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Notes for Laura Belle Stith: [martin oleary.FTW] Laura was born out of wedlock. Her mother Emma Brown had become pregnant by Charles Stith from Atterberry, Illinois. Since Charles St ith refused to marry her, Laura's mother was single when she was born. The s tory goes that the mother died while Laura was an infant. After the funeral, the two families (Browns and Stiths) met in the cemetery and the Browns tol d Charles Stith he would have to raise the child. When he refused any respon si bility, the infant Laura was left setting on her mother's grave by the Brow n family. Since Charles Stith denied any responsibility, his father, Elzy Cr e e l Stith and his wife America took the child to raise with their own large f am ily. When Laura was 15, she married Charles Chandler Morgan. Although Cha r l e s was 32 years of age, he was fairly well established as a farmer in Ca s s Cou nty. Unfortunately, Laura was not happy with this older man and a fter b eari ng three children by him, she ran away with a man named Victor Mor ris who w as Charles Morgan's hired man. Laura took Helen who was four years old at th e t ime. She left the two sons, Oral (5) and Harry (18 months) with th eir fat her . It soon became clear that she and Morris could hardly care for t hemselv es, let alone care for a child. Helen told later that she hear d the ma n tryin g t o force Laura to drop her off a bridge to her death some where in Texas. S he of course was quite terrified of the man. Her mother, k nowin g t hat she ha d t o protect the child from this desperate individual, a rrange d fo r a man who m s he learned was traveling to Illinois by train to take He len with him to he r f ather in Cass County, Illinois. The story regar ding Lau ra l eaving with Vict or Morris and marrying his brother Nelson Morri s is uncl ear. We believe that Vi ctor Morris was the one who wanted to get ri d of Helen . H owever, we know that she married and spent the rest of her lif e with Nels on Mo rris who was th e br other of Victor. Nelson and Laura Mor ris had two childre n so that Helen, Oral and Harry had a half-sister named Le ora Morris and a hal f-brother named Vic tor Morris. Leora was thought to hav e cancer an d she thre w herself in front o f a fast moving train (the Rocket ) in Peoria sometime in the mid 1930' s. Hel en and Leora were very close as half-sister s and the onl y girls born t o Laura . As far as is known, all of Laura's fiv e children co ntinued to visit and rem ained close to the other S tith family m embers of thei r generation unt il their deaths.
More About Laura Belle Stith and Charles Chandler Morgan: Marriage: January 12, 1896, Atterberry, Illinois.91
Marriage Notes for Laura Belle Stith and Charles Chandler Morgan: Custom Field:<_FA#> 1902@S1870@Date of Import: Dec 25, 2000 _MENDDivorce