William Stephen Morgan (1801 - 1878)

Born 7 Sep 1801 in Monongalia County, Virginia, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth Bartholomew (Jones) Morgan — married 8 Nov 1827 in Ohio County, Virginia, United States

Died 3 Sep 1878 at age 76 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Biography

William Morgan was born on 7 September 1801 in Monongalia County, Virginia, the third of nine known children the the third of four sons of Stephen and Sarah Sommerville Morgan..^[1]

He married Elizabeth Jones.^[2]

On 3 September 1878, four days before his seventy-seventh birthday, William died in Washington, District of Columbia, of unknown causes.^[3]

From Dunnngton

History and Progress of the County of Marion, West Virginia, by George A. Dunnington,

Pen Sketches of Prominent Citizens: HON. WILLIAM S. MORGAN

The subject of this sketch was born near the present site of Rivesville, this county, (then Monongalia) September 7, 1801. He was a son of Stephen Morgan, whose father, David Morgan, figured prominently in the early history of the county. He passed most of his life upon his father's estate, until he arrived at the age of twenty-one, when he entered the ministry of the Methodist Church, and was a circuit rider from 1822 to 1827. Mr. Morgan was a self-made man in the strict sense of the term, being self-educated, with the exception of the little learning he received at the old time country schools.

In 1835, he was chosen to represent his district in Congress and was re-elected in 1837. While a Representative, he was chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions. He did not seek for office and declined the nomination for a third term, after which he was appointed a clerk in the House of Representatives. In 1841, he was sent to the Virginia Legislature, and secured the passage of the bill forming Marion county in 1842, and was elected a member of the Legislature from the new county, the same year.

In 1844, Mr. Morgan was Presidential Elector for this district upon the Democratic ticket, and in the year following received an appointment to a clerkship in the United States Treasury Department, which position he held until 1861. During the two years following (1861-3) he was engaged in painting in water colors for the Smithsonian Institute, at Washington, and produced numerous illustrations for the works on Oology, by Prof. S. F. Baird and Mr. Elliott. These illustrations were pronounced by critics to be the most accurate that could be procured. He invented and presented to the Institute a machine used in drawing the outlines of eggs, which is still in use there.

He was a man of extraordinary endowments, and his knowledge of the sciences was very accurate. American natural history and botany were his favorite studies, and he was one of the best botanists in the country. Mr. Morgan numbered among his personal friends some of the most distinguished of American scientists.

After leaving Washington, he lived with his brother-in-law, Colonel Austin Merrill, at Rivesville, until his death. While on a visit to his son, in ashington, on the 3d of September, 1878, he died of malarial fever, and was buried in the Congressional Cemetery, of that city.

Marion county has produced few such men as William S. Morgan, for he was, indeed, an extraordinary character, as his career shows. Possessed of noble, impulses, a great intellect, and many Christian virtues, he was universally beloved, and died mourned by all who knew him.^[4]

Gravestone for William Stephen Morgan

From Findagrave.com

William Stephen Morgan

Birth: 7 Sep 1801 Monongalia County, Virginia, USA; Death: 3 Sep 1878 (aged 76) Washington, District of Columbia, District Of Columbia, USA; Burial: Congressional Cemetery, Washington, District of Columbia, District Of Columbia, USA. Plot: Range 43, Site 164. Memorial #: 7374210.

Bio: US Congressman. He represented Virginia's 21st District (now defunct) in the Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Congresses, serving from 1835 to 1839. Morgan was born in Monongalia County in what is now West Virginia, and started out as a farmer. He lost his first bid for Congress in 1832 but won election as a Jacksonian two years later, and reelection as a Democrat for his second term. In 1838 he declined renomination, and apart from a stint in the Virgina House of Delegates (1841 to 1844) he withdrew from politics for an anonymous career as a clerk. He worked in that capacity in the US House of Representatives (1840), the Virginia Legislature (1841), and in the US Treasury Department (1845 to 1861). Following employment at the Smithsonian Institution (1861 to 1863) Morgan retired to Rivesville, West Virginia. He died during a visit to Washington DC and was buried at Congressional Cemetery.

Family Members: Parents: Stephen Morgan (1761-1850); Spouse: Elizabeth Bartholomew Jones Morgan (1801-1860); Siblings: Henry Sommerville Morgan (1799-1873), Elizabeth S. Morgan Willey (1803-1875), Ann Morgan McClean (1806-1866), Albert G. Morgan (1814-1870), Sarah Jane Morgan Merrill (1818-1897), George Pinkney Morgan (1823-1861); Children: Elizabeth Willey Morgan (1829-1849), Mary Jane Morgan (1833-1858), George Hopkins Morgan (1838-1894).^[5]

Citations

1. ↑ irish19665, comp., “William Stephen Morgan, b1801,” Carey Family Tree, Ancestry.com. URL:https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/6504383/person/24043281933/facts Accessed 20 July 2019.
2. ↑ irish19665, comp., “William Stephen Morgan, b1801,” Carey Family Tree, Ancestry.com. URL: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/6504383/person/25791796053/facts Accessed 20 July 2019.
3. ↑ irish19665, comp., “William Stephen Morgan, b1801,” Carey Family Tree, Ancestry.com. URL:https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/6504383/person/24043281933/facts Accessed 20 July 2019.
4. ↑ http://www.us-data.org/wv/marion/history/dunnington/morgan--william-s.tx URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/marion/history/dunnington/chapter-vii.txt.
5. ↑ Garver Graver (46521264), maintained by: Find A Grave, “William Stephen Morgan,” Findagrave.com. Record added 22 Apr 2003. URL: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7374210/william-stephen-morgan. Accessed 21 July 2019.

Acknowledgments

• Patricia Prickett Hickin created William Stephen Morgan (abt.1801-1878). (Imported data from GEDCOM upload #143456, Person I2988) on 20 July 2019.

Sources

• Dunnington, George A., History and Progress of the County of Marion, West Virginia (Fairmont, W. VA. George A. Dunnington, Publisher 1880). URL: http://www.us-data.org http://www.us-data.org/wv/marion/history/dunnington.htm 20060606 Accessed 20 July 2019.

• Garver Graver (46521264), maintained by: Find A Grave, “William Stephen Morgan,” Findagrave.com. Record added 22 Apr 2003. URL: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7374210/william-stephen-morgan. Accessed 21 July 2019.

• irish19665, comp., “William Stephen Morgan, b1801,” Carey Family Tree, Ancestry.com. URL:https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/6504383/person/24043281933/facts Accessed 20 July 2019.