It is safe to say that Part 2 of our discussion on Harry Morris will be more hypothetical in nature than Part 1. The truth is there is little documentation to associate with Harry after his marriage to Mabel Ruttenbar in 1923. The newspaper mention of Mabel’s divorce filing and the following divorce decree in 1926 is the last time we can pinpoint Harry in a moment in time. The reality of what happened to him is a bit overwhelming. Considering he leaves the west and pops up in Iowa four years later leads me to think that anything is possible with my traveling barber great-great grandfather.
The path of our discussion today will begin with some intriguing records in Wyoming, then we will investigate a hint from Missouri. We’ll close with thoughts on where the search goes now and hopefully spark enough interest in the third part of this series on Harry Morris. I said we’d tangent to Canada in the previous post, but upon further reflection it was determined that piece of the story involves the children, Florence and Clark, and not Harry. I will plan Part 4 as a post dedicated to the children and the orphanage file. Potentially it will turn into multiple posts because of the many twists and turns contained in that story.
Let’s jump back to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Harry Morris had a wife named Emma and that information was discovered on his WWI draft card. The address on the draft card matched the address included on Harry’s letter to the Montana Children’s Home (orphanage) in 1918. The first step for me was to search for marriage records for Harry and Emma. Wyoming marriage records from 1869 to the mid 1960s are held at the county level. The state’s early marriage records contain the name of each party, the date, officiant, and sometimes they will list the age of the bride and groom. Sometimes they will list the age of the bride and groom. I hope you can feel my researching soul fly out of my body when you read that. We’re desperate to match Our Harry with a potential Wyoming Harry marriage license and we may be lucky to get ages listed on the license. Deep breaths. Internet genealogy is all the rage and everyone wants to be able to have everything at the fingertips. The fact is you won’t be able to find everything on the internet. You’re going to find richer material when you source records directly from the area you’re looking at. You need to write to county clerks, to historical societies, and the like to acquire valuable research material.
In 2010, I requested the marriage record for a Harry Morris and Emma Irwin that married 16 July 1918 in Cheyenne, Laramie County, Wyoming from the county. It appears as if Emma’s middle initial is “I”. There is no middle initial for Harry. Only their ages are listed, Harry 32 (~1886), and Emma 31 (~1887). We can’t be sure if this is Emma’s first, second, or other marriage. There is no information on either person’s parents. This record is believed to be that of Our Harry because of the support from the WWI draft card and letter placing Harry (and wife Emma) in Cheyenne in 1918. Without the supporting documents, this marriage record would be filed in the “big-fat-maybe” file.
There is a 1920 US Federal Census record for a Harry Morris and Viola Morris in Albany, Laramie County, Wyoming. Harry is a 35 year old barber, but his birthplace is not what we expect. This record for Wyoming Harry gives his place of birth as Scotland, that he arrived in 1889 and was naturalized in 1904. This can’t possibly be our guy. This guy would have been around four years old coming from Scotland to the states. How many Harry Morris’ working as barbers could there be? This Harry lives next door to another barber, Marion Taylor. Viola was born in Colorado, her age is listed as 30. Curiosity got the best of me and I sent away for a possible marriage record of this Harry and Viola. Harry Morris and Viola Russell were married 29 Mar 1919 in Laramie County, Wyoming. The same county clerk, Ida R Graham signs this license and Harry and Emma’s marriage license.
Harry and Viola are more likely a separate couple and a dead end. The Scotland birth is too much of an eliminator. I am still looking for a mention of Harry and Emma in old newspaper clippings, but haven’t found anything worth investigating. There is a mention in an old Wyoming newspaper that Mr. and Mrs. Harry Morris would be new residents of Pine Bluffs, Wyoming. Mr. Morris accepted a position in the Lewis barber shop. The Wyoming Digital Library Project has been a fantastic resource. It also has made me realize what I’m up against. I have run into Harry Morris the grocer, Harry Morris the oil man, and so many Harry Morris obituaries. It’s really amazing I haven’t given this up yet. My assumption is that during 1918 to who knows when, Harry is making his way around Wyoming as a barber. It is unknown if he and Emma ever have any children. It isn’t known when he and Emma split. Does she die? Does he leave her? Does he leave her in Wyoming? Does she come to Iowa? Does she leave him?
Whatever happens in the four years, happens, and Harry marries Mabel Ruttenbar in 1922. On 11 Sept 1926 Mabel is granted a divorce by the district court, Polk Co., Iowa. The divorce decree states, “…the defendant has been served with the original notice intime for this term of court”. This statement tells me Harry is alive and well enough to be served by the court. He didn’t show up to court and Mabel was granted a divorce. What is also included in the divorce decree, is a middle initial for Harry, “Harry H Morris”. It’s the first time in this exhaustive search that there is a middle initial! Because of the middle initial there are some interesting hints that call attention.
Harry H Morris, a miner from Arizona, was incarcerated at San Quentin beginning in 1943 for grand theft. There’s not much else to sift out, this Harry was married to Melba Morris of Los Angeles. He was released on 12 Dec 1944. His physical description listed gray eyes and chestnut hair. Another interesting prison record comes from Folsom, the record date 1 Feb 1931. Dan Morris is a 46 year old “barber-nurse” and born in Dublin. The age listed would place his year of birth around 1885. Dan’s aliases include Harry Morris, H H Hazey, Harrison Morris, and Dan Thompson. He committed assault with a deadly weapon in San Luis Obispo and that is what has landed Dan in Folsom. His physical description lists gray eyes, auburn hair, and fair complexion. H H Hazey is in the 1925 Iowa State Census Madison, Lee Co., Iowa. He is listed as single. We can locate H H Hazey again by looking in the Iowa, U.S., Consecutive Registers of Convicts, 1867-1970, where H H Hazey is listed for a parole violation at the Penitentiary at Ft. Madison. His sentence date is “11-21-21” and his admission date is “10-11-23”. H H Hazey is listed as a catholic American born in Illinois. There are three other case numbers listed in the “disposition” column, along with “9-16-1925 Expiration”. It’s juicy to think that Our Harry could be the Irish barber-nurse with a few too many incidents with the law. I’m not sure I find it very realistic that Dan Morris is the Morris man we’re looking for, but it’s interesting.
I decided to search for all the barbers I could find named Harry Morris. There are many. Ones from Arizona, Washington, California, and more. There was a border crossing on 10 Feb 1922 from Mexico into Texas by a Greek man named Harry Morris who had been residing in Guadalajara and making their way to Oklahoma City. There was a Greek barber named Harry Morris that lived for decades in Salt Lake City, Utah. One day I found a Missouri death certificate for a “Harry A Morris” dated 30 Mar 1933. A barber living in Marysville, Missouri, a birthplace of Scotland and a curious birthdate. This man’s death certificate recorded his birthdate as 23 Aug 1885. The other time I’ve seen this date is on the WWI draft card for Our Harry. The informant on the death certificate was “Bulah Morris”. This man’s father was listed as James Morrison (not Morris!) and mother was listed as unknown. This Missouri Harry died from bladder cancer that had “metastasized to other parts of the body”. The birth date was something that really caught my eye and the naming of the father as “James Morrison” as opposed to “James Morris”. I wanted to think that this record was nothing more than a coincidence, and perhaps it still is, but because I’m obsessed I did more digging. She’s never going to let this go, is she?
I decided to look for an obituary first. Oftentimes if I find an intriguing record, I will go to newspapers for more information. The newspapers can provide additional details for events like births, marriages, and deaths. Dates surrounding holidays are a fruitful time to research newspapers for names included in descriptions of parties. I was able to locate an obituary published in The Maryville Daily Forum on Thursday March 30, 1933. I will include it here:
“Harry A. Morris died at 7:15 oclock this morning at his home at 621 East Second street. Mr. Morris, who has been engaged in the barber business in Maryville for several years, has been ill for some time.
Mr. Morris was born August 23, 1885 at Ardrie, Scotland. He came to the United States with his father, brother, and sister in 1896. His mother died in Scotland. The family settled in Pennsylvania. When about twelve years of age Mr. Morris was adopted by Seth Morris. At the time of the outbreak of the World War he was living in Mound City, where he enlisted in the home guard. He was then transferred to a regiment, with which he saw twenty-two months of active service in France. He participated in the battle of the Argonne. Only a short time before the Armistice he was injured. A piece of shrapnel hit him. A short time later three Germans passing by noticed him and one stuck a bayonet through his foot. Hw was taken to a base hospital and was also confined to a government hospital, after returning to the states.
He was married May 7th 1924 to Miss Beulah Morton. They came to Maryville June 26 1926, where they have resided since, excepting a few months at Grant City.
He is survived by his widow, one brother, Ed Morrison of Jamestown, N.Y. and a son and daughter, by a former marriage.
The funeral services will be held at 2 o’clock tomorrow afternoon at the Price Funeral Home. Rev. E. F. Hagee will conduct the service. The pallbearers will be Gorman Powers, Fay McKee, I.E. Tulloch, Curtis Boatwright, Icke Miller and Charles Meadows.”
There is a lot to dissect in the obituary. I have not been able to link this Missouri Harry with that of Our Harry. I’ve started to investigate this man, buried alone in the Cain Cemetery in Maryville, Missouri. It is interesting to note that Airdrie Scotland is where Agnes McKee Lanphear and her sister Mary McKee Redfield came from. Our Harry could have married this Beulah 7 May 1923, but he wouldn’t have been legally divorced from Mabel in Iowa. That didn’t happen until 1926, but it’s evident that Our Harry left Mabel in Iowa before the 1925 Iowa State Census. The military information in the obituary does not check out with records. It reads more like a far fetched tale. Is this my wishful thinking?
Missouri Harry had advertisements in the local paper for his barber shop. He was called Harry “Blackie” Morris. The mention of a son and a daughter from a previous marriage in the obituary does give me pause. Potentially this Missouri Harry is the same as the Wyoming Harry and Viola. Perhaps Harry and Viola had two children and separated. I could be spinning myself in circles. Ed Morrison, the brother mentioned in the obit, was not born in Scotland, but Warren County, Pennsylvania. Ed married Hattie Hulet and his father was Alanson James Morrison. This Morrison family had deep roots in Northwestern Pennsylvania and Southwestern New York. The data here, again is so juicy, but I cannot connect the dots. For the time being, it is intriguing, but just a thread of many that I continue to pull at, hoping for the big reveal.
Here is where I will leave Part 2. Next time the post will discuss the many (MANY) other Harry Morris’ I have come across in the records. All the guys I’ve eliminated as being potential great-great grandfathers, but have unique experiences just the same. After we wrap up with Harry Morris, I will dive into the children’s story, and what happened to them after arriving at the orphanage in 1915. I may take a pause in between Harry and the children because it’s a heavy story at its core. I try to tell myself that maybe Harry wasn’t such a bad guy, and if he had been, I’d probably have found more records.
Until next time, reader!
Spooky Mulder
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