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.