Lottie Caroline Burch Morahan "Miss Lottie" as all of her friends called her, was born on July 17, 1886 in Texas County, Missouri about 2 years after her family arrived in a covered wagon from Tennessee. She grew up in the towns of Dykes, Bucyrus, and Houston, all in Texas County, Missouri.
She married a railroad man, John Joseph Morahan, They had three children, Opal Marie, Donnie Bernyce and Buddy Joe Morahan. John worked a rail crew out of Bokoshe, Le Flore, Oklahoma for MKT Railway (Missouri, Kansas, Texas) also called the Katy Railway. He was a supervisor so the family got to live in a rail car. Each Saturday the crews got paid. Lottie would sit up all night on payday in the doorway of the rail car with a shotgun across her lap. All the crews got drunk and caroused all night and she had to protect her children. After John left the family, she moved back into her father's house. He was the blacksmith at Bokoshe. Lottie was an expert seamstress and that is how she supported the children. She sewed for everyone in Bokoshe and the surrounding area. They would just tell her how they wanted a dress to look or bring her a picture out of a magazine or the Sears and Roebuck catalog. They would also bring the material and thread. She would just take a few measurements, get some newspapers, cut out a pattern, set at her Singer sewing machine and make the dress. Sometimes they would give her fifty cents or a dozen or two of eggs or a chicken as payment. She continued sewing for a living for the rest of her life until she couldn’t see to sew on dark material.
In later life she moved about 30 miles to Poteau, Oklahoma and lived with her daughter, Donnie. She was a lifelong Methodist and attended that church in Bokoshe and Poteau.
She married a railroad man, John Joseph Morahan, They had three children, Opal Marie, Donnie Bernyce and Buddy Joe Morahan. John worked a rail crew out of Bokoshe, Le Flore, Oklahoma for MKT Railway (Missouri, Kansas, Texas) also called the Katy Railway. He was a supervisor so the family got to live in a rail car. Each Saturday the crews got paid. Lottie would sit up all night on payday in the doorway of the rail car with a shotgun across her lap. All the crews got drunk and caroused all night and she had to protect her children. After John left the family, she moved back into her father's house. He was the blacksmith at Bokoshe. Lottie was an expert seamstress and that is how she supported the children. She sewed for everyone in Bokoshe and the surrounding area. They would just tell her how they wanted a dress to look or bring her a picture out of a magazine or the Sears and Roebuck catalog. They would also bring the material and thread. She would just take a few measurements, get some newspapers, cut out a pattern, set at her Singer sewing machine and make the dress. Sometimes they would give her fifty cents or a dozen or two of eggs or a chicken as payment. She continued sewing for a living for the rest of her life until she couldn’t see to sew on dark material.
In later life she moved about 30 miles to Poteau, Oklahoma and lived with her daughter, Donnie. She was a lifelong Methodist and attended that church in Bokoshe and Poteau.
Lottie Caroline Burch Morahan "Miss Lottie" as all of her friends called her, was born on July 17, 1886 in Texas County, Missouri about 2 years after her family arrived in a covered wagon from Tennessee. She grew up in the towns of Dykes, Bucyrus, and Houston, all in Texas County, Missouri.
She married a railroad man, John Joseph Morahan, They had three children, Opal Marie, Donnie Bernyce and Buddy Joe Morahan. John worked a rail crew out of Bokoshe, Le Flore, Oklahoma for MKT Railway (Missouri, Kansas, Texas) also called the Katy Railway. He was a supervisor so the family got to live in a rail car. Each Saturday the crews got paid. Lottie would sit up all night on payday in the doorway of the rail car with a shotgun across her lap. All the crews got drunk and caroused all night and she had to protect her children. After John left the family, she moved back into her father's house. He was the blacksmith at Bokoshe. Lottie was an expert seamstress and that is how she supported the children. She sewed for everyone in Bokoshe and the surrounding area. They would just tell her how they wanted a dress to look or bring her a picture out of a magazine or the Sears and Roebuck catalog. They would also bring the material and thread. She would just take a few measurements, get some newspapers, cut out a pattern, set at her Singer sewing machine and make the dress. Sometimes they would give her fifty cents or a dozen or two of eggs or a chicken as payment. She continued sewing for a living for the rest of her life until she couldn’t see to sew on dark material.
In later life she moved about 30 miles to Poteau, Oklahoma and lived with her daughter, Donnie. She was a lifelong Methodist and attended that church in Bokoshe and Poteau.
She married a railroad man, John Joseph Morahan, They had three children, Opal Marie, Donnie Bernyce and Buddy Joe Morahan. John worked a rail crew out of Bokoshe, Le Flore, Oklahoma for MKT Railway (Missouri, Kansas, Texas) also called the Katy Railway. He was a supervisor so the family got to live in a rail car. Each Saturday the crews got paid. Lottie would sit up all night on payday in the doorway of the rail car with a shotgun across her lap. All the crews got drunk and caroused all night and she had to protect her children. After John left the family, she moved back into her father's house. He was the blacksmith at Bokoshe. Lottie was an expert seamstress and that is how she supported the children. She sewed for everyone in Bokoshe and the surrounding area. They would just tell her how they wanted a dress to look or bring her a picture out of a magazine or the Sears and Roebuck catalog. They would also bring the material and thread. She would just take a few measurements, get some newspapers, cut out a pattern, set at her Singer sewing machine and make the dress. Sometimes they would give her fifty cents or a dozen or two of eggs or a chicken as payment. She continued sewing for a living for the rest of her life until she couldn’t see to sew on dark material.
In later life she moved about 30 miles to Poteau, Oklahoma and lived with her daughter, Donnie. She was a lifelong Methodist and attended that church in Bokoshe and Poteau.
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