Agnes Ann Morgan
1831-1915
Agnes
Ann Morgan is sort of a double relative.
She was the daughter of Daniel Morgan and Agnes Beveridge, who are my
3rd Great Grandparents. She married
Edward Banks Neilson who is the son Edward Neilson and Catherine Banks who are
also my 3rd Great Grandparents. Edward's
sister, my 2nd Great Grandmother,Martha Matilda McGill Neilson married Agnes
brother, my 2nd Great Grandfather, William Morgan. Now that probably has everyone totally
confused but they were not related, they just married a brother and sister from
the same family.
Agnes was born in Dunfermline, Scotland,
to a hard working coal miners family.
Life was not easy for her. She
was always thrifty, a trait she learned through suffering hunger and pain. When she was just a young girl she had to
work in the coal mines. She used to have
to go to work holding her empty stomach with both hands.
The story is told of another time during
her youth when a link of chain fell on her back penetrating her body and coming
out through one of her breasts. She lay
as though she were dead. The family
prepared her body for burial, thinking she was dead. There were no undertakers to embalm her or
any doctor to render aid or sign a death certificate, so the family dressed her
in her burial clothes. They placed her
on a slab in a quiet room planning on burying her the next day.
One of the member of her family went into
the room to say her last goodbye. As she
stood there by Agnes, she thought she saw Agnes' body tremor. Then she saw an eyelash quiver. She ran from the room to summon aid for
Agnes. When the rest of the family
returned to the room, sure enough, Agnes was alive! For days she hovered between life and
death. Slowly but surely, the chain link
passed through her body and came out the right breast. Those two scars she carried with her all the
rest of her life.
She married Edward Banks Nelson in
Dunferline, Scotland, 6 March 1849. Edward was already a member of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Agnes was baptized into the Church just a
few days after their marriage.
According to her granddaughter, Stella
Ruby Foster, Agnes was "gentle, meek, mild and a very loveable
person. She was thrifty to the point of
being stingy. Every inch of her, every
hair in her head was SCOTCH. It grew out
of poverty and deprivation of a life time."
Again taken from this granddaughter's
account: "She was a kind loving mother and wife. Very industrious. No one in all the family had a lazy bone in their
body. Many lovely quilts were the
product of her time and energy. She had
many proverbs she liked to quote. 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure.'
'A
woman can throw more out the window with a spoon than a man can shovel in with
a shovel.' 'Pride goeth before the fall.'
She was very superstitious. 'Never
walk under a ladder.' 'A baby under a year old must never look in a looking
glass.' 'Look at a new moon over your right shoulder.' " I heard my own Mother say these very same
things. Maybe it was the Scottish coming
out in her too.
Agnes was a midwife in Utah and delivered
many babies. She was honest
hard-working, and obeyed the commandments. Agnes lived several years after her husband. She died 16 March 1915 in Garfield, Sierra, New Mexico.
Agnes Ann Morgan
