Elmina Morgan was born in 1807 in Watertown, Jefferson, New York. She was married to Henry Dekalb Killmar in 1826, at the age of 19. They had a son, Nathan Killmar, in January of 1827. The couple had seven other children, Miles Cooley, Caleb, Ruth, Fidelia, Anna Eliza, Byron Homer, and Lucius Whitebec. The family lived in Watertown, New York until at least 1860.
Her son Lucius wrote “Mother’s maiden name was Elmina Morgan, of an old New England family, later of Watertown, New York. The Morgans were a tall, aristocratic bearing family of farmers of the olden type. In those days the farmer did not wait to be boosted by the government, but did his own boosting and by hard work and a just frugality reaped a just reward. I can just recall seeing mother’s father, a tall, upright man, dressed in knee pants, low shoes with buckles, blue coat, etc. There was at least two brothers and one sister in the family. And, at Thanksgiving day dinners it seemed to us youngsters as if there would not be enough for us when our turn came, but we never went hungry. There was enough for all. All members of Grandfather’s family had something to do, and my mother the dairy maid, took care of the milk and butter.
They were a musical family and evenings after supper often spent some time singing and playing the violin and flute. One old sour neighbor once said of them, “I do not see what these Morgans have to sing about, they are not rich, I could buy them and give them away.” But this ability to play musical instruments does not seem to have come to me in any marked degree. One of mother’s brothers was an official of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg R.R., a road not much longer than its name, running from Rome on the New York Central to Ogdensburg on the Saint Lawrence River.
Hojack Line Railroad
The older brother was later a shoemaker and musician, a true Yankee. The sister married a man by the name of Stowell, a newspaper man and a short story writer of some note in his day.
I can only recall one of two sayings of hers. Once when they were getting up a party to go somewhere, the question of safety came up and she wanted to know, “who was to drive,” and when told that my father would do so, she said ‘Alright, I will go anywhere if Hank drives.’ This scattered account of my father and mother is all I can recall, except that mother had recorded many events of their married life in the family Bible, which was burnt in a house fire and much information lost which I should very much like now to pass on to you.
Mother died in Ordway, South Dakota, in the year 1887, making her 81 years old.”
Elmina’s son Lucius Whitebec’s full memoir:
Recollections and Anecdotes of Lucius Killmar
