Louisa Catherine Harris - Husbands

My Great Grandmother, Louisa Catherine Harri married Leander Cross and had two children, Dotia Virginia and Fred Leander. The father, Leander contracted TB and died in 1891l Great Grandma lived with a Harris relation. Donald (Dan) MacArthur's wife died leaving a small one and a large family. Great Grandma was hired to help Dan with his family and married him; not a rare occurrence in those days. Her marriage to Dan was quite a bit longer than her marriage to Leander who died when Dotia was 10 and Fred was 8. Louisa's husband was mentioned in my family, it was always "Granddad MacArthur." Leander was never mentioned.

One of the reasons I became interested in genealogy was Great Granddad Leander Cross. It was a mystery. Was he a "skeleton in the closet?"" No, I found a very nice obituary in the Junction City, KS newspaper and later found his grave. He's buried in the same plot as Louisa and Donald MadArthur. I suspect the reason is simple. Leander died when the children were quite young, but not so young as to be unaware of Leander's suffering and death. Maybe it was the family not wanting to bring up painful memories. It was the case also with Fred Cross' family. No mention of Leander. What's past is past.