Ephraim Newberry Morris was born to George Morris and Hannah Maria Newberry in 1864. He was twelve of twelve children born to his parents. His sister Rosella Newberry Morris, born third in the family, is our direct ancestor. She married John Jenkins. Their daughter Mary Maria married Everest Elliott Watrous. In 1885, he married Harriett Ann Harris in Salt Lake City, Utah. They became the parents of five children. Ephraim and Harriett are shown her with oldest child Mabel who was born in 1886.
Photographers of the past developed quite a talent for portraiture. This portrait is of Harriett Bailey who was born in England in 1854 and came to America as a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. In Salt Lake City, in 1869, she married another convert named James Bailey McGregor. He was from Scotland. Their first child was born in 1870. She was Clara Harriett McGregor. In 1893, one year after her mother’s death, Clara married direct ancestor Henry Reynolds Watrous as his second wife. He had been divorced from first wife Glendora the previous year. Harriett also had two sons. The first, James was born in 1873 and died in 1901. After her divorce from James Bailey McGregor, Harriett married Mr. Livingston. They had one son. Harriett’s daughter Clara would later divorce Henry Watrous and marry a much older man named Louis Albert Christink. Harriett did not live to meet either of her daughter’s husbands.
To our surprise, after the stories and memories of two generations, we discovered that direct ancestor Henry Reynolds Watrous had a second wife. After his divorce from his first wife and direct ancestor Glendora in 1892, he married a much younger Clara Harriett McGregor. They were married in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1893, which was one year after his divorce from wife Edith Glendora Pancake Watrous. Henry’s wife had filed for the divorce on the grounds of “drunkenness and failure to provide”. She was granted the divorce and the custody of two sons, Earl and direct ancestor Everest.
The fact that ancestor Henry married after his divorce from Glendora was never known to anyone in our family until the 1910 US Census became available in a searchable way. There were Henry, his wife Clara and his two sons Earl and Everest. Earl was barely nine years younger than his father’s new wife.
Sometime before 1908, Clara Harriett McGregor Watrous divorced Henry, citing the same problems in the same words which Glendora had used in 1892. She married a much older man, even older than Henry had been to her young years, named Louis Albert Cristink. He was an emigrant from Germany who had settled in Utah. He had never been married before he married Clara. A history of Clara, her parents and siblings was written and compiled by Daphne Child who is deceased. The McGregor line was among hers. It was known in the family that Clara was very unhappy in her marriage to Mr. Christink. Clara died in 1917 and was buried in the Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah. Both husbands outlived her.
Clara’s parents were James Bailey McGregor and Harriett Bailey. Perhaps they were cousins because of their shared surnames. They were converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who emigrated to America and settled in Utah. James was from Scotland and Harriett from England. They had two children. Clara was the oldest and a son James was the youngest.
Clara’s mother Harriett divorced James McGregor and married a Mr. Livingston. They became the parents of one son, who is shown as the youngest in this photograph along with Clara and her brother James McGregor.
This book was provided by Sue Simonich who is a descendant of James Newberry. She puts forth the theory that the Newberry’s were of Native American origin. Other Newberry researchers and descendants disagree as noted in the comments following this entry. I am grateful for the extensive research and comments which have been provided about James Newberry and his family which are found in comments below.
Not much changed in Wellington, Kansas from the first photograph we found in 1890 to this photograph in 1907. By this time, ancestor Edith Glendora Pancake Watrous had been in Wellington for twelve years. Her sister’s husband Charles, worked in town. That means that the buildings we see included the place where he had an office. His father, a prominent physician in Wellington, also had an office on this main street.
This is St. Luke’s Hospital in Wellington, Kansas. This photograph was taken in 1910. In 1920 direct ancestor Edith Glendora Pancake Watrous died here. For the week prior to her death, she had been under the care of a nurse in the nearby town called Geuda Springs. The medicinal properties of the springs in the town were thought to be helpful in curing an assortment of ills. Glendora’s sister Camilla and Camilla’s daughter Katherine were on a vacation to Yellowstone Park when they received the news that Glendora had taken a turn for the worse. Camilla Elliott and Katharine did not continue from Salt Lake City to Yellowstone, but returned to Wellington, Kansas. Glendora died before their return. The hospital was razed many years later and a new medical facility built in its place.
When ancestor Glendora Watrous left Salt Lake City, Utah for Wellington, Kansas it was 1895. Just five years after this photograph was taken. Washington Street, which is the main street into downtown Wellington is today lined with homes and trees. The street is paved and has curbs and gutters. Glendora lived with her sister Camilla Pancake Elliott and Camilla’s family on this street. The house they lived in was built in 1904. Prior to that time they lived in another home, also on Washington Street but closer to the main part of town. Their quaint, new Victorian-style two-story home looked out on the street and down the street before the trees grew in the way. It is easy to see that it was quite some time before Wellington took on the look it has today.
Ancestor Edith Glendora Pancake Watrous, mother of Everest Elliott Watrous and grandmother of Everest Raymond Watrous died in Geuda Springs, Kansas in the same year that this photograph was taken. She had traveled from nearby Wellington to Geuda Springs for medical care in the hopes that her condition might be improved. In October of 1920 she was transported by ambulance from this place to the hosptial in Wellington where she died. We don’t know where Glendora was staying on her last day on earth. The springs were believed to contain medicinal properties to heal many ailments. This hotel was in operation for several more years after Glendora’s death.
In 1895, five years after this photograph was taken, our ancestor Edith Glendora Pancake Watrous boarded a train in Salt Lake City for Wellington, Kansas. There, she lived with her sister Camilla Pancake Elliott whose husband Charles was a prominent attorney in town. She left behind her two sons, Earl and Everest who is our direct ancestor and their father Henry, whom she had divorced several years earlier. When Glendora arrived at this station, we wonder if she was coming for a visit or if she fully intended to stay. Her visit, beginning in 1895 lasted for the next 25 years until her death in 1920.
This archived photograph of a Wellington, Kansas ambulance was taken in 1920. That was the same year that ancestor Edith Glendora Pancake Watrous was transported by ambulance from the Sanitarium at Geuda Springs where she had been trying to get well, to St. Luke’s Hospital in Wellington where she died. The road from Wellington to Geuda Springs is a drive of 30 minutes today. In 1920, with less improved roads, it would have been a difficult ride for someone who was ill and dying. Wellington was a small town in 1920. This was likely the only ambulance which was operated in the town.