At the left below is the gravestone for Sophia Matilda Taft Lake Morse, my great great grandmother. After her first husband died in Rockton Illinois she went to live with her sons and daughters first in Iowa then in Nebraska where she died. She moved about quite a bit with those families and there are tidbits of information that she may have lived with them or by herself is such places as Bassett, Iowa in Chickasaw Co., What Cheer in Keokuk Co., Hard Scrabble (now a ghost town in Harrison Co. southeast of Logan, Iowa), and Battle Creek in Ida Co. She did not remarry (to James Morse) until 1893, 15 years after the death of Valentine Amey Lake. Since Sophia grew up in Winnebago Co., Illinois and James Morse lived in Boone Co., Ill just to the east, I am making an assumption that they may have known each other previously, even in their youth. Sophia seems to possess an ability to keep her family close as all of these graves pictured on this page are in the same row of graves plots next to each other, except one.
See a photo of Sophia and James Morse on this page.
The words on the top of her gravestone read: "He Giveth His Beloved Sleep"







Below ▼is the gravestone for Vesper Vance Waters (6th child of Minnie and John) and his wife Bessie. This is the only Waters grave in the cemetery that is not located in the same plot as all the others.
Below that is the grave of Frank Willis Lake, the son of Sophia Matilda Taft Lake Morse and Amey Valentine Lake, Sophia's first husband. The large elaborate gravestone below on the right is that of Ida J. Waters Sumpter Lake. She dies while she is married to Frank Willis Lake as his second wife. Ida has been married three times, her 1st husband being Frank's brother, Charles Wilber Lake. None the less, apparently she is loved enough by Frank and the rest of the family(s) to warrant this beautiful stone. After Ida's death, Frank then marries for the 3rd time. Seems a curious mixture of marriages (to cousins and otherwise), divorces and etc. (See all this information on the previous page)
What happened to all the rest of Minnie Lake Koker Waters' children is yet to be discovered.
