Elijah Morgan (abt. 1760 - abt. 1813)

Descendants

Died about Sep 1813 at about age 53 in Sussex, Delaware, United States

Template:1776

Biography

Private, Neal's 2nd Regiment, Delaware Militia, Revolutionary War

Elijah died sometime during Autumn 1813; his Last Will and Testament, dated September 22nd of that year, was received on December 3rd.

Revolutionary War soldier Elijah Morgan was most likely born sometime pre-1756, though it is popularly accepted that his birth year was 1760.

He was the husband of Hester, born sometime during the 1755-1765 time frame, died 1825. The couple and their family lived just west of Concord, Sussex County, DE. It is known that Elijah was originally buried on his farm there.

The following text is from Biographical and Genealogical History of the State of Delaware, Vol. III, page 951, published in 1899 by J. M. Runk & Co., Chambersburg, PA.:

"....The Morgan family, of Welsh descent, settled early in Broad Creek hundred, where Elijah Morgan...was a farmer and an extensive land owner. He had been a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and was regarded with much respect both for his patriotic record and for his personal character. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Elijah Morgan was twice married; by his first marriage he had one son, William; the children of his second matrimonial union were: I. Wesley; II. Jacob; III. Asbury; IV. Lorenzo D.; V. Elijah; VI. Zipporah; VII. Elizabeth [should correctly be Margaret], who died young....Elijah Morgan, the father, was interred upon his farm...."

The following, from a 1933 Morgan Family history titled MORGAN FAMILY OF SUSSEX COUNTY, DELAWARE, by an (as far as can be determined) unspecified son of Elijah's grandson (via son Wesley) James Wesley Morgan (1824-1906), tells more of Elijah's story:

"[p. 6:]....Elijah...is said to have migrated from Accomac [VA] in 1777. The sole authority for this statement was Mr. Samuel Short of Sussex, local historian and genealogist, who in 1888, in a talk with the writer of these lines, said in substance that Elijah Morgan, though connected with the old Sussex Morgans, was living in Accomac in 1777, being then 17 years old, and that he came up from that Virginia county for a particular reason, sometime during the month of August. He partook of the prevailing excitement along the seashore and bayshore due to the entrance of Lord Howe's fleet of three hundred sail into the Chesapeake, transporting the whole British Army, with designs on Philadelphia, which place Lord Howe's brother, Sir William Howe, had failed to take from the northeast and was now trying to take from the southwest. Elijah joined a band of emergency men organized at Drummond town (now Accomac) and accompanied them to Wilmington [DE]. They were in time for service in the Brandywine campaign and suffered some losses in the battle. Elijah was wounded. [p. 7:] He was released from service and started back home---presumably for Accomac. But when he reached Sussex, with a hundred miles still to go, he was obliged to stop awhile on account of fever, just to the west of Concord, a little off the State Road, at what is still called Morgantown -- though most of the scattering and primitive farmhouses that once stood there have disappeared. He found good Samaritans, who looked after him so well that, marrying a daughter of his host, he tarried at that spot the rest of his days, except for a few months in 1780, when, at the age of 21, he joined the Second Delaware Regiment [under regimental commander Lt. Col. Henry Neal]...."

The same 1933 Morgan Family history further reveals, on page 22, that Elijah, and his family members who also were originally buried in the cedar grove on the old home farm in the environs of Concord, was exhumed and re-interred in Seaford's Odd Fellows Cemetery in 1930.

Sources

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14866406/elijah-morgan: accessed 3/11/2024), memorial page for Elijah Morgan Sr. (1760–1813), Find a Grave Memorial ID 14866406, citing Odd Fellows Cemetery, Seaford, Sussex County, Delaware, USA; Maintained by David P. Wilson (contributor 46887005)