The Ellingwoods

Jim Morgan on the left with his sister  Rose, her spouse and children in 1918.

    When we were growing up, our parents offered us advice, much of it unsolicited. An example: Don't tell people your dad works for the Star. They'll just complain about how their paper was thrown in the rose bush.  Another: If they're named Morgan they're not related to you.  I finally realized that was because my dad was an only child and his father's only brother died childless. We never discussed the Ellingwoods, but I don't think I've yet met anyone named Ellingwood.
    
     Starting with Emma Morgan nee Ellingwood, the Ellingwood name has continued through successive generations. Emma named her first son and third child, James Hiram, using the Hiram from her father. But she bestowed Ellingwood on her second son and fourth and last child, Ray Ellingwood. My father carried Ellingwood as his middle name and bestowed the Ellingwood on his second son, who bestowed it on his only son.

      But that doesn't mean the Ellingwoods don't have a long history in the U.S. Our ninth great grandfather, Ralph Elwood, immigrated from London in 1635 as a part of the Great Migration. I learned of this from the Winthrop Society web page.
  

WHEREAS, the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Company and their elected Governor, John Winthrop, emigrated to New England in 1630 to found a “City on a Hill,” the Winthrop Society: Descendants of the Great Migration is dedicated to honoring and preserving their memory, philosophy and tradition, and transmitting their example of courage, faith, civic duty and integrity."

— excerpt from the Winthrop Society Charter

Their motivation was religious, political, and economic. The British church and government was becoming insufferably hierarchical, tyrannical, and tax-hungry. Common resentment among the English people led soon to the English Revolution beginning in 1642, and eventually to the beheading of King Charles for treason in 1649, after agents intercepted his secret invitations to foreign kings and armies, that they invade England, crush Parliament and the English Constitution, massacre his English opponents, and restore Charles to his pretended Dei gratia royal privileges. Charles Stuart continued incorrigibly to hold his dynastic interest separate and above those of Parliament and the British people, and ultimately Parliament had no alternative but to end his conspiracies with an axe.

Winthrop Society

          As an aside - if you can prove you're related to someone who was part of this migration, you are welcome to become a member of the Winthop Society.  After they approve you for membership, you're eligible to buy a $30 gold certificate proclaiming that fact to all the world. Knowing Ray's joy of certificates it's hard to imagine he would pass this up.

     This is a link to a bit more information about Ralph Ellwood or Ellenwood or Ellingwood. He's buried in the Abbott Street Burial Ground in Beverly, MA.  Ralph the Saxon Ellenwood, I

Left to right: Ray, Emma, Jim, Ethel and Rose in 1918.

Hiram Ellingwood

Emma Ellingwood Morgan & Donald Weaver - 1918

     Ray Morgan, Sr., never met his maternal grandfather, Hiram Ellingwood, but on the other hand, his mother Emma hardly met her father. In August 1862, when Emma was 15 months old, he joined the Union Army, becoming a member of Company K of the 79th Indiana Regiment.

     Hiram served in the 79th Indiana until his death in Chattanooga in September 1864, leaving behind a 38-year old widow, three daughters and a son. Three of the children were less than 3 years old. The following is from the Find-a-Grave website, but there is no citation so I don't know the accuracy of the information came from.

Wounded on September 2, 1864 in the leg, he underwent surgical amputation of his leg on the 4th of September and died 24th September 1864, most probably of infection. This outcome was very common due to the poor state of medical care at the time, the germ theory and antibiotics being far in the future. The 2 day wait to be seen by a surgeon may also have allowed the development of infection prior to his surgery. Hiram Ellingwood's Grave Marker

    The history of the regiment, compiled decades after the war, is substantially based on the diary of a private in Company I. I haven't read the entire book, but they were involved in numerous battles and were with Sherman on the march toAtlanta. The skirmish Ellingwood died in occurred not long after the taking of Atlanta.   History of the 79th Regiment

Page from the History of the 79th Regiment

         And that brings me to our family vacation in 1960. Our first camping trip was in 1959 and to prove that we could actually do it a second time, we went on another one. This time Ray's parents, Ray and Vala Morgan accompanied us. The trip took us from our home in Kansas City all the way east to the Shenandoah National Park and back through Indiana and Missouri. I guess I was struck by the closeness in time of our trip to the Civil War and my Great-Great Grandfather's death in this same section of the country. Although at the time, his existence, at least for me, was unremarked. I've included here a short clip from that vacation. For some reason this ferry crossing stayed with me and then the last part of the clip is us reenacting the Union chasing the Rebels back into the Virginia countryside. I think this is life, though, the next generations try to comprehend what the previous ones lived through, but it's nearly impossible to do. Our parade, in a way, is a  commemoration that Hiram Ellingwood served and died so that life could go on. That his grandson could bring his own grandchildren to see the history of the country.