George & Mary Morey

MOREY NEELY BENSCOTER SMOTHERS

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/7/2010 at 00:42:16

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

George and Mary Morey
By Jeanenne Leedom

George Washington Morey was the sixth child of Stillman Sadley and Malinda (Neely) Morey. His father was born ca 1810 in New York, and his mother was born ca 1815 in Ohio. George Washington was born November 8, 1855, in Millersberg, Iowa County, Iowa. During the 1870’s, his parents moved the family to Wilber, Saline County, Nebraska. There, in 1873, George lost his mother, two sisters, a brother, some cousins, and some friends in a devastating prairie fire. Because of this, George didn’t talk much about his family.

On May 12, 1874, in Wilber, Saline County, Nebraska, George married Mary Ellen Benscoter, the daughter of Henry D and Sarah Ann (Smothers) Benscoter. Mary Ellen was born March 14, 1857, in New Hampton, Chicasaw County, Iowa. George and Mary Ellen’s first four children: William Harrison, Thomas Jefferson, Harry, and George Albert-were all born in Saline County, Nebraska. Their fifth child, Bert Monroe, was born in Sarpy County, Nebraska. After Bert was born, the family moved to Palisade, Hitchcock County, Nebraska, where three more children, Iva May and a set of twin boys, were born. The twins died when they were only a few weeks old.

George was a farmer by trade, and wherever fields needed worked that’s where he would go. Mary Ellen would always take the family and go with him; even if she was baking bread, they would pack up the wagon and go. When it came time to bake the bread, they would stop, build a fire, bake it, and move on.

Some time around 1886 George lost his right arm while operating a corn sheller. At first the doctor cut his had off at the wrist but the bone split so the doctor cut the arm off just above the elbow. Once again, the bone split, but George told the doctor, ‘No more soup bones off me!’ and the arm remained.

In the late 1890’s the family came to Luton, Woodbury County, Iowa and two more children, Lennie Della and Mary Abbie, were born. In 1904 the family moved to Dorsey, Holt County, Nebraska, where George and his two sons worked on a farm. After the season was over, they moved to Stafford, Holt County, Nebraska, where the men worked in the hay fields. In 1908, the family moved for the last time, coming back to Luton, where George farmed and owned and operated a service station for a short time before his death on January 2, 1936. Mary Ellen lived alone in their home until her death on February 26, 1946. They are both at rest in Climbing Hill, Woodbury County, Iowa.