Revs. J. R. Morris, and wife, Mrs. Bessie C. Morris, being regularly ordained ministers in the Louisiana Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church presented their credentials of ordination, and upon their application, were duly received as members of this the Dallas-Bonham Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
[Source: Minutes of the Dallas-Bonham Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, March 6, 1908, page 140]

WOMAN MINISTER DIES

Rev. Mrs. Bessie Copeland Morris, 85, a member of East Texas Presbytery, died January 31 in her home in Fort Worth, Texas. She had been an active minister in the church for 60 years, having been ordained at the age of 20. She was one of the earliest women to be ordained as a minister in the church and faced severe opposition.

During her active life she served as an evangelist and also pastored churches. Her husband, the late John R. Morris, was also a Cumberland Presbyterian minister.

The funeral was held in Fort Worth with Rev. Brown C. Welch, of the St. Mark's church, officiating. Present for the service was a local Methodist minister, Rev. Warren Flynn, who attended because he was converted under Mrs. Morris' ministry at Petersburg, Tennessee.

She was the author of a book entitled "Shall a Woman Preach?" which sold more than 50,000 copies.

Survivors include two sons, three daughter, eleven grandchildren, one great-grandchild.
[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, February 21, 1967, page 4]

Morris, Bessie Copeland. Gospel Echoes. Louisville, Kentucky: Pentecostal Herald Print, no date. [2 copies in archives]

Morris, Bessie Copeland. How I Was Converted. Louisville, Kentucky: Pentecostal Herald Press, no date. 2 copies needed for archives

Morris, Bessie Copeland. "The Keys of the Kingdom." In Centennial Sermons and Papers Delivered at the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Organization of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, compiled by R. L. Baskette, 151-174. Nashville, Tennessee: The Cumberland Press, 1911. [book in archives]

Morris, Bessie Copeland. Shall a Woman Preach? Nashville, Tennessee: The Cumberland Press, 1913. [2 copies in archives]

Morris, Bessie Copeland. Shall a Woman Preach? Nashville, Tennessee: Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing House, 1925. [2 copies in archives]

Morris, Bessie Copeland. The White Rose, or Who Slew All These? Arlington, Texas: The Purity Journal Publishing Co., Publishers, 1907. [1 copy in archives]