QUAKER-ROOTS-L Archives

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Subject: [Q-R] Lee, Morris, Pratt families
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 12:28:24 EDT

This is in reply to the mailing dated 09/02/2001 from Lorraine Richards,
requesting information concerning the family of Jesse Lee, her husband's
great-grandfather. Jesse Lee was born 2/28/1833 in Wayne County, Indiana, a
son of John Lee and Hannah Morris. On 7-16-1853 John Lee and family were
granted a certificte by Springfield MM, Indiana to Three River Monthly
Meeting in Warren County, Iowa.

Three River Monthly Meeting was centered in the village of Ackworth,
three miles east of Indianola, Warren County, Iowa. Three River Monthly
Meeting was established in 1852, and at that time was the farthest west
Monthly Meeting in south-central Iowa.

The John Lee family settled in Dallas County, Iowa, probably in Linn
Township, north of the present town of Redfield. There were a number of
families with Quaker background who settled in the area, such as Lamb,
Maulsby, Mills, and Moorman, coming from Randolph and Wayne Counties in
eastern Indiana. However, they were not all members of Friends, some of them
having lost their membership in the larger body of Friends at the time of the
Abolitionist Friends separation in Indiana ca. 1843-1844.

In 1856 Bear Creek Monthly Meeting was set off from Three River Monthly
Meeting. Bear Creek Monthly Meeting, at that time consisted of two
Preparative Meetings: Bear Creek Preparative Meeting in rural Union Township,
Dallas County, and Summit Grove Preparative Meeting, located on the north
edge of the present town of Stuart in Guthrie County, not far north of the
Adair County line.

As I remember the early minutes of Bear Creek Monthly Meeting, John Lee
participated in some of the early sessions. He may have died ca. 1857, but
most of his family were considered members of Bear Creek Monthly Meeting
until after the Civil War.

But the Friends living north of Redfield were situated on the north edge
of the Bear Creek settlement, about six or eight miles northwest of the Bear
Creek Meetinghouse. They were also separated by the Raccoon River, which is
a fairly large stream after the South 'Coon and Middle 'Coon merge near
Redfield, especially during flood seasons, and there was no bridge in early
pioneer times.

An attempt was made in 1858 to establish a Preparative Meeting called
Oakland north of Redfield, near the present East Linn Cemetery, but this
Meeting only lasted until 1861. Other attempts were made to establish
Meetings north of the Raccoon River, but were not very successful. In 1882,
as part of the evangelical revival of the time, Linden Monthly Meeting was
established, consisting of Linden Preparative Meeting at the new town of
Linden and East Linn Meeting near the site of the failed Oakland Meeting.
Although Linden Monthly Meeting continued until 1949 at the town of Linden,
East Linn Meeting probably lasted no more than ten years. It seems that the
early Linden Monthly Meeting minutes were destroyed in a fire at the Linden
Meeting House ca. 1916. Probably most of the Lee family had moved on before
the East Linn Meeting began ca. 1882, so would not have been found in those
minutes, anyway.

In her e-mail, Lorraine Richard states that Jesse Lee, son of John and
Hannah (Morris) Lee, married Sabrina Pratt in Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
on December 24, 1860. Bear Creek Monthly Meeting minutes do not mention
Sabrina Pratt, but there is a minute of 2-11-1862 or 2-12-1862 which states
that Jesse Lee of Bear Creek has accomplished his marriage contrary to
discipline. A minute of 4-16-1862 states that Jesse Lee has been disowned.
Bear Creek Monthly Meeting, in those days, alternated between Bear Creek and
Summit Grove, so the minute merely indicates that Jesse Lee lived within the
limits of Bear Creek Preparative Meeting, not near Bear Creek Meeting itself.


I have not read the Bear Creek minutes carefully after about 1877, but I
believe that Jesse Lee is not mentioned again in the early minutes. I would
very much doubt that Sabrina Pratt came from a Quaker family. Although, in
those days, Quaker young people seemed to very much dislike being married in
Meeting, and would often be married by a non-Quaker preacher or a justice of
the peace, they would often express their regret to the Meeting afterward and
be kept in membership, especially if both parties to the marriage came from
Quaker families.

I do not have any record of the children of Jesse and Sabrina (Pratt)
Lee, nor do I know where the family lived. I do have some record of the
family of Jesse's sister, Elizabeth Lee who married Lewis Smith----- also of
Jesse's brother, Anderson Lee who married Abigail Jane Bales. I do not know
any of the descendants of the Lee family, nor whom I might refer for more
informtion. Elizabeth (Lee) Smith and family lived at Valley Junction (now
West Des Moines, Iowa). Children of Anderson and Abigail (Bales) Lee are
buried in the North Oak Grove Cemetery at Stuart, Iowa. They died within the
memory of older people now living and may still have descendants living
around Stuart.

I don't seem to have any information about any of the Morris family who
lived in this area of Iowa. Perhaps there were relatives which I have not
recognized as belonging to this family. ---- I know nothing about the Pratt
family.

Although this information is surely inadequate, perhaps it will be
helpful.

Herbert Standing

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