Information provided by Bernice Ruff, Fanny's granddaughter, in May 2000:

Bernice said that the thing she remembered most about Francis, was that she always had lots of fun.  Paw could tell good jokes, but she was always very jolly and enjoyed her life.  She had fewer kids than many people did back then, and she could afford to pay them more attention.

When Alec and Fanny were older, they went to memorial services at all the nearby churches. And Bernice was the right age to go along with them.  They went to New Chapel, Andrew's Chapel, Petty's, and others.  Sometime they would just drive on Sunday afternoons.  She constantly was making Alec stop so she could pick wildflowers on the side of the road.  When it was in the winter, she would take a stone jug that had been filled with hot water, and keep her feet wrapped up with a towel around it too.  That was before there were heaters in cars.

Bernice remembers that she never talked in slang or ugly, but that other girls would play pranks on her.  One time her daughter Lovie put a fake snake around the barrels of meal in the kitchen and she jumped up screaming something awful!

Fanny was particularly close to her sister Gillie.

She always wore black or black and white.

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Short biography of Alec Morgan.  Compiled by David Alan Webb, GG Grandson, from various records and accounts given by Alec's grandchildren.

With his father stationed somewhere near Knoxville, Tennessee, probably on duty as a nurse in a Confederate hospital, on October 14, 1862, Elias Alexander Morgan was born.  His mother was 32 and his absent father had recently turned 35 years old.  He was a first generation Mississippi native and would live no where else, rarely traveling outside of the northeast part of the state for the entirety of his life.

He was one of the middle children of the family.  He grew up with one brother almost nine years older than he was.  And his mother had her last child when "Alec," as he was more commonly called, was 18 years old.

Their home was in the woody hills of then west Itawamba County, what is today southeast Lee County, Mississippi.  He grew up in a wooden dog-trot house his father had built on land the family bought after the Civil War, not far from where he had been born.  When the war was over, his father had come home without serious injury.  The family grew and Alec helped his father on the farm with his other brothers.

When Alec was 24 years old, he married the daughter of one of the family's close neighbors.  Mary Frances "Fanny" Evans, lived just across the bottom from Alec and he had probably gone to school with her and known her his entire life.

Their first child was born a year later, and within five years, they would have their last.  In 1894, when their youngest child was just a little more than one year old, he died of unknown causes.  This could have been the reason Alec and Fanny never had anymore children.

Alec bought 100 acres of land in 1888, two years after his marriage to Fanny, from Joseph Frierson Ruff, a little to the north of his father's land.  They were still only a little more than half a mile away from his parents though, and about a mile and a half through the woods to Fanny's parents.

Alec farmed for most of his life.  He must have been quite good at it too.  Within fourteen years, he was lending out relatively large amounts of money to other local farmers to help put their crops out.  His father certainly had not had much money, just a decent plot of land.  But Alec had begun to make more money on his farm than some others.  One of the reasons he was so succesful was that he never bought anything on credit.  Well, almost never.  He claimed the only time he ever did was when he once bought a 10 cent comb and took it on credit because he did not have any money on him at the time.  He also bragged about the year when he only had $16 once at the beginning of the year to make his crop on for that year.  He was worried about it, but after all was said and done, when it was about to be gathered, he still had $14.  He had only spent $2 on the whole crop!  And he made a lot more than that when they sold it!

He was a serious business man and farmer and rarely drank alchohol.  But Fanny liked to tell a story on Alec when he was younger.  She said that one time, in his younger days, he had a little more than he should have.  He passed out in the floor of the house and then when he woke up, he thought it would be funny if he tried to spit up in the air.  Sure enough, it came back down right on his face!

The house Alec built for his young family sat approximately where Chad and Morgan Files' home is today on county road 1233 in Lee County, Mississippi.  He probably began work on it soon after 1888 when he bought the land it sat on from the Ruffs.  A photo of Alec and Fanny with their family was made on the front porch of this house in about 1900.

At some point probably in the late 1900's or early 1910's, Alec opened a general merchandise store on the road that he lived.  It never did a really smart business, but it was convenient for folks who did not want to go to the newer community of Richmond or Plantersville for their dry goods.  It also may have been a way for Alec and Fanny to enjoy some "luxury" items that might not have been available to them otherwise.  Descendants have told that Alec bought one of the first phonograph players and one of the first radios (in those days, large contraptions with silver bulbs, huge knobs, and a mammoth curving speaker that sat on top) in the area.  When the store was at its peak, a Coca-Cola representative came by and inquired about Alec carrying their new product.  But Alec told them "that nobody would ever drink that ol' colored water."  Alec later joked about it with his grandchildren and regreted that he did not take them up on their offer!  But the store did not last too long and Alec eventually closed it down.  One of the reasons it eventually failed was that Alec did not want to put gas pumps out there and eventually people bypassed it more for other stores with gas.  It sat roughly in the sharp curve on County Road 1233 in front of Chad and Morgan Files' home.

By the time he had opened the store, Alec had given up seriously farming for a living.  He always did keep a patch of cotton down in the bottom, but it was not his main source of income.  In his older age, he had two mules; one named Lottie and one named John. Lottie died of old age.  John was mean and wouldn't pull anything to save his life.  Alec also had a milk cow named Della.  But Alec didn't continue to farm all his life.  He "retired" early on and enjoyed life.  His three children that lived to adulthood continued to live close by and he took special delight in his grandchildren.  He loved to play tricks on them, but also made sure they always did their work.

Alec would always have a nickel for the grandkids when they would come to visit.  He would make them try to open his big old hands to get it.  Once he tricked Curtis, and held his hands over (unbeknownst to Curtis) some fresh chicken manure.  When Curtis tried to grab Alec's hands, knowing there would be a nickel if he could get it, Alec moved them and Curtis wound up with a handful of chicken mess.

But sometimes he would make the grandchildren quite angry.  Once, on a fair day, when the grandkids would have school called off so they could go to the fair (it obviously was much more rare back then!), Alec made sure that Roy and Bernice and the others didn't get to go to the fair, but instead had to stay and work in the field.

Alec always liked to drive around in a car.  His father surely never even saw one, but after Alec's children had all gotten married off, he was able to enjoy the new "toy."

For a long time, he drove a 31 Dodge Car, a four door.   He and Fanny and the family would take long drives on Sunday afternoons, sometimes going to numerous Memorial Day services at different churches in the area, and sometimes driving all around Northeast Mississippi and even into the edge of Alabama.  He loved to drive around.  When he had gotten older, he came home one time with a bump in the fender, and said someone had put a stump out in the road and he hit it.  His children found out he had brushed up against a tree stump alright, but it was a good twenty feet off the road!  But he was in his 70's by then, so maybe it can be excused!

Even though he was quite old, he still drove around a lot.  He often went to Tupelo, though the roads were much worse then than they are today.  He was color blind in his old age, and so he couldn't see the traffic lights change or other things like that.  He would sometimes go with his grandson, Roy's, wife, Kitty, but he wouldn't let her drive though.  But once he made a mistake and bumped another car one day and finally let her drive. She told him he was either letting her drive, or she was getting out and was walking home.

In about 1933, Alec had a new house built on the property just off Richmond Road.  This is where he and Fanny lived the rest of their lives.  He would pay people to come in and work the garden around the house and make sure Fanny had big flowers and a nice yard.

When he had moved into the new house, he decided he needed his barn moved closer to the house. He told Hilliard he would give him $200 to move it but he thought it couldn't be done. Hilliard jacked the barn up, tied pulleys and ropes to it, hitched a team of mules, and moved that big barn 200 yards up to the house. Then he collected his money from his dad!

He lived in the house he built in about 1933 till about 1949, then he stayed with Hilliard and Lovie, taking turns with each. At that point, his grandson Roy moved into his old house.

Fanny passed away in 1945, but Alec lived on a few more years after that.  He had a blood clot in one leg before he died, but he could still kick as high as his head!  Even when he was in his 70's, he could perform the trick they called "skinning the cat," where you grabbed a low-lying limb and swung yourself up and over it and back down on the other side!  His grandchildren also said he could sneak up on folks like he was the wind.  Once one of the people he hired to help around the house ran off with some of his money and he caught them barefoot.  He preferred to go barefoot most of the time he was outside doing work.  He was also very fond of suspenders (not overalls) and almost never was without them.

When he and Fanny died, they were both buried at Union Methodist Church, near their parents.

Unnamed Child Morgan (died young)

Hilliard Alexander Morgan (md. Anna Kate Stovall)
     Hilliard lived near Unity Presbyterian Church in Lee County, Mississippi his entire life.  He was a farmer and he and Anna Kate had four children.

Roseann "Annie" Morgan (md. Ben Jasper Estes)
     Annie and Ben lived near Unity Presbyterian Church in Lee County, Mississippi their entire lives.  They had one son.

Lovie Morgan (md. Albert Raymond Partlow)
     Lovie also lived near Unity Presbyterian Church in Lee County, Mississippi her entire life.  She and Albert had two children.