Garrett Augustus Morgan Sr. (1877 - 1963)

Born 4 Mar 1877 in Paris, Bourbon, Kentucky, United States

Died 27 Aug 1963 at age 86 in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States

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Biography

Garrett Morgan Sr. is Notable.

Garrett Morgan was an African-American inventor and businessman. His most notable inventions were a three-position traffic signal and a smoke hood (a predecessor to the gas mask,) which was famously used in a 1916 tunnel construction disaster rescue. He also discovered and developed a chemical hair-processing and straightening solution.

Morgan's Signal

Garret Morgan, son of formerly enslaved Sidney Morgan and Eliza Reed, was born in Claysville, Kentucky in 1877.^[1][2] Claysville was an African-American community established after the Civil War on the outskirts of Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky.^[3]

He received little formal education as a child, but as a teenager the industrious youth hired a tutor to teach him while he worked in Cincinnati, Ohio as a handyman. In 1895 he moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he found work as a sewing machine repairman and spent his spare time pursuing his hobby of experimenting with gadgets and machines. He became a highly successful businessman operating his own sewing machine repair business, a tailoring business with over thirty employees and becoming a newspaper publisher.

Even with all his business success, his passion was still inventing. He invented and received a patent for several new creations, including the three-position traffic signal, which was the precursor to the red, yellow and green traffic lights used around the world today. He also invented a combination safety hood and smoke protector. In 1916 the inventor made national news when he used this breathing device to rescue several men trapped in a gas-filled tunnel underneath Lake Erie.

He also created hair care products and sewing machine accessories which are still popular today. His accomplishments are even more remarkable considering the racial prejudice he had to overcome as a black American living in the early 1900’s. He is a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. (bio by: Bigwoo)

His first wife was Madge Nelson, whom he married in Ohio in 1896.^[4] Garrett married his second wife, Mary Hasek, with whom he had three children, in 1908 in Ohio.^[5]

Garrett Morgan died in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1963^[6] and is buried in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.^[7]

Kentucky has honored Garret with a state historical marker, and his birth community of Claysville was officially renamed "Garret Morgan's Place" in the 1970's.^[3]

Grave Marker - Garrett Morgan

Sources

1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220511214545/http://ead.ohiolink.edu/xtf-ead/view?docId=ead%2FOCLWHi2129.xml%3Bchunk.id%3Dbioghist_1%3Bbrand%3Ddefault
2. ↑ "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCC9-Z18 : 19 February 2021), Garrett Morgan in household of Sidney Morgan, Paris, Bourbon, Kentucky, United States; citing enumeration district ED 16, sheet 11A, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,403.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} https://web.archive.org/web/20220511220057/https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/316#:~:text=Claysville%20was%20established%20by%20African,the%20area%20on%20one%20side.
4. ↑ Ancestry Record 1876 #1058937 Cuyahoga County Archive; Cleveland, Ohio; Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Marriage Records, 1810-1973; Volume: Vol 44-45; Page: 35; Year Range: 1896 Jul - 1897 Dec
5. ↑ Ancestry Record 1876 #979516 Cuyahoga County Archive; Cleveland, Ohio; Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Marriage Records, 1810-1973; Volume: Vol 70-71; Page: 34; Year Range: 1908 Apr - 1909 Feb
6. ↑ "Ohio Death Index, 1908-1932, 1938-1944, and 1958-2007", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VKTB-D52 : 30 June 2021), Garrett Morgan, 1963.
7. ↑ "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVJ1-1JTD : 9 June 2021), Garrett A. Morgan, ; Burial, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, United States of America, Lake View Cemetery; citing record ID 1311, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.

• "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMC1-9ZX : accessed 13 July 2021), Garrett Morgan, Precinct C Cleveland City Ward 12, Cuyahoga, Ohio, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 48, sheet 7B, family 175, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,253.
• "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDT9-47Q : 3 February 2021), Garrett Morgan, 1920.
• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KW54-RG8 : 10 January 2021), Garrett Morgan, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 92-267, sheet 6B, line 64, family 189, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 3213.

See also:

• Wikipedia: Garrett Morgan
• Wikidata: Item Q1316686, en:Wikipedia