Hotel del Coronado, pt. 2

    Where was Kate and what was she doing from the time of her marriage in 1885/86 to her death in 1892? We will never be able to trace her movements exactly, especially since the 1890 federal census was lost in a fire. Iowa has an 1885 census, but it was taken before she and Thomas were married and they are both enumerated with their families.
     What is known is that Thomas was living in Nebraska at the time of Kate's death as a telegram apparently reached him in Burchard, Pawnee County, alerting him to his wife's death.[1] Thomas remarried a year after her death and spent the remainder of his life in Nebraska.[2] Upon his death in 1936, he was buried near his and Kate's infant son and his father in Riverton, Iowa.[3] And while this does not sound like a man who feared returning to the hometown of his first wife, he did not acknowledge his first marriage on the 1930 census. On this census, his age at his first marriage was given as 32 years, which was his age at his second marriage to Jennie Devor. [4] Did he lie about how many times he was married or did his second wife provide the information? The census-taker was not required to speak to the head of the household or each individual to obtain first-hand knowledge, they accepted information from anyone in the household old enough to provide it and sometimes even neighbors if the family was away, so we must be careful not to read too much into the omission.
    We do know that she lived with Farmer relatives when she first moved to California. An article in The Los Angeles Times includes a message from a relative, W. F. Farmer of Hanford in Kings County. His message of December 12, 1892, reads, in part:

I am more than surprised to hear of the tragedy. If it was Kate Morgan you can rest assured that it was no case of suicide, for the reason that she had no cause for committing such an act. When she left me I told her if she needed anything to send to me and I would assist her. Her people are well-to-do. Her husband, Thomas Morgan, has been traveling in the interest of some manufacturing company. … Her relatives are Henry Broomback and Thomas Morgan, Hamburg, Iowa; John W. Chandler, her grandfather, and John Samuella, Riverton, Iowa.[5]

  This W. F. Farmer was undoubtedly William Terrell Farmer, Kate's uncle. He was in central California by the time of the 1870 census and is buried in Hanford.[6]
    What of Kate’s own father, George Farmer? It turns out Kate was well and truly an orphan. Her grandfather, Joseph Chandler, was appointed her legal guardian in August of 1879 as her father was deceased.[7] Perhaps it was the loss of both of her parents, her only child, and then an estrangement from her husband, all by the time she was 24, that caused her to take her life.

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[1] "Telegram to her husband about her death," Johnson & Co. (San Diego, California) to Thos. Morgan (Burchard, Nebraska), telegram, 12 December 1892; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 October 2019); posted by ChristineRogers95350, 28 May 2017.
[2] ”Nebraska, Marriage Records, 1855-1908,” digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 October 2019), entry for Thomas E. Morgan and Jennie M. Devor, 2 December 1893; Nebraska State Historical Society. Also, 1900 U.S. census, Pawnee County, Nebraska, pop. sch., Miles, Enumeration District (ED) 0127, sheet 1B, dwelling 19, family 20, Thomas E. Morgan household; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 October 2019), citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll 935. Also, 1910 U.S. census, Pawnee County, Nebraska, pop. sch., Plum Creek, ED 0154, sheet 1B, dwelling 16, family, 16, Thos. E. Morgan household; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 October 2019), citing National Archives microfilm publication T624, roll 852. Also, 1920 U. S. census, Jefferson County, Nebraska, pop. sch., Pleasant, ED 109, sheet 6B, dwelling 72, family 72, Thomas E. Morgan household; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 October 2019), citing National Archives microfilm publication T625, roll 991. Also, 1930 U. S. census, Harlan County, Nebraska, pop. sch., Alma, ED 0002, sheet 2B, dwelling 50, family 50, Thomas E. Morgan household; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 October 2019), citing National Archives microfilm publication T626, roll 1289.
[3] Find A Grave, database with images (www.findagrave.com : accessed 26 October 2019), memorial 7398365, Thomas Edwin Morgan (1861-1936), Utterback Cemetery, Riverton, Fremont County, Iowa; memorial added by Graveaddiction, ID 46528400.
[4] 1930 U.S. census, Harlan Co., Neb., pop. sch., Alma, ED 0002, sheet 2B, dwell. 50, fam. 50, Thomas E. Morgan.
[5] "The Coronado Suicide," The Los Angeles Times, 14 December 1892, p. 9, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 20 October 2019).
[6] 1870 U.S. census, Contra Costa County, California, pop. sch., Township 2, p. 41-2 (written), dwelling 339, family 325, Stevenson Schmidt household; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com :  accessed 20 October 2019), citing National Archives microfilm publication M593, roll 71; also Find A Grave, database with images (www.findagrave.com : accessed 20 October 2019), memorial 143982378, William Terrell Farmer (1831-1901), Hanford Cemetery, Hanford, Kings County, California; memorial added by RowWalker, ID 143982378.
[7] ”Iowa, Wills and Probate Records, 1758-1997,” database with images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 December 2019) > Probate Records, Vol A-D, 1892-1812 > image 25 of 829, Kate K. Farmer, heir of G. W. Farmer, 18 August 1879; citing FHL microfilm 1533772, item 5.