William Alexander Morson
Evergreen – Another Chapter
Written and submitted 27 June 2014 by Marji Wright
Evergreen Cemetery, earlier called Newport Cemetery, had as its first burial John Howe, 14 July 1849. The final resting place of some who were important in local history, it is also a United States National Military Cemetery. Countless veterans of two hundred years of American wars can be found throughout the expansive grounds, not all of them in the military section.
Evergreen accepted rich and poor, important and nobody, black and white, Union and Confederate, and through the Virginia Military Institute project to locate the graves of the Confederate cadets at the battle of New Market on its 150th anniversary, I became aware of another story of America’s Civil War.
Named William Alexander Morson, born 2 February 1843 in Fredericksburg, Virginia, his father was Arthur Alexander Morson, (1803-1864), his mother Maria Martin Scott (1814-1894). His maternal grandfather was Judge John Scott (born 1781, died 1850)
William was a cadet in the Virginia Military Institute class of 1864. It was this class of young cadets who fought at the battle of New Market, Virginia, May 15, 1864, and drove the Union Army out of the Shenandoah Valley. With 257 cadets on the field, 10 were killed in battle or died of their wounds. Another 45 were wounded; the oldest cadet was 25, the youngest, 15. In 2013, 50 Confederate soldiers’ graves were found in the Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Virginia, with another 35 to 40 graves discovered in 2014, according to an article “Remains of 40 Confederate soldiers discovered in Virginia cemetery” written by Cristina Corbin, 26 May 2014. Marking the grave of VMI Cadet Nathan Tiernon Walton ninety years after his death was highlighted.
I do not know why VMI contacted me, since I only index records for the current Campbell County website, but I offered to see what I could find. It was thought, but not proven, that William Morson had been buried in St Louis with his family. At the time Evergreen’s Internet posted records were not complete; however, that same day I had scheduled to index the alphabet section including William Morson. The 1900 Federal Census helped find family members.
Married about 1893, his wife, Mollie Cordelia McGovern Morson, born 30 November 1864, died in Hardin, Ohio, 18 May 1951 of cerebral thrombus and is buried in the Evergreen family plot, Section 60, lot 250, along with her youngest son, Gordon Lee Morson, (born 30 November 1898, died 24 September 1964). William and Mollie’s only daughter, Violet, died of tuberculosis and was buried 10 September 1914 at the age of 19 in Single grave 316, section 43, in Evergreen.
Gordon Lee Morson (working in electrical sales) married Theresa “Trix” Sutter, living in Norwood, Hamilton, Ohio in the 1930 Census with their only child Barbara Lee, (born 8 February 1929, Kenton County, died 31 October 1991, apparently as the result of an accident). Barbara first married William A Rengering, (born 18 December 1925, Cincinnati, died 9 August 1985, in Honolulu). Buried Spring Grove Cemetery. William’s parents were William A Rengering Sr, (1902-1985) and Marcella McAvoy, (died 1 March 1978).
Barbara Lee remarried 29 June 1991 to John Howard Hoge, (born 2 June 1917, died 22 March 2000). An elementary school teacher, Barbara Lee Morson Rengering Hoge and her mother Theresa Morson are buried in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Section 7, lot 348, Graves 1 and 6, in Montgomery, Hamilton County, Ohio. No children found.
William A Morson, (born 11 April 1896, died November 1970) was William and Mollie’s oldest son who, with his wife Hazel M (1906-1952), is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Mason, Warren County, Ohio. No children found.
Mollie’s father was Pat McGovern of Ireland, (died 21 January 1872), mother was Elizabeth Hudson of Cincinnati. They, along with their only son, Charles, (born 8 September 1862, died 3 March 1920) are buried in St Joseph’s New Cemetery, Cincinnati. Religious differences may be why some of these families were not buried in the same cemetery.
Virginia Military Institute site states: William Alexander Morson entered VMI 27 March 1862, and graduated ninth in a class of 62 on 27 June 1864, after the battle of New Market. He was a 2nd Lieutenant, and was assigned Drill Master to the Virginia Reserve Forces, 1 August 1864. He tried farming before and after the Civil War in Virginia and St Louis, and later became a tobacco inspector and broker in the Newport/Cincinnati area (source: US Census). His brother, John S, brother-in-law Scott Shipp and several cousins also attended VMI.
At the time William died of severe dysentery, (it is not clear that the “lung abscess” written with his record applies to him or the record below it), Kentucky (before 1911) had no formal legal requirement to maintain vital records. However, some counties did make and keep earlier records (see “Kentucky Death Records 1852-1953”). VMI shows William’s death in Newport, 9 June 1903, however, there is no record cited and there is a discrepancy.
Campbell County Death Records in 1903 assigned a sequential number to each death. There were three deaths recorded in the Residents category for June 9, Numbers 187-189. William’s name was inserted in Death Records at the top of a page, (microfilm frame number 12 of 25), with no sequential number. Apparently, with no room at the bottom of the page, the available space was the top line. However, the date of record as well as the date of death appears to be June 30 on the Death Record, with burial 2 July 1903, in Section 28, single grave 72, Interment number 5475 in Evergreen’s records. In addition, the last sequential number assigned (Kentucky Death Records) was Number 222 on June 30. The first number for July was Number 224. Although Wm Morson did not have a sequential number written, the missing number is 223, and probably was his, but was omitted. The burial date July 2 is also more in line with a death June 30. Evergreen Section 28, grave 71 is Charles Craig, died 21 June 1903, buried 24 June 1903, Interment 5465; grave 73 is Charles G Spillmeyer, buried 11 July 1903, Interment 5486; and grave 74, Charles Bliss, died 20 July, buried 21 July 1903, Interment 5496. This assumes the single graves were mostly sequential and chronologic.
William’s record is mis-indexed on Ancestry.com as “female”, although no such category was on the document and place of birth is indexed as “Newport” in the Death Record. The handwriting is poor and not identical to other images of “Newport”, but it has been clearly established that he was born in Virginia, and the 1900 and 1930 Census states “Virginia”. It’s also possible that whoever provided William’s information was not aware of his history, his children being born 30 years after the war, or perhaps it was the family secret.
Section 28 records show at least 557 single grave burials, many unmarked, from May 1903 to 1910. William’s grave is unmarked, but with information found for surrounding graves, it was located approximately. An alumnus of the Virginia Military Institute conducted an honoring ceremony at the gravesite the week before Memorial Day 2014, including small flags, a VMI shield, and a miniature cannon, (the battle had included one artillery company). He was concerned that someone would object to flags other than Union or US ones, but after looking at the number of Confederate soldiers as well as local slave owners buried in Evergreen, I assured him it was not a problem.
After I provided him with some Evergreen Civil War history, he took time to explore. And as he said, “There’s something about Evergreen…” If you are a Civil War buff, visit the VMI website at www.vmi.edu/archives to read this well documented story.
William Alexander Morson may have no surviving descendants, but the Virginia Military Institute brotherhood of cadets lives on.
photo at Evergreen, courtesy of Rex Frew, VMI
Sources:
Campbell County KYGenWeb site
Evergreen Cemetery records
1875-1975
Find a Grave website
Kentucky, Birth Index,
1911-1999
Kentucky Register of Deaths
1852-1953
Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1932, 1938-2007
Ohio Marriage Index, 1970, 1972-2007
Spring Grove Interment Records
US Federal Census records,
various
Virginia, Marriages,
1740-1850
Virginia Military Institute
Historical Rosters Database