Oh, Those Wild, but Fun to Research, Lashbrooks

From the April 8, 1884 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, California

"THE PACIFIC SLOPE

A Prisoner Shot in Court - A Lively Blaze in Portland.

[Special Dispatches to the Chronicle]

Sprague (W.T.), April 7. - - J.W. Beckon was shot to-day by Edgar Lashbrook. The cause was jealousy. Lashbrook had Beckon arrested for adultery and while the prisoner was in court he was shot by Lashbrook. The ball entered the right shoulder and the wound is not considered fatal."

(Note: the paragraph about the fire in Portland not included here, as it adds nothing to this discussion, except for assistance in geographic placement of the characters in our story.) 
  
We believe this is Edgar Lashbrook born August 1849 in McHenry County, Illinois, son of Richard Lashbrook (the younger) and his wife Betsey (Mitchell) Lashbrook.
 
On 29 September 1877 in Bremer County Iowa, Edgar married his first cousin, Sadie Lashbrook.  We are sure he lived in Coeur d'Alene, Kootenai County, Idaho in 1893, and they are both enumerated on the 1900 census of Kootenai County Idaho, as a family/household. 

Sadie is also found enumerated on the 1900 census in Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri.  She is living in the household of her father, Moses Lashbrook.
 
By 1903 Sadie is becoming the bride of one Harry Watson in Jackson County, Missouri. 

In 1917 in Bakersfield, Kern County, California, Edgar becomes the husband of widow Catherine Boderick Morris.  That marriage made the papers as well:
 
From the September 15, 1917 issue of the Mountain Democrat, Placerville, El Dorado County, California:

"Man of Seventy-Three Weds

Bakersfield - - Seventy-three is no bar to matrimony to Edgar Lashbrook of Seattle, who was married here last week Saturday afternoon by Judge George Florunoy to Mrs. C. Morris of Burbank. Mrs. Morris's age is 50."

Edgar died in May of 1929 at Piru, Ventura County, California.  He was a Civil War Veteran.  Catherine collected a widow's pension on his service and may (OR NOT, read comments of this post) have been one of the last widows to do so, as she did not die until 1955 in California, some 90 years after the end of the war.  Here is the formal suspension of her widow's pension.

All the wild twists and turns Edgar and his family make during their lifetimes sure make for some fun research.  They sure aren't boring!

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

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