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.

Two Weddings and a Birthday

On Monday, February 26, 1917, both Glen Morrow and Sophia Schock, along with Glen's younger sister Lena, and Monte Sisson were married at the parsonage of the Congregational Church in Fairmont, Minnesota in a double ceremony.

This also happened to be on Glen's 21st birthday.  Sophia had just turned 19 on January 4th.  Lena, Glen's next younger sibling was going to be 19 a couple weeks later, and Monte was also 21.

Both couples signed for each other as witnesses.

Both couples were off to northwestern Minnesota to begin their lives after the wedding.  More on where and why next post.

Donald's brother Raymond finally found!

In my post last week I talked about Donald's lost brother Lowel, who was the oldest of the family and only lived five days.  The other missing brother was Raymond.  I had long suspected that the boys were probably buried in Riverside Cemetery in Blue Earth as Glen and Sophia had lived in Pilot Grove when they were young.  I had stopped there a few years ago and talked to the sexton for the cemetery and he assured me there was no one by the name of Morrow buried in the cemetery.  This continued a mystery I have been working on for probably 25 years.

This last week I got a copy of Raymond's death certificate, and on it, it listed 'Blue Earth Cemetery' as the place of burial, and as Riverside is the only cemetery in Blue Earth, I gave it another shot and called the sexton again.  I told him I suspected that Raymond would be buried in either the baby section if they had one, and it turns out they do, or he would be buried in the Schock plot where Sophia's parents Louis and Sophia are buried.  This would make sense as Glen and Sophia were young, and many times a child would be buried with their grandparents.  He again assured me there were no Morrow's in the cemetery, but after some prodding I asked him to check their plot records for the Schock plot.  Sure enough there was a record of an 'infant' buried there, with no name.  This would make some sense as Raymond's name on his Death Certificate was infant.  Apparently he was named sometime after his death and burial.  In their records as Raymond had no name he was listed as infant Schock.  They have now updated their records with Raymond's name.

Raymond only lived two days.  He was born on December 29, 1920 and died on December 31, 1920 of a cerebral hemorrhage.  As the place of death was listed as Pilot Grove township, and that was Glen and Sophia's address, my assumption is that he died at home.

We can only imagine the grief that Glen and Sophia went through, losing their first two children, only living a few days.  I am curious and will probably never know, if after losing their first child up in northwestern Minnesota, when Sophia got pregnant with their second child if that may have been why they decided to move back home.  This would have been days of primarily horse and buggy for transportation and no phones.

For me personally the last couple weeks have been extremely satisfying for a family history perspective as it has always bothered me that these two brothers seemed to be lost to the family and I was unable to find them.  Now they we know where they are and what happened to them it brings a nice feeling of satisfaction.

A question for the Morrow family.  It always bothers me personally when someone is buried without a headstone, as they become forgotten, as Raymond has been probably for a long time.  To put a simple stone on his grave, would probably cost about $300 to $400.  Would there be any interest in the family of putting a stone on your uncle's grave?  I would coordinate it if there was enough interest to do so, just let me know.  For whatever reason, Lowel has one, but Raymond does not.

Donald’s Older Brothers – Lowel and Raymond.

Lowel Floyd Morrow.

Many may not realize that Donald, Elaine and Ardith had two older brothers who died in infancy.  I knew their names, Lowel (one L) and Raymond, and that they had died in infancy, but that was about it.  I had long assumed that they were buried around Blue Earth, as Donald's parents, (Floyd) Glen and Sophia had lived in that area when young.  Well, as it turns out I was half right, in that Lowel, was not, but Raymond is.  More on Raymond next week.

As soon as Glen and Sophia were married on February 26, 1917, they moved up to northwestern Minnesota, to Manston township, in Wilkin county, near Rothsay.

A little over a year after their marriage, Lowel was born, presumably at their home in Manton Township, not far from Rothsay on April 29, 1918.  Five days after he was born, Lowel died on May 4^th of jaundice at the hospital in Barnesville.  The day of his death his funeral took place at St. James United Church of Christ at Barnesville, and he was buried at Rosemound Cemetery in Barnesville.  

Lowel would have been approximately 3 years older than Elaine, 7 years older than Ardith, and a little less than 9 years older than Donald, had he lived.