LILLIAN VIOLA MORGAN was born November 7, 1891 in Lost Creek, Utah to Daniel Wiley Cook and Julia Ann (Russell) Cook. She married John Roland Morgan on December 21, 1909 in Rigby, Idaho.

Lillie's sibblings are as follows:

Elizabeth Ann Cook (1887-1893)
Daniel Wintworth Cook (1889-1893)
Oscar Russell Cook (1893-)

Lillie, who went by Viola was a very short women and a devoted Latter Day Saints person, was a very strong opinionated women, who very much loved her family.

She was a very hard worker in any task she took on and loved to play the hermonica.

Grandma Morgan didn't like to see people upset, mad, or unhappy. When she did she would get out her hermonica and play the song ...Smile A While and give your face a rest...

When she carried her great-grandchildren around the house, I often wondered who was bigger and if they should be carring her instead. However, she would never put them down until she was ready to do so herself.

To this blessed marriage was born 12 children:

John Wiley Morgan (1910-1958)
Ethal Viola Morgan (1912-1951)
James Earl Morgan (1915-2004)
Julia Lorraine Morgan (1916-1916)
Hannah Leola Ball (1918-1987)
Russell Scott Morgan (1921-)
Lamont Oscar Morgan (1923-2008)
Arlyn Roland Morgan (1926-1974)
Verdis LaVor Morgan (1929-2010)
Dorothy Ilene Morgan (1931-)
Geraldine Morgan (1933)
Melvin Dwayne Morgan (1935-2010)

My Life Story by Lillie Viola Cook Morgan

(This is a very long story so will share bits and pieces)

I was born 7 November 1891 near a creek called Lost Creek in Sevier County, Utah. I am the daughter of Daniel Wiley Cook and Julia Ann Russell Cook. My sister, Elizabeth Ann was born on 12 September 1887; and my brother, Daniel 7 November 1891. My brother, Oscar Russell was born 29 April 1893. When Oscar was about one month old, Danny died. Then on 1 Oct 1893 my mother passed away, both of them being taken by Typhoid. I don't remember my mother or my older brother. Then we children being left without a mother, went to live with our maternal grandparents for 3 years. Then our father remarried and we went to live with them. ...

We got word that our father had gotten himself a new wife and they would be coming after us children. ...

The next morning, after breakfast, we were off for Ashley Fork, near Vernal, Utah. ... We lived in a house near Grandfather and Grandmother Cook's house. There the indians used to come in bunches and stop and some would trade horses with Uncle Jim Cook. Some of the women had little papooses strapped to their backs. We children used to go to their camp and take milk to them. Sometimes they would give us beads in payment for the milk. There is where we used to go to Sunday School and Primary. ...

This is where we lived when I started in school. The first class then was called the Chart Class, next one was the Primer Class, and then in the First Reader. We didn't have tablets and pencils...we had slates and slate pencils. I always took a bottle of soapy water and a cloth with me to clean my slate with. Some of the children would just spit on their slates and wipe them off with their sleeve, which made their sleeve dark. ....

In the spring of 1900, my parents and uncles and aunts all got together and planned a move to Idaho. The men got busy preparing the wagons and harnesses and the women were sewing clothes and packing the dishes and whatever else they would be able to take along. Then on 7 June 1900 we all lined up in the covered wagons, pulling another wagon behind, and 4 heads of horses hitched to the front wagon with the families in and their belongs in the trail wagon. We had a couple of young men on horseback to drive extra horses and cows. There were nine families of us on our trek to Idaho... COOKS, RUSSELLS, and LORDS.

After days and perhaps weeks, we came to where they had some sawmills, so we made camp and the men got jobs getting out logs for the sawmill to make into lumber. Our mothers were busy washing, ironing, and mending clothes, cooking, picking berries and perhaps canning some of them. We children tended the babies, gathered firewood, picked berries and gathered wild tea; we also washed dishes and swept the floors. Our brooms were packed way, so we had brooms made out of sagebrush tied to a willow handle, as we just had dirt floors. ...

We were not close enough to a church to attend services, but when Sunday came our fathers did not work and we got together for songs and bible reading and nice clean stories. We spent the 4th of July there. In the evenings we would gather around the camp fire and some of the mill hands would come over and listen to us and tell of some of their experiences.

Soon the work was finished and it was time to move on. Sometimes we came to streams of water, where it was too wide and steep to cross with the wagosn, so the men would have to build bridges to cross on. Sometimes some small trees were growing in the old dim road that we were traveling upon, and the men would have to cut them down and clear the way.

While going through some of the settlements, there were sometimes crowds of people out watching us as we traveled along. On our way we came to the farming district, the men made camp and got jobs putting up hay for the farmers. It gave the women a chance to again get washing, ironing, mending and baking done. It was a welcome relief to us kids also, as we would get so tired of riding as we traveled along, that sometimes we would get out of the wagons and walk just as far as we could.

I remember the first time we children saw a train. We sat down on the side of the hill and watched a freight train go by. My sister, Libby, counted over a hundred cars on it. We thought that was wonderful.

We arrived at Iona, Idaho in August, which is east of Idaho Falls. School was to start in September. We picked up potatoes for Bishop Rockwood. The older ones picked and sacked the larger potatoes and Oscar and I picked the small potatoes. Usually the farmer kept the small potatoes for seed. The potato digger didn't always get all the potatoes at the ends of the rows, so the Bishop let us dig them and keep for our own use, which helped considerably.

We had a long walk through the fields of deep snow to school. Our hands and feet would be so cold that the teacher would have us take off our mittens and overshoes and put our hands in cold water and then march up and down on the school room floor to get life back into our feet and hands.

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Suggested Edit

Find a Grave contributor, Dom L has made the following suggested edits.



Lillian Morgan (34321847)

Suggested edit: JEROME - Lillie Viola Morgan, 95, of Tuscon, Ariz., and formerly of Jerome, died Saturday, May 30, in Tuscon. Born Nov. 7, 1891, in Lost Creek, Utah, she received her early education in Lost Creek, and then came to Idaho in 1900. She married John Morgan in December 1909, in Utah. The marriage was later solemnized in the Logan LDS Temple. They resided in the Idaho Falls-Rexburg area until 1934, when they moved to Jerome. He died in 1951. She continued to live in Jerome until 1960. She had resided in Boise and Seattle, Wash., and had lived in Tuscon for the last two years. She was a member of the LDS Church. Surviving are: eight children; James Earl Morgan of Myrtle Creek, Ore., H. Leola Ball of Kennewick, Wash., Russell S. Morgan of Chiloquin, Ore., LaMonte O. Morgan of Lowell, Ore., LaVor Morgan of Reno, Nev., Dorothy I. Huff of Tuscon, Geraldine Pool of Hoods Port, Wash., Melvin D. Morgan of Tuscon; 50 grandchildren; 102 greatgrandchildren; and 25 great-greatgrandchildren. She was preceded in death by four children and five brothers and sisters. The funeral will be held at 11 a.m. today at the Jerome 2nd Ward LDS Chapel on North Lincoln, with Bishop Bob Robinson officiating. Interment will follow at the Jerome Cemetery. Friends may call at the church one hour prior to the funeral. Arrangements are under the direction of the Hove-Robertson Funeral Chapel in Jerome.
Contributor: Dom L (49859511)