1
INDEX
Page
The Spring 2
We are all one 3
The names of your Morgan Grandparents 4
Morgan History 5
Sketch of the Morgan Family by Uncle Drew 9
The Great Trek of 4 families submitted by Jack Morgan 14
Hardin Morgan’s Travels from Yadkin Co., N.C. 15
Memories of our life in North Carolina as told by Em, Drew and Jim 16
J.H. Morgan memories 27
History of Nancy Addaline Morgan-Middleton 35
Morgan Trek by Nancy Middleton 42
Liscomb Pioneer Carries out Promise Made to his brother Andrew Jackson Morgan 43
History of Mary Jane Morgan-Greers-Hague 45
History of Melissa Frances Morgan-Hanson 49
History of Mason Fuel Morgan 56
History of William Sidney Morgan 59
History of Martha Ann Morgan-Hauser 60
History of Andrew Jackson Morgan 75
History of Sarah Louisa Morgan-Rogers 89
Home Life in the South by Lou Rogers 95
History of Emma Lodusca Morgan-Humbphey-Ralls 98
An Historic Wall Hanging 99
History of James Hamilton Morgan 104
History of Ellin Annetta Morgan 145
Letter From Imogene Uran about family history of Morgan’s 146
Elizabeth White Morgan History of her family 152
“The Spring” located on Hardin & Elizabeth White Morgan’s plantation at Booneville, Yadkin Co., North Carolina. It was a 240 acre plantation. The spring starts to bubble from the ground through the ledges of flat stone under the shady tree about 100 to 125 feet from where their home stood.
In Picture No. 1 Max Morgan is standing near the tree and holds a glass of water from the stream. The flowers he is pointing to are some Grandma Morgan planted in 1865.
In picture No. 2 is the spring. It is a good size of stream and flows about 50 feet east to where it joins a larger stream and trickles its way past where the tannery and the mill were located. At the very point of outlet the water is flowing north. The water is just as cool and clear on June 1, 1951 as it must have been when his father and grandfather drank from it.
In picture No. 3 a walnut tree is on the left of Mr. Spencer (with the hat on) which is thought to have been on the plantation when the morgan family lived there.
Wild roses and catnip held in Max’s hands have been growing in the same place for fiftey years and Houston Jones now owner of the place states these were in their same location when the Morgans were there as he and others have plowed them up but always they return.
Hardin Morgan, my grandfather, sold the west 40 acres to P.J. Spencer’s father, his neighbor. These photos were taken June 1, 1851 by Max Morgan. The 200 acres were sold to three free negroes for $500.00 in 1869 when they moved to New Providnece, Iowa and later to Liscomb, Iowa. The only building left of the original plantation was a kitchen which had been moved to another place and used as a grainery.
We Are All One
What is my boasted indepenence? I am dependent upon everybody and everything. I go with the crowd. I am caught in the press of men. I must move with them.
What I call my character or nature is made up of infinite particles of inherited tendencies from my ancestors -- those whose blood runs in my veins. A little seed of laziness from this grandfather and of prodigality from that. Some remote grandmother, perhaps, has stamped me with a fear of horses or a love of dogs. There may be in me a bit of outlawry from some pirate forefather, and a dash of piety from one who was a saint.
So everything in me passes on through my children. I am sewn in between ancestry and posterity. I am a drop of water in flowing river, a molecule in a mountain, a cell in a great tree.
My gestures, ways, mannerisms, so-called peculiarities, I borrowed them all.
Religion is not a personal affair so much as it is communal. You are a Jew because you were born a jew: for the same reason you are a Catholic, you are a Presbyterian, you are a Buddhist, you are a Morman. As we enter life we find these cells already made in the human beehive and crawl into them.
Original ideas? Where will you find them? All the ideas there are exist now, floating in the human sea. I, an oyster, absorb a few, and call them mine. Even the phrases of the Lord’s prayer have been traced to Talmudic sources.
How we part ourselves up into strange egotisms! We strut, gesticulate, contend, and talk of me and mine, only to go down at last in a cataract that empties into the unknown.
Let us, therefore, put away coarse egotisms and partisan passions, and learn to love humantiy, to think and feel in terms of humanity.
From “Four Minute Essays,” by Dr. Frank Crane --
(Copied so as to preserve the quaint spelling)542 Pine Ave.
Pacific Grove, Cal.
August 5th, 1942
Herewith you will find the information you have requested, as the records of the Morgan Families. As recorded in the Bible, and a church record which father kept years ago when he was a Sect, and Treasure of the Christian Church at Boonville, North Carolina, and War of the Rebellion.
1.) Hardin Morgan borned Sept. 1st, 1816—died Feb 1st, 1899 at Liscomb, Iowa.
2.) Elizabeth White Morgan borned March 25th, 1823. Died May 26th 1896.
3.) Nancy Addaline Morgan Middleton, Borned Sept. 21st, 1842, Died Oct. 30th 1917.
4.) Mary Jane Morgan Spears Hague Borned March 10th, 1845. Died July 2nd, 1931.
5.) Melissa Francis Morgan Hanson Borned June 12th, 1847. Died Feb. 16th , 1873(?).
6.) Mason Fuel Morgan Borned Feb. 6th , 1849, Died Dec. 23rd, 1935.
7.) William Sidney Morgan Borned May 1st, 1851. Died Sept. 20th, 1866. By accident. He punched a Squirl out of a hole of a tree to high. The squirl jumped into the boosum of his shirt, stuck his claws in his flesh. Sidney fell the 50 ft. and was killed instantly. Mason F. Morgan and Andrew J. Morgan was standing under the tree and witnessed the tragedy. Sidney was killed instantly.
8.)Martha Ann Morgan Hauser Borned Aug 11th, 1853. Died June 10th, 1935, Gowrie, Iowa.
9.)Andrew Jackson Morgan Borned Dec. 7th, 1855. Still going strong nearly 87 Aug. 5th.
10.)Sarah Louisa Morgan Rogers, Borned Aug 23rd, 1858. Died July 2nd, 1923
11.)Emma Lodusky Morgan Humphrey-Ralls Borned Aug. 14th, 1861. Lives at Union, Iowa.
12.)James Hamilton Morgan Borned March 31st, 1864. Well and active in business. Lives at 431 16th Ave. N. Seattle, Wash.
13.)Ellin Annetta Morgan Borned Oct. 29th, 1868, Died Aug 5th 1870. Buried New Providence, Iowa.
Andrew Jackson Morgan
Morgan History
Taken from Bible records, family records, letters, county records and files in Washington., D.C.
Name – Hardinson Morgan usually called Hardin.
Raised tobacco, cotton on a 240 A. plantation he owned 1 mile east, ½ mile north of Boonville, Yadkin Co. North Carolina. In Iowa was a carpenter, Mason and shoe cobbler.
Last address: Liscomb, Iowa
Birthplace: -----Virginia
Birth was Sept. 1st, 1816
Father’s name: Perry Morgan
Mother’s name: Dicca -----from Ireland
Had better education than many of his day. On the trek to Iowa of 4 families from near Boonville, N. C. in 1869 Hardin was asked to take charge because he was better educated and he had more business experience. In his family record book many of his expressions used seem odd to us of today. All births are recorded as “borned”.
Married Oct. 7th, 1841 in Stokes Co. N.C.
Wife: Elizabeth White
Wife’s Father: Burgess White
Wife’s Mother’s maiden name: Elizabeth Knight
Wife born in ---- Virginia
Born March 25, 1823
Hardin and his wife played the violin. She was well educated in the Bible. Had a remarkabel memory.
They were parents of 11 children, 4 sons were Mason F., Andrew Jackson, Wm. S. and James H.: daughters were Nancy A., Mary J., Millissa F., Martha A., Sarah Louisa, Emma L. and Ellen A. All children will be marked with Roman numerals in fol’g histories.
Political Affiliation – Democrat.
Religious affiliation – Christian Church.
Hardin was secretary and Treasurer of the Christian Church at Boonville, N.C. for many years.
The first known ancester of Hardin Morgan was John Morgan who came from Wales and fought in the American Revolution. Next known ancester was Perry Morgan of Amherst, (Henry or Henrice County) Virginia. Noah, Soloman, “Polly” and Hardinson are known Children of Perry and Dicca Morgan. Neighbors of the Morgans in Virginia were the Burgess White family of eight. The Morgans left Va. first for Stokes County North Carolina. The Whites followed later. Elizabeth White married Hardin Morgan the year 1841, her parents and 4 of their children moved to Jackson County, Ohio. In 1845 the Whites moved to Bluffton, Indiana where they are all buried but one son, Andrew who died in Mo. From family records we learned that the Whites and Knights were English. Their parents came across the Atlantic ocean in a sail boat which was shipwrecked in a storm. It took them 6 months to reach the colonies, nearly died of thirst and starvation on the trip. Many years later a cousin of Elizabeth White-Morgan named John Tumblin went from Va. to England and collected $92,000. as his share of a $16,000,000 estate in England. He wrote his cousin in Liscomb, Iowa that she also was heir to same am’t. It was not until 1882 that any of her family could be made to realize that the story was true. Her son A.J. Morgan paid for lawyers in N.Y. to investigate. By the time her claim was proved the money had reverted to the Crown on account of the statue of limitations in Eng. Lands that Elizabeth could have claimed in Northeastern parts of N.C. had been taken over by squatters who had improved the land by fences and buildings. The Gov. of N.C. had declared the land state land so the squatters had bo’t the property and were given a clear title.
Four generations back a White had married a Scot. Other Whites were all English.
Hardin as a young married man was employed on Tyra Glen plantation near Winston-Salem, N. C. This plantation owner was supposed to be the richest man in Yadkin Co. N.C. He owned a large track of land and over 700 negro slaves. Hardin was overseer of 50 negroes, a gang who worked entirely in the tobacco fields. Mr Glen was the largest mule raiser in the country. The negroes would not work without “hog meat” so Mr. Glen raised several hundred head of hogs each year.
Hardin and his wife Elizabeth lived after their marriage in Rockingham Co., Stokes Co. and Yadkin Co. N.C. They owned a trio of slaves, father, mother and a son. They did not believe in slavery so not only fed, housed and clothed “Ran, Fan and Snip” but paid them wages. Hardin did not favor the Southern rebellion and did not enlist until he was forced to do so when he was 47 yrs. old. In Washington, D.C. records state that he was, “a private and corporal, Company N, 5th Regiment N.C. Senior Reserves, Confederate States Army, enlisted 30 June 1864 (also shown as 7 July) at Madkinville, N.C. The last company muster roll for Jan. and Feb. 1865 shows his presence. His name last appears on a Register of Confederate States Military Prison, Hospital, formerly General Hospital No. ?. Salisbury, North Carolina dated March 14, 1865.”
This prison hospital at Salisbury in Rowan Co. N.C. was a terrible place. Northern prisoners died from neglect and starvation.
In Iowa Hardin was recognized by the G.A.R as a Union Veteran. On Hardin’s return to his plantation he found all his former friends, even his slaves despised and hated this family who sympathized with the north. Hardin decided to sell his plantation and follow two older daughters to Marshall Co. Iowa. He sold the 240 acre plantation with a new frame house built by himself and his sons, a tobacco factory, drying house and all their belongings for $500.00 cash to three “free negroes.” Free negroes were slaves who were allowed by their masters to make ax-handles, ploy beans, etc., after their work for their master was done, for other slave owners. When they had accumulated $400. their master’s accepted that sum and gave them their legal freedom under state law. It was impossible for Hardin to sell to any white families. Few had any money after the war ended.
The following is copied from Hardin Morgan’s records found in his diary after his death.
“The Great Trek of Four Families”
The Morgan family comprising 10, including Father and Mother: next comes Mose Cordle’s family comprising 8, the next was Isham Copeland , wife and son John, next comes Ike and Susie Gibbs, then comes a new married couple Lewis Hall and Manda Cordle one of Mose’ daughters.
These families started from Boonville, Yadkin Co. N.C. on Oct. 17 , 1869 (?) in covered wagons. They were 2 nights and three days traveling to Greensborough, N.C. Nights were spent on pallets on the floor in school houses at Brookstown, Forsythe Co. and Wicker, N.C. They elected Hardin Morgan Capt. and Head spokesman of the company. He bought the train tickets for all costing $79.00 for adults and $40.00 for half-fare. Small children traveled for free. Hardin was the only one who had ever seen a train before and none had ever been in as large a place as Greensborough but Hardin. The party took the train from Greensborough at 10:00 at night, arriving at Richmond, Va. At 11 A.M. next day. Left at 1 P.M. for West Point, Va. 35 miles away. Took 2 hrs. At 3:30 that evening the party took passage on the Boat Kennebec under Captain Fremont sailed 215 miles on Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore, Maryland. The children were fascinated by the boat and ran from cabin to cabin shouting “this is my room, this is mine,” until a big black mammy appeared and said, “Heah, you chilluns skeedadle out of heah!”
The four families were conducted to the hold of the ship. Andrew Jackson Morgan and John Copeland clambered up to the bunks on the walls like monkeys. All the others slept on pallets on the floor. These plallets with other articles were carried in napsacks, hung across their shoulders. Many were seasick. The Morgan family was invited to a dinner on the boat but Mother Morgan would not allow her shabbily dressed family to accept. Father Morgan, Nancy, Lou and James looked into the dining room and were completely dazzled by the sight. After 8 hrs. at Baltimore the party took a train for Chicago. At Belair their train ran onto a Ferry Boat and they crossed the Ohio river. After leaving Chicago the train crossed the Mississippi river on a wire bridge reaching from bank to bank composed of 6 heavy wire cables. The first and only railroad bridge crossing the river at that time. The trian crawled across slowly, one could hardly feel it move. The bridge sagged down almost touching the water. Train from Chicago had long wooden benches for seats in the cars. The party reached State Center, Iowa at 11 P.M. Hardin found three teams and lumber wagons to haul the party to New Providence on Nov. 20, 1869 where they stayed for 1 yr.
Hardin’s wife, daughter Ellen and son James rode in one wagon. Hardin, Nancy, Mason, “Mattie,” A.J., Emma & Louisa walked the entire distance of 18 miles to New Providence.
Liscomb was a 2 yr. Old town and seemed a good place to locate. Hardin Morgan and Isham Copeland bought 2 lots “side by each” and built homes for their families. A vacant place was left between the two homes. The two men intended to start a grocery store on the vacant space. Building their homes took their last cent. Hardin brought his family to Liscomb Nov. 7, 1870 then went to Marshalltown, Iowa where he helped build the brick round house for the Iowa Central railroad.
The family existed on very low rations that winter. Clad only in their own homespun clothes they no doubt suffered from the cold. Mason, Melissa, Nancy, “Mattie” and A.J. worked out as hired hands and hired girls. Males were pd. $15 to $20 per mo. Girls were pd. from $2.00 to $2.50 per week. The family followed the southern rule of turning all their earnings over to their parents until they reached their majority. A.J. often came home after working for 9 months, turning every penney over to his father.
Music is a main feature in all southern homes. Hardin’s family were all excellent singers. In the evenings at Liscomb they always sang while Hardin played the violin, then read from the Bible. In the summer the family gathered under a willow tree in their yard where they sang many old songs. The mother sang soprano and father bass. Hardin made a bench underneath the tree and chairs were always bro’t out for the neighbors who gathered to hear the singing. The songs were all learned by rote, the harmony being fitted to them by the various parts. Some of their songs were: “Camptown Races,” “Kitty Wells,” “Fol Lol Lol De Lite O,” “Shool, Shool, Sholi Rule,” “Kitty May,” “Beautiful Stars In Heaven So Bright,” as well as all the old southern songs everyone knows. Other old songs are: “Far Away, Silver Threads Among the Gold, Old Kentucky Home, Old Black Joe, Bring the Harp to Me Again, One of the Sweet Old Chapters, Listen to the Mocking Bird, Evaline, Annie Laurie, Nellie Gray, Onward Christian Soldiers and Kemo, Kimo.”
The Morgan family reunions started as far back as 1885 and continue to date. Officers elected in 1954 at Lions Club House Johnson, Iowa were: