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 4th 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.
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