Spotlight #6 Alice (Cole) Morgan

Life at the moment is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. I hate to say that I was one of those people who three weeks ago thought this Covid-19 pandemic was being greatly exaggerated. When I started seeing empty shelves in grocery stores, and people scrambling over toilet paper I rolled my eyes and was thankful I lived in rural SW Missouri away from big cities where things like that were happening. Then I walked into my local Walmart and was shocked to find that it was even happening here in our part of the world. I’m blessed that we have a freezer full of meat so I know we will always be ok, but was saddened to see that they were out of so many things. Then I found out our former superintendent had tested positive for it and passed away a few days later. Suddenly things seemed to get a little more real. His wife’s Facebook post were gut wrenching. Today I am taking it more seriously as I’ve seen how quickly it can affect even healthy people. My family (who is growing by 2 more this summer) means a lot to me and I want to take care of myself the best I can.

Joseph & Alice (Cole) Morgan

March is winding down but I’m hoping to get in a few more spotlights. March’s #6 spotlight is my 3rd great Aunt, Alice (Cole) Morgan. She was married to Joseph Morgan, the brother of my great great grandfather EP “Ted” Morgan. As our pandemic has been growing I started looking into relatives who might have passed during the huge Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918, but did surge again in 1919. While scouring newspapers it was sad seeing the the number of families it affected. Joseph and Alice were one of those families.

Alice was born in October, 1873, the 3rd of 8 children born to David and Flora Cole. Her father was born in Indiana, but he came to Missouri as a young man and settled in SW Missouri. He did a brief stint in the Civil War with the Iowa Infantry Regiment K, but from the 1860 census on he is found in Lawrence and Newton County, Missouri. He was primarily a farmer (stated on all census), but it’s been also noted that he was one of the pioneer preachers in SW Missouri.

Alice married Joseph Morgan on Nov 7, 1897 in Newton Co, Missouri. She was 24 yrs of age and Joseph was 25. Joseph was the son of  Edward Payson Morgan and Margaret (Stinson) Morgan (my 3rd great Grandparents) and was the oldest of 5 children. Searching thru census information is always fun because so many times I see several different family ancestors on the same page. Both sides of my maternal grandparent’s family are pioneer families in Newton, Barry, and Jasper Counties. In 1900 Joseph is down as a blacksmith. In those 1st 3 yrs of marriage they’ve had their first 2 children, a son Ray in 1899 and a daughter Ruth in 1900 who was 3 months old at the time the census was taken. By the 1910 census Joseph has his own store and Alice is down as a clerk. Ray is 11 is down as a farm laborer at their farm. Ruth is 10 and they’ve had 2 more sons Robert 7 and Larry 3. The next several years would see them have several more children Dorothy who was born in 1911 and their baby George born in 1917.

Standing-Glen, Bob, Ray, & Ruth
Seated-Alice, Dorothy, & Joseph holding George
1918

In 1918 the country was in the grips of a Spanish Flu epidemic and unfortunately it would hit Joseph and Alice’s family as little George came down with the flu. His death certificate stated he was seen by a dr from July 20- July 25 when he passed away at home. He had just turned a year old. The picture I have must have been taken shortly before George passed and shows all their children. I’m sure this was a huge loss not only to Alice and Joseph, but to George’s siblings as well.

The 1920 shows the Joseph is now solely farming. The year 1926 was a tough year not only on Joseph and Alice, but on the entire Morgan Family. In January, Alice and Joseph’s  youngest daughter Dorothy who was 14 yrs old came down with influenza. She was thought to be getting better when suddenly she passed. The death was hard on not only the family, but the community as well as she was a member of several  groups such as 4H, an organization my own family is quite involved in. I’ve always heard death comes in 3 and that seemed to be true for the Morgan family. Less than two weeks later Dorothy’s cousin Arthur Anderson who was 26 yrs old and lived close by, accidentally killed himself while grabbing his gun as he was getting into the hog pen. His family had been butchering hogs that day. His death is thought to be almost instantaneous. Arthur’s mother Lucy was Joseph’s (and my great great grandfather EP “Ted” Morgan) sister.  That September Arthur’s married sister, Millie Smith (who was married to my great grandfather Garner Smith’s brother Ray) passed away after a battle with tuberculosis. All of these families lived in the same community, some like Joseph their entire life. His obituary stated that he was born on a farm near Granby, Missouri and lived his entire life within a 1/2 mile radius of that farm. I think of my own family and how tough it was to lose my niece Haidyn that passed away after living only a few short hours.  I can’t imagine had I also lost not one but 2 children that same year. How tough that would be on our entire family. The grief the Morgan Family endured must have been overwhelming. I spotlighted Alice to tie in to what was going on in the country today, but Lucy also lost 2 children and it was in the same year leaving her with only one living child. Were they good friends as well as family?? Lucy’s own husband passed in 1905 and Census show that she never did remarry so she didn’t have a partner to lean on during those tough times. Hopefully they were a good support system for each other along with the rest of the family who lived around them and their church family.

There is no doubt that life was tougher 100 yrs ago, much more so than today. As I said before, there weren’t any therapist and I know just from doing genealogy that a lot of times things like this weren’t even discussed. I hope that Alice and Lucy at least had that one person they could talk to, someone to share their sadness with so that sadness didn’t turn into bitterness. It would be hard to go thru life with that black cloud continually overhead, but keeping those kind of emotions buried could possibly do just that. Both women lived around the Pepsin Community their entire married lives. Alice’s obit said she had lived in the area for 52 years, moving there from Carthage. Lucy lived around their her entire life, marrying a local boy Harry Anderson. Both are buried in the Powers Cemetery in Newton Co, Missouri.

The following pieces were in the Neosho Daily News from 1926. Sadly I could find nothing on the death of George at all. 

** Side Note ... Lucy and her brother EP “Ted” married siblings Mary Jane & Harry Anderson
** 2nd side Note ... Lucy and EP’s Sister Helen Florence married Alice’s brother William.