Jennette Ferguson Murray LePla McNabb

Jennette Ferguson was born Dec 27, 1865 in Morris, Illinois.  Much has been discovered of Jennette recently and she seemed to stick out a bit from the rest of the children in this way.  She first appears in the 1870 census listed as "Jennet" at the age of 4 years old.  In 1880, she is listed as Jennie, 14 years old and "at school" at the time. She married Martin Murray January 8th, 1884 who lived in Morris but was born in London, England. He was an Engineer.   He was 21 years old at the time.  Jennette was listed as Jennie Ferguson and was just 18 years old.  It is unknown what happened to the marriage whether or not it ended in divorce or Martin had passed away.  However, Jennette married again on November 20, 1888 to Herbert Le Pla of La Salle, Illinois, born in England.  Herbert was 27 and Jennette was 22. Herbert was a tailor and has been married before.  However, his first wife Elizabeth Clare had died likely from childbirth and he had Elizabeth and J. Harry were living with relatives in Will County in 1900.  The marriage certificate claims that this was Jennette's first marriage, but it has been confirmed it was indeed the 2nd marriage.  Witnesses to the marriage were Jennette's sister Mary Jane and James Bell, perhaps a friend of the groom?

The 1900 Census is a very strange document.  It shows three heads of the household: Martin Murray, Mary McMollimet, and Jeanette LePla.  The Martin Murray is not the same as her first husband because his age is listed as 70 years old and birthplace was in Ireland.  Jennette's first husband was much younger and born in England, however, it is a strange occurrence regardless.  Beyond the 3 heads of the household there were 3 children listed: Isabelle 10, Herbert 8 and Florence 5 all children of Herbert and Jennette's.  Jennette is listed as widowed, but it has not been confirmed that Herbert died at this point.  He does not appear in the 1916-1950 Illinois death index and the online Pre-1916 death index is not complete and further research is warranted.  Also living in the household was Sanford McNabb listed as a boarder.  Sanford was quite a bit younger than Jennette (by 8 years) and his profession is listed as Teamster. The location was in the Morris 4th ward.  November 15, 1909 an article was posted in the Morris Herald about Jeanette and cousin Joe Steel going to Scotland to claim an estate.  The article says that a fortune worth 15 million pounds that is located in Scotland.  The estate was said to be in litigation for 50 years.  Apparently Jennette had a cousin in London (possibly a Steel) who looked up the fortune and claimed that Steel and Ferguson families were some of the rightful heirs from an uncle or great uncle.  Later it was reported when they returned that the relative had no died yet and she would rarely ever speak of it.   It was never discovered what happened to the fortune or its true whereabouts.  There were many family tales about a lawyer trying to hoodwink the family or the lawyer being murdered.  Stories of a family bible with a page missing were also tossed around, but no documentation besides the Morris paper could confirm the fortune actually existed.  By the 1910 Census, 1203 Kiersted St. was there home and Sanford and Jennette were listed as married!  A marriage certificate was never found for Jeanette and Sanford, but it has been searched for. Children listed were Hazel, Harry, Dorothy, all McNabbs and Herbert and Florence Le Pla.  It is listed that Jenette and Sanford were married 10 years and the oldest child Hazel was 8 years old.  It also states that Jennette had 6 children with only 5 living.  Sanford was listed as a stock dealer and Herbert Jr. was a milk dealer.

The 1920 census indicates the family was living at 1203 Kiersted still and Hazel, Harry, Dorothy (McNabb) and Herbert and Florence (Le Pla) were all living there. The 1930 census shows them living in the same home with Hazel still at age 29 who was single and now Glen McNabb and wife Marie and listed as granddaughter, Jean.  However, Jean Kenney is still alive and when contacting her she said that Jeanette had raised her as her own daughter.  Jean is 86 and it is difficult to get her to answer questions, so it hasn't been determined how she is related to Jeanette. Jennette died Dec 4, 1946 in Morris, Illinois. It lists her as divorced, but no documentation has proven that.  She was 80 years old at the time of her death.  Cause of death was listed as cancer on the right side of her head and Pneumonia for the past 2 days.  Her obituary states that she was in the home of her daughter Mrs. John Kenney when she died.  She has been in failing health for two years and bedfast for the past six months.  UC Davis and Sons was the funeral home and burial was in Evergreen cemetery.  She was the last member of her family and her husband had died before her in 1942.  Nine children were listed Isabelle LePla Brook, Herbert Le Pla, Mrs. Leonard Fosen, Mrs. William Ott, Harry, Glen adn Edwin McNabb, Mrs. Melvin Olson and Mrs. John Kenney.  Two stepchildren also were surviving including J. Harry Le Pla and Elizabeth Salfishburg.

We believe this to be a picture of Jeanette, but aren't positive.  We will get a confirmed picture, hopefully thiis weekend!

We are fairly sure Jennette is on the left.

John Ferguson and Elizabeth Agnes Ferguson Kay

Pictures Added
The next children in order would be John and Elizabeth.  I combined two children into one entry because John died very young.  John Ferguson was born April 11, 1860 and died April 19, 1864.  The cause of death was Measles in Morris.  Death certificates were not filed until 1877 in Grundy County, so no further information can be found about John.

Elizabeth Agnes Ferguson was born April 5, 1863 in Morris.  She first appears in the 1870 Census listed as Age 7.  She is also listed in the 1880 Census as "Lizzie" at age 17 and he occupation was "at home", apparently she did not attend school like her sister Jeanette who was 14 at the time.  She married Harry Kay on February 14th, 1884.  They both appear in the 1900 Census.  Harry listed as 44 years old and married for 16 years. Harry was born in England, as was his parents and came to this country in 1879.  His current occupation was listed as Saloon Keeper.  At the time, they had rented their home listed as 747 Liberty St.  Elizabeth was listed as 37 years old with no profession.  In their home also lived their two children, William F. Kay born Dec 28, 1884 in Morris and Robert LeRoy Kay born October 2, 1887 in Morris.  Both were attending school at the time.  Also living with them was Harry's brother John born in England August of 1876 and only 24 at the time.  He was single and came over in 1882.  He worked as a Day Laborer.  I am unable to locate Elizabeth and Harry in the 1910 Census.  It is well known that Harry and Elizabeth helped run the Kay House.   It appears that they were probably at the Kay House at this time and that is not in the census.  Harry died February 14, 1916.  In his probate it listed several pieces of property on prominent corners down liberty street.  All property and money went to Elizabeth.  Elizabeth also can't be located in the 1920 census.  She is not at the Kay House, however, because her son Robert had taken it over at this point with his wife, Florence and family.  Additionally, Isabel her sister, her brother and my great grandfather Thomas Ferguson and my grandfather Chester Ferguson ended up living there with them in 1920 (along with his siblings, Isabel and Thomas).  I suspect that she likely did live there, but was no listed in the census.   Again, she is missing from the 1930 census as well. Her son William died young in 1941 in Minneapolis.  Her son Robert died in 1930 at the age of only 43. Her son William also died young in 1941 in Minneapolis. Several postcards from Lizzie to Chester were recently found around that time indicating he had been ill for sometime and she had gone out to see him. 

She was a member of the WBA (Women's Business Assocation?)  She died July 20, 1944 in Morris, Illinois. Her address at her time of death was 404 E. Benton St.  She lived there here for years with Chester, but it is unknown for how long.  She was 81 years old when she died.  The cause of death was Hypostatic Pneumonia with an additional diagnosis of light paralysis for the past two years.   At the time of her death, only Jeanette was still living as well as three grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren.  The services were held at Davis Funeral home and she was buried in Evergreen cemetery.  The pallbearers were Thomas, Chester Russell and Erwin Ferguson as well as Glen McNabb and Lincoln Kay.

Upon looking up the probate of Elizabeth, several interesting things were noted.  The probate itself was in the amount of $6455, a few thousand of which was cash.  Additionally, there were postal savings certificates, stocks and bonds. Because both of her sons and husband and died previously the money went to her grand children  Robert Kay Peterson, Dortothy Sparks, and June Kay.  The furnishings and personal items went to Chester.  However, Florence Kay (Robert's wife and helped run the Kay House) was given just $1.

Stone in Evergreen Cemetery

Elizabeth Kay in the middle of her two sisters.

Elizabeth Kay with presumably one of her three granddaughters.