Helen Melvina Groesbeck and Mary Ann Linton Morgan. 1894 cure for a baby.

Two weeks ago when I met some of Great Grandfather John Hamilton Morgan’s granddaughters, I heard a very interesting story.

Our group of eight sat around a table and visited over lunch. Pat (whose given name is Helen) is John Hamilton Morgan’s (II) [1894-1982] eldest daughter.

Pat asked me if I knew her grandfather’s youngest (third) wife. I said, "yes," I knew she was Mary Ann Linton Morgan.

“She saved my father’s life!” She declared, just like that.

“He had Pyloric stenosis,“ she explained, “and Mary Ann told Grandma how to make a gruel of flour and water, which she did. Feeding my father that gruel saved his life.”

Wow! I’d never heard that miraculous story before.

I’d also never heard of Pyloric stenosis. A look through Wikipedia when I returned home enlightened me. Pyloric stenosis (or infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis) is a condition that causes severe vomiting in the first few months of life. There is narrowing (stenosis) of the opening from the stomach to the intestines, due to enlargement (hypertrophy) of the muscle surrounding this opening (the pylorus, meaning "gate"), which spasms when the stomach empties. It is uncertain whether there is a real congenital narrowing or whether there is a functional hypertrophy of the muscle which develops in the first few weeks of life.
1894 was an extreme year in the lives of Helen Melvina (Mellie) Groesbeck and Mary Ann Linton Morgan, wives of John Hamilton Morgan. They each gave birth to their youngest child, and their husband became extremely ill and died on August 14, 1894. Family accounts report that baby John was too ill for Mellie to remain in Preston, Idaho with her dying husband.

In 1894 Grandmother Mellie needed a miracle to save her baby’s life. Mary Ann gave Mellie the life-saving directions that spared baby John. A hundred years later John's daughter passed this miraculous story on to me.

Mary Ann Linton Morgan's autobiography is posted here on The Ancestor Files where you can also read about other faith promoting incidences in her life.

A link to John and Mellie's family group sheet is here.

Mary Ann's sons are Linton 1890, Harold 1892, Mathias Cowley 1894.

Pioneer rosebush blooming in 2009 at the side of my home. Mary Ann Linton Morgan and her sons is from the Ancestor Files link above.