I recently received an email from Melissa Morphew regarding listing 284 in the family tree--Clint Morphew--in book 2. I post it here as received with our thanks for the information. (Larry Morphew, ed.)
Hi,
I was reading through your site on the Morphew/Murphys and thought you
might be interested in what I know about our family.
Listing 284 in the family tree--Clint Morphew--in book 2 was my great grandfather. His name was actually Levi Clinton. We got separated from the rest of y'all because my great-grandfather was really a louse.
When his first wife died, he left all his children with neighbors and took off for Arkansas, so we didn't know anything really about the Morphew relatives except for his name. My grandfather, Levi Washington Morphew was born in Winston County Alabama (the Free State of Winston they call it, because it seceded from the South when the South seceded from the Union), his father Clint left him with some Hopson relatives, and he subsequently married his cousin Mary Abigail Hopson and eventually they moved to Liberty Grove, Tennessee in Lawrence County where my father was born in 1926--Levi Thomas Morphew. My father married Elizabeth Anne Weathers of Lawrenceburg, TN in 1948. They had four children--Sandra Elizabeth (deceased), Susan Carol, Stephen Thomas (deceased), and me--Sharon Melissa (I go by Melissa). I was born in 1963.
My father had four siblings--Fairy, Lannie, Gracie, and Bennet. The families of the three girls are still here in Lawrence County and the surrounding area. My uncle Bennet's people are in Kentucky.
Levi Clinton had a rather shady life. We were told he killed himself in Arkansas. My grandfather believed he was murdered. We never knew anything about his second family, nor did we have any connection to them.
When I was going to graduate school in Georgia, a Linda Morphew Daughtery got in touch with me. She is Mormon and so our family geneaology is quite important to her. By talking with me, she was able to piece together the missing branch of our immediate family. You might want to try to get in touch with her. She lives in Watkinsville Georgia.
I am currently at home in Lawrenceburg, but will be on my way shortly to Huntsville, Texas where I am to be on the English faculty of Sam Houston State University. I am a poet, and I will be teaching creative writing.
I really enjoyed reading everything you have gathered here. Oh, by the way--in a book of American Surnames, I found a listing for Morphew that said it was Old French and meant "ill omened demon" and then an entry in another book that said it was Scottish from the place name Morphy and meant "marsh or sea plain." I had already found out about the scaly skin disease definition by reading a novel by John Fowles.
My father also has a book on Daniel DeFoe which cites a man named Morphew as one of DeFoe's publishers.
Sincerely,
Melissa Morphew
5-9-99
Distant, Distant, Distant Relative
Hi Melissa,
I have been gone on a short vacation and came back to your email. I enjoyed reading the email a lot.
I would like your permission to post the email on the morphew/murphy page as just that: An email received from Sharon Melissa Morphew.
It's interesting stuff and just a bit more that may be of interest to future researchers.
Good luck at the new University job! Our youngest son is an Ass't Professor at the University of Kansas and loves the life of academia.
Let me know if I can post the email and stay in touch!
Larry Morphew
(Your cuz way back there somewhere!)
5-12-99
Subject: Re: [Clint Morphew]
Larry,
It's perfectly all right to publish my e-mail, especially since it might be
helpful to those doing geneaological research.
Yours,
Melissa
NOTE: Another Morphew researcher noticed the previous email posting from Melissa Morphew and directly responded to it. The email may be accessed by pointing your browser toward: bettycole.html .
To: LARRY MORPHEW
From: Sharon Melissa Morphew mmorphew@lorettotel.net
5-13-99