Through two generations the Morlock family has been prominently identified with the furniture merchandising and cabinet making industries of Providence, where they have achieved a high reputation for the character of their output and the skill of the artisans of production. Handed down from father to son, the industry became the property of Hermann F. C. Morlock, who carried on with great success until 1920, when he retired from active participation, since when he has lived in well-earned ease at his beautiful home in South Kingstown, village of Wakefield. He has never aspired to public office, but there is no movement promoted for the benefit of the people in which he has not taken a vital and influential interest. His popularity is a natural sequence of his long years of honorable association with the business and trading public of Providence, who hold him in the highest regard and feel that there is no citizen of the district who more fully deserves approbation.
He was born in Providence, August 10, 1870, and is a son of the late William and Christina J. (Schlecht) Morlock. After a course in the public schools of Providence he began his business life as a clerk in his father’s establishment, known as Morlock and Byer, dealing in furniture, upholstery and draperies, and specializing in the restoration of antique furniture and in cabinet-making. The trade was Statewide and very large and the establishment was for years one of the best known in Southern New England. Hermann F. C. Morlock became a partner in the concern and later its principal operator. He is an associate director of the Young Men’s Christian Association, and is affiliated with the Masonic Order, being a life member of Mount Vernon Lodge, No. 4, Free and Accepted Masons; Providence Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Providence Council, Royal and Select Masters; St. John’s Commandery, No. 1, Knights Templar; having attained the thirty-second degree in the Providence Consistory; also a life member of Palestine Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and a member of the Providence Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star.
Mr. Morlock married Mary Moore Sheldon, on September 21, 1904, daughter of Charles M. Sheldon of Providence, Rhode Island.
Source: Carroll, Charles. Rhode Island: Three Centuries of Democracy, vol 3 of 4. New York: Lewis historical Pub. Co., 1932.