Bernice Morrison (sometimes Berenice Morrison) (1856–1947) was an American heiress and

benefactor Benefactor may refer to: * ''Benefactor'' (album), a 1982 album by Romeo Void * Benefactor (law) for a person whose actions benefit another or a person that gives back to others * Benefication (metallurgy) In the mining Mining is the ext ...

of the

Morrison Observatory Morrison Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by Central Methodist University located in Fayette, Missouri (USA). It was named after Bernice Morrison who, in 1874, pledged $100,000 to C. W. Pritchett for the construct ...

. Bernice Morrison was born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, whic ...

to William M. Morrison and Sara Catherine "Kate" Swinney (The famous

Paddle Wheeler A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were w ...

''"Kate Swinney"'' was named after her). After both of her parents died at an early age, she was raised by her maternal grandparents, Captain William Daniel Swinney and Lucy Ann Jones who owned a

tobacco plantation A plantation economy is an economy based on agricultural mass production, usually of a few commodity crops, grown on large farms worked by laborers or slaves. The properties are called plantations. Plantation economies rely on the export of cash ...

Glasgow, Missouri Glasgow is a city on the Missouri River mostly in northwest Howard County and extending into the southeast corner of Chariton County in the U.S. state of Missouri. The population was 1,087 at the 2020 census. The Howard County portion of G ...

. Her name lives on in central Missouri because in 1874 she pledged $100,000 to Carr Waller Pritchett to build a world class telescope in Glasgow at the Pritchett Institute. The telescope and the

were moved to nearby

Fayette, Missouri Fayette is a city in and the county seat of Howard County, Missouri, United States. It is part of the Columbia, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 2,803 at the 2020 census. History Fayette was laid out in 1823. Th ...

during the early part of the 1930s. It stands there today as one of Central Missouri's hidden treasures as a fully functional piece of science history operated by

Central Methodist University Central Methodist University (formerly known as Central Methodist College and also known as Central College or CMU) is a private university in Fayette, Missouri. CMU is accredited to offer masters, bachelors, and associate degrees. The school i ...

. Also of some interest are her memoirs entitle
''Plantation Life in Missouri''
which expose details of a mostly forgotten period of Missouri history.

References

A Timeline of the Morrison Observatory

1856 births 1947 deaths People from St. Louis American philanthropists {{philanthropist-stub