Leander Dennison Morrow's early life and first cousins marrying (yes, first cousins)

Leander Dennison Morrow’s early life was spent growing up on a farm in White Oak Township in Mahaska County.  This is located a few miles east of Oskaloosa, Iowa.  Leander was born in 1865, but by that time the Morrow’s had been in Iowa for 21 years.  They had come to Iowa via covered wagon in 1844, when Iowa was still a frontier territory, and two years before Iowa became a state.

Leander was the eldest, and had 9 other siblings born before he was married, and had one sister die in 1882 at the age of two.

Leander married a local girl, Mary Florence Douglas in Mahaska County on September 1^st, 1887.  Leander was 22 and Mary was 18. 

Shortly after their marriage they apparently moved to the small town of Diagonal, Iowa which is south of Des Moines, in southern Iowa, actually not far from where Heidi Lindsay is from.

Why Diagonal, Iowa?  I’m not sure, but families will sometimes move to where there are other family members or neighbors have moved.  I’m hoping that further research will lead me to the reason.  But, a few years in August of 1904, after Leander and Mary had moved there, Leander’s youngest sister Margaret Jane married their first cousin T. Jackson Graham (T. Jackson’s father was the brother of  Leander’s and Margaret’s mother).  Not surprisingly I guess, right after their marriage they moved away from home, also to Diagonal.  By this time Leander and Mary had moved away though, thus the reason that there must be other connections in this area.

Leander Dennison Mororw's birth, and a lot of irony!

Leander Dennison Morrow was born on February 26, 1865 near Oskaloosa, Iowa, near the end of the Civil War.  He was the first child of James Russell Morrow, and Matilda Olive Graham.  He grew up in White Oak Township just a little east and south of Oskaloosa.  Much of the Morrow family had lived in and around White Oak Township for a couple generations, actually prior to Iowa even becoming a state, but more on that later.

Now for some real irony in my family history research.  I first started doing family history while working for 3M at Knoxville, Iowa in the mid to late 80s.  I was frustrated with the Morrow line as all I had was Leander’s name, and his wife’s name, Mary Florence Douglas.  I was frustrated because I felt that the lead I needed to find to get back farther was probably back in Fairmont and being in Knoxville was frustrating (nothing online in those days).  I had also noticed that in the local phonebook there were a lot of Morrow’s down around Oskaloosa, and always told Debbie that they were probably some of her no good Morrow relation. Well… as it turns out when the break came, it was that Leander and Mary Florence Douglas were both born in Oskaloosa!  They were her relation and they had been there for quite some time!  I discovered this a couple months before moving to St. Paul.  So here I found the break I had been trying to find for years and it had been in my own backyard the entire time, and now I was leaving!

One other irony turned out to be that one of my best friends in the plant was Bill Lahue.  Well Bill’s brother Clarence and Clarence’s wife Linda (Douglas) also worked in the plant and I knew them as well.  Turns out Bill’s sister-in-law Linda is Debbie’s second cousin, one removed, on Mary Florence Douglas’ side!

It also turned out that one of my co-workers in Knoxville, Randy Douglas who moved up to St. Paul and became a close friend in St. Paul, who has since moved to Fairmont (more irony) and has been in Fairmont for probably 10 to 13 years now is also Debbie’s 4^th cousin.  I had always told Randy as he was a Douglas from that area, that if I found him in my wife’s tree I would stop doing family history, turns out he showed up too!

It just goes to show that you never know where that lead will come from, or what, or who you may discover.

Moving on to Leander Dennison Morrow

Sorry, not a lot this holiday week, I’ve been spending time with family, and now not feeling too well, so haven’t spent a lot of time on family history this week.

Well it’s time to move on from Floyd Glen Morrow, the father of Donald, to Leander Dennison Morrow, the father of Floyd Glen, and Donald’s grandfather.

Leander Dennison, who mostly went by Denny, is the one responsible for moving the family from Iowa to Minnesota, but more on that later.

Below, Leander, his wife Mary Florence Douglas, and their first two children, Ora and Hazel.

Hope everyone had a good and safe Christmas, and wish everyone a better year next year than this one.  Happy New Year, and drive safe.

So, what did Grandpa Glen REALLY die from?

Reading Glen’s obituary, listed below, one would believe that he died of a heart attack, after all it says there that he had been having problems for three years.

However….his death certificate (below) indicates to me what seems to be an entirely different cause of death.  

His immediate cause of death it states was from a hemorrhage from (?) ulcer.  I can’t quite make out what kind of ulcer it was, and I’m not a doctor, but the hemorrhaged ulcer seems to be clear.  Other conditions were from, and again, I can’t make out the first word, but the rest of it is gall bladder and left kidney, followed by left something bronchial blockage the way it looks.  But even not making everything out, it seems he was having serious stomach, gall bladder and kidney issues, with no mention of the any heart related issues that I can see.  That seems to be significantly different than what his obituary states.   It may be possible I’m misreading what the cause is, but none the less it’s interesting. 

If there indeed is a difference between what the obituary states, and what the death certificate states, which again is speculation on my part, I have no reason why the difference.  If someone can shed light on any of this, I sure would be interested, please let me know.

Grandpa Glen and family were homeless and living in a 10x20 Mexican Beet Shack? Say it ain't so Dave! But it was!

They were living on a farm known as the ‘F. P. Kelley’ farm, which is actually located about a mile straight east of where Steve currently lives.  It was a Friday night and the family was getting ready for bed about eight o’clock, and a fire was discovered in the wall.  Their five room home eventually burned to the ground before help could be summoned at a neighbor’s place (Glen didn't have a telephone) and before fire fighting equipment could be brought there.  Almost all the household belongings were saved except for some canned goods in the basement which were forgotten about.

It was reported that Glen had just finished cleaning, papering and painting the interior of the home.

Neighbors put them up for the night, and Harry Brodt lent the use of his 10x20 Mexican Beet shack to live in.

The following Wednesday a benefit dance was held at the ‘Pavilion’, I assume that this was likely at Interlaken Park.  The family was in a “destitue condition” as a result of the fire and they were asking for surplus clothing, food stuffs, and seed corn (their’s had been stored in the ceiling), and other household and farm paraphenailia.

How long they were in this situation I don't know.

I do not have the date of this event yet, as I’m still searching, but I suspect it was in 1938.  There was a reference in one article that “the tornado” took the barn and several outbuildings two years earlier. In April 1936 there was a record tornado that devistated large portions the county (and my material grandfather’s place) and killed several people.  Also based upon no telephone was available to them and where they had been living around that time.

Assuming the 1938 date is accurate, their ages would have been, Glen 42, Sophia 40, Elaine 17, Ardith 13, Donald 11.

What do you mean Grandpa Glen wasn’t Grandpa Glen?

Everyone knows Grandpa Morrow as Grandpa Glen Morrow, however that was not his real first name.  His real first name was actually Floyd, and his middle name was Glen, so he was really Floyd Glen Morrow.  

He apparently went by Floyd until sometime after his marriage.  He had always went by Floyd on everything, which is what his parents had named him, but then after his marriage he started going by Glen.  On his wedding announcement in 1917 he was still Floyd, but on the 1920 census he was going by Glen, and everything after that time was also Glen.  Why?  Don’t know, it may have been he turned 21 on his wedding day so maybe he decided he didn’t like Floyd and preferred Glen so he was going to go by that, maybe his new wife didn’t like Floyd and preferred Glen, or maybe something entirely different.

Did you know that Glen and Sophia lived in northwestern Minnesota, southeast of Fargo for about the first three years of their marriage?

Did you know that Glen and Sophia lived in northwestern Minnesota, southeast of Fargo for about the first three years of their marriage?  The place was Manston township, Wilkin County, Minnesota.

Per their marriage announcement, both Glen and Sophia, along with Glen’s sister Lena and her new husband, Monte Sisson, were moving there right after their marriage.  They were moving there to “have charge of a large farm belonging to A. H. McCoy, engineer on the Fairmont-Madelia line of the Omaha”.

By June 5^th they were living in Manston township per Glen’s WW1 draft registration, so I would assume that they would have moved up there some time after their marriage and probably before the spring planting.

I located the A. H. McCoy property on a map of the time and located the farm.  It was 320 acres, and back in the 1917 timeframe, farming 320 acres by horse was probably a very large and hard job.  This would be approximately the size of the farm where Steve originally farmed, which is also where Scott used to live, or about the size of the Trimont farm.  Imagine farming that by horse?

(you can double click on any picture for a closer look)

This is where Sophia gave birth to their first son, Lowel.  He died in Barnesville, just a few miles north of where they lived, and is buried in Barnesville.

When and why they moved back I’m a little uncertain.  On January 29, 1920 they were still living in Manston township, but Raymond was born later that year on December 29, 1920 and they were back in Pilot Grove by then.  By the January 29^th date, Lena and Monte had already returned to Fairmont.  Why or when I don’t know.  So my assumption would be that Glen and Sophia probably returned after the harvest in the fall of 1920.  Why?  A guess would be that with Sophia pregnant with Raymond, and having lost the first son, Lowel a long ways from family, and now even Lena and Monte were also gone, maybe Sophia wanted to be closer to home for this birth.  It may be due to totally unrelated reasons as well.

On Google Earth, this would be the farm place as it is today.