Judge Morrow's Treasure Box

The following article by Charles Hartley was originally published in The Pioneer News on 13 Jun 2024.

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Bullitt County Judge William T. Morrow had business to attend to in Frankfort in February 1896, and he elected to take the evening train to Louisville and pay a visit to his good friend Frank Straus, a former Bullitt County State Representative, before catching the Tuesday morning train to Frankfort.

Morrow had never married, and lived alone in Shepherdsville. He paid an elderly lady to keep his rooms clean, and she had a key to come do her work when he was away. This she did on Tuesday morning, and locked the door when she went out.

Early Wednesday morning, County Surveyor W. C. Herps happened past the Judge's house and saw the front door standing slightly ajar but, supposing the cleaning lady was in the house, thought nothing about the matter and went out of town without thinking or saying anything about it.

His business concluded in the State Capital, the Judge returned home Friday evening to find his door unlocked. Suspecting that something was wrong, Morrow enter the house and discovered that the metal box he kept important valuables in was missing. Included were bearer bonds that could be cashed by anyone, stock certificates in the Louisville City Railway Company and several building and loan associations, and about $10,000 in real-estate bonds.

Morrow had certainly not been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His mother, Mary Ellen Shane married Elbridge Gerry Morrow in Bullitt County in August 1840, four months before her 17th birthday. They had two sons: William, born in 1842, and Nathan, born two years later. Then Elbridge died in 1849 just past his 36th birthday, leaving Mary Ellen to rear the boys.

Then in 1854, Kentucky was visited by cholera, and Shepherdsville was almost depopulated. Just before the cholera, there was high water which flooded every cellar in town, and got up to the second floor of about all the houses near the river.

Cholera, a bacterial infection in the small intestine, has occurred in pandemics including one in the 1850's. The worst year was 1854. That was also the year that British physician John Snow, who was working in a poor area of London, identified contaminated water as the means of transmission of the disease. Regrettably it was too late for his mother.

Mary Ellen had the misfortune of visiting relatives in Shepherdsville during the cholera outbreak and drinking some of the contaminated water. Before she could return home, she was stricken and quickly died, leaving the boys orphans.

Her brother, William Shane collected his two nephews and brought them home to Shepherdsville to live. He married Ann Anderson the next year, and together they reared the two Morrow boys as well as a son and daughter of their own.

Later in life, Judge Morrow would relate the story that he was a water boy for the Louisville and Nashville railroad when it constructed its main line from Louisville in 1854. He drew the water from an old well in town with an old fashioned windlass, and carried two buckets of water each trip. He received fifty cents per day. Hard work for a twelve year old.

When war broke out between the states, both William Shane and William Morrow joined the 28th Kentucky Infantry, Shane as a 1st Lieutenant, Morrow as a private. His unit's company descriptive book described Morrow as five foot, nine and a half inches tall with a dark complexion, hazel eyes, and dark hair.

Shane resigned his commission to return home to care for his ill wife. She died in 1861, and he followed in December 1862. So once again the two Morrow brothers were left without family.

William Morrow was assigned to his regiment's quartermaster department as a clerk, and remained in that capacity as his unit moved from one theater of operation to another, and by late 1864 he had risen in rank to Quartermaster Sergeant. A year later he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and was acting as the regiment quartermaster. Then in August 1865 he requested a discharge from service in order to return home to deal with "important business which requires my personal attention."

A bit of property left to the Morrow boys needed to be divided as his brother Nathan "desired a division of the property so that he could convert his part to his own use." Nathan, who had served in a different unit, was now home and ready to get on with his life.

By 1870 William was working as an assistant marshal in Shepherdsville according to the census record. He was boarding at the hotel run by Mike and Sophia Troutman, parents of Frank Troutman, then the town marshal.

The Pioneer News later wrote, "After the war he entered the services of the Government in the internal revenue department and was stationed at many distilleries at Tyrone, Lawrenceburg, Athertontown and Louisville, as well as other places in Bullitt, Marion, and Nelson counties."

At various times he worked as both a gauger and a storekeeper. The former job made him responsible for determining how many gallons of spirits were prepared each day for market so they could be properly taxed. As a storekeeper he was responsible for seeing to the security of the distillery's operation, and actually carried the keys to open doors to its vital operations.

We also know that he worked as the superintendent of the Mellwood Distilling Company in Louisville in 1887-1888.

Sometime during his work with distilleries, he apparently made time to study law, for the citizens of Bullitt County elected him their county judge in 1894, which was remarkable since he was a Republican in a predominantly Democratic county.

Morrow had been frugal, and by the time he became Bullitt County Judge he could be considered wealthy. Now it seemed that much of that wealth was gone.

Despite his inquiries around town, no one could shed any light on who might have stolen his treasure box. A report that several "slick-looking" tramps had been in the town the day before, and also that several suspicious characters had been loitering around the American Hotel seemed to lead no where.

The story was reported in the Louisville paper the next day, but little hope was had that the stolen papers could be recovered.

Then on Sunday morning, a knock on his door brought Judge Morrow face to face with his good friend Frank Straus who was holding Morrow's metal box in his hands. It seems that the good Judge had thought it wise to leave his treasure box with a friend while in Frankfort, and then had forgotten he did!

The Judge received a goodly number of friendly ribbings for some time after that. But as embarrassing as it was to admit his forgetfulness, he was delighted to get his treasure back!

After his term as Bullitt County Judge ended, he soon returned to working for the internal revenue service in the distilleries. He moved to Louisville where he worked as both a gauger and storekeeper for a decade (1905-1915).

After retiring in his mid-seventies, Morrow moved back to Shepherdsville where he made his home for the remainder of his life. That didn't mean, however, that he retired to his front porch to watch the world go by.

The paper in 1915 reported that Judge Morrow was heading south to Florida for the winter. He did this for nearly a decade, returning each winter to Miami, his favorite destination. It is reported that in the early 1920's Miami was enjoying a building boom, and that both gambling and drinking (despite Prohibition) were popular activities. We don't know if the Judge went south for just the warm sunshine, or if he partook of other enticements, but we have our suspicions.

With no children of his own, he lavished his love and wealth on his nephew, providing for his education, and upon his wedding, providing and furnishing a home for the new couple. Then as the Judge approached the end of his life, he made a will leaving the bulk of his estate to his nephew's children to support them the way he had supported their father.

On 4 May 1928, The Pioneer News reported "It is with much sorrow that we chronicle the death of Judge William Morrow, which occurred at an early hour Wednesday morning. He was the oldest man in town, and one of the old men of the County."

The paper continued, "Judge Morrow was a man of strong likes and dislikes, and very pronounced ideas on all questions of the day. Considering his very advanced age, he was very liberal in his view, and was a very tolerant man. He was a well-read man, very intelligent indeed, and had traveled in this and other countries considerably and was able to tell very interestingly of his travels. He was true to his friends and ideals."

A good man, even if he was a bit forgetful at times.

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Copyright 2024 by Charles Hartley, Shepherdsville KY. All rights are reserved. No part of the content of this page may be included in any format in any place without the written permission of the copyright holder.

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