Walter Ullyot) at Manitou and they had two children: Gordon Lyall McMorran (1910-1964) and Dora Lillian McMorran (1912-1992, wife of Frank Rutherford Wallace). He was a member of the Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association (President of Manitoba Branch, 1932-1934), Souris Board of Trade, Odd Fellows, Masons (Grand Master, Grand Lodge of Manitoba, 1952), and Presbyterian Church. His recreations included curling and golf. He published three books on Manitoba history: Souris River Posts (1953), The Souris Plains (1957), and The Story of Red River and Oregon (?). In 1962, he was given a Manitoba Golden Boy Award for meritorious service to Manitoba.
He died at Winnipeg on 14 October 1966 and was buried in the Souris Glenwood Cemetery.
His articles for the Manitoba Historical Society:
Souris River Forts in the Hartney District
MHS Transactions, Series 3, 1948-1949 Season
Ontario birth registration, Ancestry.
Marriage registration [Gordon Alexander McMorran, Dora Jackson Ullyot], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Birth registrations [Gordon Lyall McMorran, Dora Lillian McMorran], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Pioneers and Prominent People of Manitoba, Winnipeg: Canadian Publicity Company, 1925.
Death registration [Robert Wallace McMorran], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“G. A. McMorran is head of weekly newspapers body,” Manitoba Free Press, 8 October 1932, page 6.
“New Golden Boys,” Winnipeg Free Press, 12 May 1962, page 19.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 17 October 1966, page 30.
Gordon Alexander McMorran, FamilySearch.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
We thank Stan Barclay and Oliver Bernuetz (Legislative Library of Manitoba) for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 24 March 2026
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