Bessie Morgan Rex and Her Hat!

Keepapitchinin recently published,  "Leave Your Hats Off While We Pray" by Annie Malin. I've been looking for this picture of my grandmother Bessie Morgan Rex and her hat ever since reading the poem.  I believe they go together.

Leave Your Hats Off While We Pray

by Annie Malin (1915)

It's the rule now for the ladies

Almost everyplace they go,

To lay aside their head-gear,

And the rule is good I know;

But if asked for my opinion

I should very quickly say,

"For goodness sake, my sisters,

Leave your hats off while we pray!"

For when the sermon's ended

There's a bustle and a stir

As if each one feared her neighbor

Would get out ahead of her;

There's a pinning and a bobbing

In a most distracting way -

So I feel like say, "Sisters,

Leave your hats off while we pray."

We try to see who's called on'

To make the closing prayer,

But the sisters still are pinning

And smoothing down their hair.

I should truly think the brother

Would forget himself and say,

"We would like to see the sisters

Leave their hats off while we pray."

Garrard Morgan died when? And he is buried where?

Recently a Find A Grave volunteer took this picture of Great Great Grandmother Eliza Ann Hamilton Morgan's grave site at my request. She was buried here in South Park Cemetery, Greensburg, Decatur, Indiana following her April 18, 1901 passing. She was living in Greensburg with her oldest son at that time.

Sadly there wasn't anyone living to see to it that a gravestone was placed at her grave site.  Or perhaps there wasn't any money to pay for one. Her obituary appeared in the Greensburg newspaper and is posted here. 

It was a pleasant surprise to discover her brother David W. Hamilton's gravestone prominently placed next to the unmarked area, which is her grave site. His death was five years before hers. 

The part of the story we don't know, is, "where is her husband Garrard Morgan" buried? According to a letter Eliza Ann wrote her daughter-in-law in 1895 Garrard was still living with her then, in Champaigne, Illinois. In the 1900 census (June 14, 1900) Eliza Ann is a widow living with her son William H. Morgan in Fall Creek Township, Middletown, town, Indiana.

It's presumed Garrard died in Illinois and is buried there somewhere.   

"Champaigne, Illinois April 29, 1895
"My dear Daughter [Helen Melvina “Mellie” Groesbeck Morgan]
“It is Monday morning and wash day …. Yes, this is your Pa’s birth month and all the children have written him such nice affectionate letters and he puts all the letter writing upon me. Says he cannot wright—I am sorry to say it is true—he cannot collect his thoughts. I am very fond of writing letters, but oh how I dread to write your Pa’s.”

John Hamilton Ham - son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Hamilton) Ham

According to Mary Ann Linton Morgan's research notes, in the late 1700 between seven and eight-hundred Hamiltons lived in Bracken County which was located about 30 miles from the Blue Lick Springs. It is essential that we gather all of the identifying sources possible in putting our John and Elizabeth Hamilton’s family together.

The following biography of John Hamilton Ham included in an 1882 Nicholas County History Volume identifies him as the son of John Hamilton’s daughter Elizabeth Hamilton Ham and her husband Samuel.

JOHN HAMILTON HAM, dealer in real estate, Carlisle, was born in McBride's Run, Nicholas County, Ky., Dec. 22, 1821, to Samuel and Elizabeth (Hamilton) Ham; he died in April 1837, at the age of fifty (see history of M. K. Ham); she was a daughter of John and Elizabeth Hamilton, and died at the age of fifty, in 1852; she was the mother of five children, viz: Leann, wife of Thomas M. Mathews, residing in Orange County, Ind.; John H., William W., Jacob A., married, died and left a wife and three children (two sons and a daughter) in Orange County, Ind.; and Samuel W., also deceased; John H., the third child and subject of this sketch, began his career in life as a farmer, and followed the same until a few years since, when he engaged in the real estate business.  He was married in Carlisle, Nov. 9, 1848, to Elizabeth McCune, both in Nicholas county, July 15, 1830, to John and Elizabeth (Mathers) McCune, natives of Nicholas County; he born in 1796, she in 1806, to Thomas Mathers, born in 1759, and Elizabeth, his wife, born in 1768; John McCune, a son of John, born in 1762.  Mr. Ham, by this marriage had three children, viz: R. Edgar, born Nov. 17, 1849; Oscar, born Sept. 6, 1852, and Elizabeth, died in infancy.  Mr. and Mrs. Ham are members of the Church at Carlisle, of which he served as Deacon several years; he is neutral in politics.  His youngest son, Oscar, was married Oct. 28, 1879, to Miss Luella Kimbrough (born to Joshua and Mary (Bowen) Kimbrough) May 14, 1857 (see history of Mrs. M. C. Bell).  After marriage he engaged in business with his brother-in-law, Mr. H. C. Kimbrough, at the hotel and continued his stock interests and trading.  They are the owners of the famous trotting horse, "Pegasus."  In business, they are enterprising, energetic, and are highly esteemed by the people of the county.

Ham Hamilton Mathews McCune Kimbrough Bowen Bell = Orange-IN

REF:  History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison and Nicholas Counties, Kentucky, ed. by William Henry Perrin,  O. L. Baskin & Co., Chicago, 1882.  p. 749. [Nicholas County]  [Carlisle City and Precinct]

 http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/nicholas/ham.jh.txt