Caldwell County MO Archives History .....COMMENTARY ON THE MORRIS CEMETERY, CALDWELL COUNTY 
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 12:50 pm

COMMENTARY ON THE MORRIS CEMETERY, CALDWELL COUNTY
	Narrators:  Mrs. Minnie Morris and Robert Morris

     The Morris family graveyard was on Kerr land; it was primarily meant for 
the Kerrs but also includes families connected by marriage with the Kerrs and 
some of their neighbors who were not near their own burying ground.  Most of 
the families are directly or indirectly from Virginia.  James Kerr was the 
pioneer.
     The earliest grave is that of James Kerr d. Jan 10, 1860.  His wife 
Catherine Simpson died 1881.  The next burial is of Robert McBeath, uncle-in-
law of Robert Morris, who was killed as a Southern sympathizer in the Civil 
War, dying April 1863.  His wife was Mary Kerr, daughter of the above Kerrs.  
Another of the McBeath family is Mrs. Elizabeth Jones died 1884, daughter of 
Robert McBeath and wife of J.W. Jones.  One of the Peddicord girls married 
A.W. McBeath and their two infants are there.
     The person of greatest age buried there was Frances Allen, wife of James 
Allen, 1791-1880, who was the mother of Wallace Allen who married Isabel 
Kerr.  Hers is the oldest birthdate in the graveyard.
     Jerry Sloan (1833-1885) has a reason for being there.  His mother was a 
Morris and his wife was a daughter of Socrates Hinds who buried there.
     There is quite a list of the Hinds connection there.  These people were 
just good neighbors of the Morris-Kerr group.  While the Hinds have 
descendants in the county, the name itself is gone.  Socrates Hinds 1811-1880 
lies there and wife Jane 1813-1877.  (The neighbors speak of him as Tes 
Hinds.)  Mrs. Emila A. Wray was their daughter, and her two children lie 
there.  The five Smith children all dying under two years who lie there are 
the children of still another Hinds daughter.
     Mary C. Bell a child of J.D. Bell and A.E. Bell has a bloodright there, 
for the Bells were kin to the Morris family.
     Then there were other neighbors who asked the priviledge to bury there:  
A Howard child, daughter of P.G. and Josie Howard, Mrs. Howard being one of 
the numerous Cross family of Mirabile.  Two of the Kennedy family are there, 
without markers.  The Cover family has a child there, but the Cover family is 
gone.  Mrs. Terah Tuttle of Hamilton has a babe there, unmarked while the 
other Tuttles are in Hamilton cemetery.  An Atkinson child is buried there, 
son of Elgie Atkinson once of that community, later of Cameron.  One is 
impressed with the large number of very young children buried there.  Infant 
mortality was great some fifty years ago.
     Perhaps the most interesting graves there are unmarked.  The two graves 
of two southern sympathizers or rather southern soldiers who were taken 
prisoner by the Caldwell county militia and put to death in the field opposite 
the graveyard.  They were buried in this cemetery by order of the commander 
Capt. Johnson, without coffins with their hats over their faces.  Their names 
were Stump Breckenridge, and the other name [Richard Lancaster] was not called 
by the narrators.  Every one of that vicinity knows the exact corner of their 
burial, especially the southern sympathizers who had to dig their graves.
     Interview  1934.


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