Gail Hamilton Miers of Greensburg, Indiana

This is John Hamilton Morgan's cousin Gail Hamilton Miers.

b. April, 1866, Greensburg, Decatur, Indiana

p. Mary Susan Logan and Garrard Morgan Hamilton

m. Morgan Miers

d. October 20, 1914

When John Hamilton Morgan began his missionary journal in 1876 he wrote from Normal, Illinois on January 4, 1876:

… I enter here my genealogy:

My grandfather and father were named Garrard Morgan. My grandmother Morgan’s maiden name was Sarah Sanderson. On my mother’s side my great grandfather was named John Hamilton; his wife, Elizabeth. Grandfather was James Hamilton, his wife, Margaret Hamilton. My mother’s name is Eliza Ann Hamilton. Gerrard Morgan, Jr. had a sister, Mary Morgan who married Marshall Hamilton, himself father of Woodson Hamilton.

Descendant Amy at The Ancestor Files once suggested that paragraph may account for why John Morgan's son Nicholas Groesbeck Morgan did not include his family history in the volume he wrote about his father.

In addition to the marriage of Mary Morgan to Marshall Hamilton mentioned above, James and Margaret Hamilton named their youngest son after their oldest daughter's husband, son-in-law Garrard Morgan; thus their youngest son was Garrard Morgan Hamilton.

No wonder Aunt Winnifred Rex Andrus once said, "I don't know how we'll ever straighten the Morgans and Hamiltons out."  To add to this fun Cousin Gail Hamilton, above, married a man whose first name was Morgan--Morgan Miers. 

From John Hamilton Morgan Travels and Journal:

October 27, 1882 - Started early this a.m. and drove to town and at 10 a.m. took train for Indianapolis where I visited cousin Robbins and uncle Morgan Hamilton. Attended the Grand Opera with cousin Gail Hamilton and saw the Hanlons play. Stayed all nigh at uncle Hamiltons.

November 1, 1883 - Left Cin. [Cincinnati] For Greensburg at 8:17 a.m. arriving at 10:40 a.m. and was met at the depot by cousin Gail Hamilton. Went up to uncle Morgan H. and spent the day.

Thank you to cousin Karen M. for sharing this wonderful picture of Gail. I suggest she is the Gail that John and Mellie Morgan named their daughter Gail (born 1888) after.

More about Uncle G. M. [Garrard Morgan] Hamilton's family.

The letter introducing us to Uncle G. M. [Garrard Morgan] Hamilton is posted here. In his letter he proudly acclaims his daughter and grandchildren to Mellie. I now recognize the word I marked [illegible] that G. H. wrote to describe his daughter, Gail. It should be slow. Daughter, Gail Miers, is not slow in producing two beloved grandchildren.

“Morgan L. Miers was born in the year 1855 on the farm on which he now lives, one and one-half miles south of the pleasant village of Burney, in Clay township, Decatur county, Indiana, the son of Thomas S. and Mahala (Braden) Miers, both members of pioneer families in that section of the
county. … “

Reared on the home farm in Clay township, Morgan L. Miers received his elementary education in the local schools, which he supplemented by four years at Indiana University, where he graduated in law. He then devoted his time to the development of the growing farm interests of his father. Morgan gradually bought land as he prospered, until he owned fourteen, hundred and sixty acres of choice land in Clay township. He was a man of an optimistic nature, as was his father before him. Beyond giving his chief attention to his great estate, Mr. Miers found time to extend his activities in other directions in numerous enterprises in Decatur and adjoining counties. Since the opening of the Third National Bank of Greensburg, thirty-four years earlier, Mr. Miers had been a director. Morgan was president of the same for the two preceeding years; a position of prominence in the financial circles of southern Indiana exceeded by few therein.

"Thirty-three years ago Mr. Morgan Miers was united in marriage to Gail Hamilton, of Clay township, this county, daughter of G. M. and Mary Susan (Logan) Hamilton, members of pioneer families in Decatur county, the latter of whom was a daughter of John Logan, and to this union two children were born, a son and a daughter, Roy, now twenty-three years of age, and Mary, now aged sixteen, the latter of whom is attending school in Boston, Massachusetts. Mrs. Miers met her death in an automobile accident on October 20, 1914, a tragedy which plunged the entire community into mourning, for she was a woman of exceptional strength of character and for years a leader in good works in the vicinity in which her gentle influence so long had been exerted in all good ways. "

The Weekly Democrat
Greensburg, Decatur County, Indiana

Friday, October 23, 1914

Plans now being made by the Miers family contemplate the removal to this city of Morgan L. Miers from the Deaconess hospital, Indianapolis, tomorrow.

An X-ray examination was made of Mr. Miers’ ankle Wednesday morning to determine the status of the injury. It is said that the bones were crushed.

The body of Mrs. Miers will be brought here on the same train with Mr. Miers and funeral arrangements will then be made. Advices received Wednesday by Geo. W. Adams of the Third National Ban k, indicated that the body would be kept in Indianapolis until Mr. Miers was able to be brought home and that Thursday probably would be the day.

Few details concerning the accident beyond that given Tuesday in meager reports from Indianapolis were obtainable today. Clint Blades of Rugby, who was aboard the train which struck the Miers automobile, state late Tuesday afternoon that the engine of the auto “died” on the track. He said he saw Mrs. Miers under the wreckage and that Mr. Miers was in the automobile, apparently sitting at the wheel. The flagman at the Fletcher avenue crossing is said to have made the statement that Miers ignored his warning and ran upon the track in front of the train. The machine apparently stopped there and was “dead’ during the intervening moments between its arrival on the crossing and the crash.

People here and at Burney were greatly exercised over the accident and sought details from every quarter. One report received at Burney Tuesday afternoon was that Myers had been fatally hurt and that death was only a matter of a few hours.

Newspaper article from Copy made by Indiana State Library, Genealogy Division. I took the picture in front of my house last week. History of Decatur County here.