The grandson of some former Laurens residents has made a movie about the time his ancestors lived in Laurens. He says it is inspired by a true story, but it conflicts with the truth on nearly every point that can be researched.
The movie called "The Cross" ran for two weeks in October 2023 in the Rialto Theater in Pocahontas. It features the Morrow family. The movie says they were victimized by the KKK because they were Catholic immigrants in a town with no other Catholics for miles around. After an ugly scene at the climax of the film featuring a burning cross on their Laurens yard, they fled Laurens and even changed their name from Moreau to Morrow. Did this really happen?
Indeed there were KKK meetings in the county in the 1920s where they burned crosses. The KKK was hostile to immigrants and Catholics and to anyone operating an illegal liquor distillery during Prohibition.
But that does not mean the movie is actual history. It is more like historical fiction.
What if the movie's main characters were not immigrants? What if they were long-time residents who were part of an established Catholic parish? Would they still have been chased out of town?
Let's look at the actual known history of Laurens and the Morrows. The family appears many times in the newspapers during their years in town. The first thing we will see is that their name was always spelled Morrow, never Moreau while they were in Laurens.
Before the Morrows came on the scene, the first Catholic church was built in 1901, according the Sun on June 1, 1933:
Mr. Morrow first came to the attention of the local newspaper on Aug 26, 1909:
The old Laurens Sun never described Mr. Morrow as a man from Quebec as does the movie. He had grown up in Clay county, Iowa.
Mr. Morrow had bad eyes. This was published Mar 17, 1910
Morrow gave up shoe repair and bought a restaurant. February 23, 1911:
Next D.J. Morrow got married in Laurens to a local woman. This appeared in the newspaper of Nov 23, 1911:
Here we see his wife was a Laurens woman. She had first appeared in the Sun when she was only thirteen years old. Her name was Grace, but in the movie she was named Vivian which made her seem more French, more like an immigrant from Quebec.
News of the Morrow business on Jan 18, 1912:
More business news that same year reported on April 25, 1912:
After ten years Morrow sold out and thanked Laurens on Sept 22, 1921:
In a couple years he was back in business. This is from the March 6, 1924 issue where a list of businesses urged readers to shop locally:
On April 3, 1924 the Sun editorialized against the Klan:
Farther down the column the editor criticizes them:
He goes further yet. Is he threatening the Klan? He is certainly scorning the supposed Americanism of the Klan:
A priest came to live in town in 1927. There were twenty-five Catholic families in town. Laurens Sun, June 1, 1933:
A rectory was financed in part by non-Catholics in town, including the newspaper publisher U.S. Vance. This is from the Sun on June 1, 1933:
Although the movie opens with a screen saying "Laurens, Iowa, 1922" the director told an audience at the Rialto that the date was not accurate. He guessed that a more accurate date would be 1928 or 1930. At any rate the movie shows the family leaving town directly after the cross burning. Actually they were still here well into the 1930s
Grace Morrow appeared frequently in the news accounts of the Sun. Here she is in the issue for May 29, 1930
Two and a half years later on October 13, 1932 she is named in two stories on the front page. Here is one of them:
Mr. Morrow was working out of town by then. Here he is in the Sun on May 4, 1933:
In August of 1933 Grace appears again:
On February 8, 1934 she publicly thanks friends for flowers and gifts:
The next year she had a baby:
In the spring of 1935 her daughter Madelyn graduated from Laurens High School. Loras and Rita had graduated in 1932. Mary Morrow had graduated in 1934.
Later that year Grace became ill. That's when she left town. June 13, 1935 Sun:
Two weeks later:
Between their 1911 wedding and 1935 they spent 24 years in Laurens. Furthermore Grace had been here since she was a young child. Her husband had been here since at least 1909.
The adult Morrow daughters who were still in Laurens appeared in the newspaper nearly every month for the rest of 1935.
What should we say about the movie? Some of it was true--the Morrows lived here and ran a restaurant. They were Catholics. But were they run out of town?
In the movie a man's body is found in the water. It is suggested he was killed for being a Catholic, but the movie sheriff shrugs it off as an accidental drowning. I can't find any such history but it is hard to search for unsolved crimes that may not have happened at all.
In the movie we see a poster for a large KKK Fair that is about to happen in Laurens. In real life the poster was for an event in Indianola, Iowa. It was altered for the movie.
It would be better if the movie did not claim to be a true story. The director need only remove the opening frame of "Laurens, Iowa, 1922" and remove the poster of a Klan fair in Laurens. Or the poster could be restored to its original appearance announcing the fair in the town where it actually did occur.
As historical fiction "The Cross" works well. But it is dubious Laurens history.
by Jerry Depew, Laurens, IA
