Saturday, November 2, 2013

Descendants of Richard & Ann (Hugh) Morris

Sometimes the old ones have been there all along ... 
hiding in plain sight


Richard MORRIS (bachelor) married Ann LEWIS (widow) in St Peter's Church , Carmarthen, on 15th December 1814. Ann's maiden name was HUGH. Ann HUGH was baptized in St Peter's Church on 16 Jan 1781 and she married Thomas LEWIS on 20 May 1803.

Richard and Ann had at least 3 children: John baptized 13 Oct 1815 David baptized 02 Feb 1817 Esther born 10 Apr 1821, baptized 20 May 1821 all baptized in St Peter's Church

John Morris was born 3 September 1815

John & Anne (Evans) Morris

Son, John Morris, was born to John & Anne (Evans) Morris in the town of Carmarthen, Wales in 1835. John's  Brother, Richard, came along in 1838, the family was still living on Lammas Street


John & Richard were baptized on 7 October 1838 in Carmarthen
By 1841 the little family moved on to Merthyr Tydfil and father John opened his shoe shop in the bustling Ironworks town of Dowlais.

Somewhere in the eastern states, we lost track of John, the oldest son. The trail came up dry in Nebraska and Ohio and then as things often happen in searching for the old ones, one day a sentence sort of jumped off the page and there it was "In 1854, [James] moved to Johnstown, PA"


taken from the 1901 Stella, Nebraska Press
Son, John, wasn't with the rest of the family in Pomeroy in the 1860 census 



John and his wife Harriet, daughter Sarah and sons David & Alford were living in Millville, in Cambria County, PA in 1860 and they stayed in Cambria County down through several generations. 



John was noted in the 1860 census as a miner, but by the 1870 census he'd done well enough to buy some land and was noted as a farmer.  Still, the coal dust took its toll and by the 1880 census, John was gone from the register and Harriet had married a man name Abram Makin, five years younger than herself and David was 19, daughter Eliza Jane Morris was 12, James Morris was 14, Harriet Morris was 10 and new daughter Henrietta Makin was in her first year.

Harriet Morris Makin Obituary

David J. Morris found his life work in the Cambria Steel Company and settled with his family on Sherman Street in Johnstown.

In the early months of 1889, Johnstown published a City Directory and we find them all there, as well as their street addresses.  The Spring ahead must have seemed very bright for the people of Johnstown, little did they know that on May 31 of 1889 the whole Conemaugh River Valley around them would be destroyed by the great Johnstown Flood .. which amazingly most of the Morris family survived.



The 1910 Census shows David with a large family.



David John Morris Obituary


Mary Jane Rhoades Morris Obituary 


Most of the family is buried at Grandview Cemetery in Johnstown.  

Lot 100 Section ED2 Grandview Cemetery
  David J. Morris 1858 - 9/10/1944  (born Pomeroy, Ohio)
  Mary Jane Rhodes Morris 1862 - 11/17/1945 (married 7/7/1880 Johnstown)
    Carrie Morris 1891 - 9/26/1918  
    Hazel E. Morris Horton 5/13/1897 - 5/17/1972 (husband Edgar P.)
    Irvin D. Morris 1900 - 8/13/1907
    Florence Morris Justham 1902-6/22/1975 (husband James P. Justham)
    Harriet A. Gilbert unknown - 10/19/1971 

  James A. Morris 1866 - 3/27/1902 (David's brother)

Lot 21 Section Ed1   
    John W. Morris 1881 - 5/12/1949  (David's son)


Lot 312 Section CA4
    Ida Leone Morris Gallagher 1895 - 12/24/1994 (David's daughter)

Lot 50 Section ED2 
  Abram Makin (Harriet's 2nd husband) 1841 - 6/2/1889 (Johnstown Flood)
          buried in Sandyvale re-interment 11/17/1899 Grandview 

  Harriet Morris Makin 1835 in England - 7/16/1914 (David's Mother)
    Eliza Jane Morris 1868 - unknown 
    Harriet Morris Custer 1870 - 4/23/1930 
    Henrietta Makin Bowden 1879 - 1/18/1916
    Ella May Makin unknown - 5/13/1892 Sandyvale re-interment 11/17/1899 Grandview 

Sandyvale Cemetery ??
  John Morris 1835 - 1870/1873  (David's Father)
    Sarah A. Morris 1856 - unknown (David's sister)
    Alford Morris 1859 - unknown (David's brother)
         David's 1 month old son - 1882-12/29/1882


Headrick Union Cemetery - East Conemaugh PA
     Elmira E. Morris Hildebrand 1/1/1893 - 2/6/1994 
          (husband Earl C.) 100 years old (David's daughter)