Francis (Fanny) Ann Morehead, 1838-1859, Missouri

Fanny Morehead Belles
1838-1859

Fanny Ann Morehead was the daughter of Charles Robert Morehead (1800-1880) and Francis Fannie Warder (1804-1843).  Her father, Charles Robert Morehead was the brother of Caroline Morehead, the wife of Lyman Taft Gunn.  Their daughter Sophia Riley Gunn married John Williamson Moran and that is the family connection to the Morans. Fanny Morehead is also one of the many grandchildren of Turner Morehead.  In addition, Charles Robert Morehead wrote a history of the Morehead family.

Fanny Morehead married Gill E. Belles October 14, 1858 in Lafayette County, Missouri.  She died July 24, 1859, nine months after the wedding.  It's speculation on my part but I think it's very possible she died in childbirth or had complications with a pregnancy and that she and the child did not survive.    

Gill Belles took a second wife in 1862 named Marinda.  They had four children: Hattie, Fannie (a nod to his first wife?), Eudore, and Tarlton.  Gill died in 1902 and Marinda followed him in 1908.

Record of the Morehead Family, 1870, by Charles Robert Morehead

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This gem was found among the papers belonging to Virginia Shumate Moran.  The cover isn't much to look at but the information this book contains is priceless for those of us who are into family history.  The Moran's are connected to the Morehead family via Lyman T. Gunn (one of the first dentist's in Nashville and a very interesting person in his own right) and his first wife, Caroline M. Morehead.  Lyman and Caroline had four sons and one daughter.  It was their daughter, Sophia Riley Gunn, who married John Williamson Moran.  

This history of the Morehead Family was published 1884 in Nashville, TN, and written by Charles  Robert Morehead.  At the time of the writing many of the people I am researching were still alive as was the case with Dr. Lyman T. Gunn.  C.R. Morehead even indicates that  Dr. Gunn's first wife Caroline Morehead had passed away and that he believed Dr. Gunn was living in Nashville with his second wife and they had no children.  There is no mention as to Caroline's cause of death but I believe it was related to the birth of her son Charles M. Gunn.  He was born in 1855 and she died in 1855 and dying in childbirth or because of puerpural (childbed) fever was a common occurrence.

In my research I have found that Caroline Morehead's mother was Mary (sometimes called Polly) Ann Hewitt Hooe.  At least that's the name I've seen on several sites and in other family trees.  However, Mr. Morehead says her name was Polly Ann Hewitt Hove and since the author was her son, I tend to believe that the name is Hove, not Hooe..  Now I just have to prove it. 

I've only skimmed the book and hope to have it scanned into pdf files so that the original document does not deteriorate any more than it already has.  Till that time we don't handle it very often.

Record of the Morehead Family by Charles Robert Morehead,
Leavenworth City, Kansas, 1870.

Preface page from the Morehead Family History.