^ A^ ♦rd ^^0^ "v-^^ .^^. ^^'-^^ 0^ ^*° '^^^'\ °»%^*' /^\. ^^K*° ^^ 0^ :<«-• -^Z -*'^^-- Vo^' :^--. %/ - Cf. A^ » A^f ^ ,c,^ » Sl^ *■ ^ A^ * (Am A"" '^ .<=r * aii^ " .^ r. "-^^0^ ■■^*' •' * rO .^^ ,*^\. " 1 ^^%^^\^ • IL^ ^rv 9 * ^dHWISfit^ «■ .W N O ^ ^^0 • ^ A^ "^^-^ ' - * V ^ - • V t> ' • "' <^ ^ A' , <- ' • ,^'\ .0 .^^ U ml - ^v-^^ "^^r T- CI C5 li / To ^ GENEALOGY OF THE MORGAN FAMILY- DESCENDANTS OF DAVID MORGAN About the year 1720, the parents of David, Sarah and Daniel Morgan, with about twenty other Quaker families from Wales, emi- grated to America and first settled in Buclis county, Pennsylvania. About 1725, they moved across the Delaware river a few miles above Trenton and settled near its banks and opened up a farm in what is now Hunterdon county, New Jersey. David was born in 1709 and Sarah in 1711, while Daniel, the youngest child, was not born until 1736, a difference of twenty-five years. David and Sarah evidently were born in Wales. Squire Boone, wlio married Sarah Morgan in 1727, accounts for this difference (see annals of North Carolina by Petree) that three of their children died of scarlet fever, and a baby on ship board on voyage to America. Squire Boone, by his wife Sarah, had a large family, among whom was Daniel Boone, the father of Kentucky. David Morgan married in the year 1735 and had two sons by his first wife; Charles Rolla, born in 1786 and Ralph in 1738. Their mother died in the year 1743. After the death of his wife, David with his two sons, returned to his mother's house, his father having died in the year 1741. The two sons of David obtained a fair educa- tion; the youngest, Ralph, fitting himself for the vocation of a sur- veyor. In the year 1753, David Morgan and his brother, Daniel, had serious differences. The younger brother, Daniel, had grown up without a father's care, his father having died when he was but five years old and the boy had become incorrigible and became so in- censed at his brother and mother that he left home and went to Vir- ginia and hired out as a day laborer. By his industry and frugality, he soon became the owner of a wagon and team. His record from this time on can be found in all biographies and cyclopedias, the best being by James Graham, 1856, written from information obtain- ed from Morgan's private papers, etc., furnished by his grand- children. The Boones had, some years before this, all moved to North Carolina on the Yadkin river, near Holman's Ford. In 1754, the mother of David and Daniel Morgan, died and the same year David ^> — Morgan married again— this time to a Mrs. Peporill, whose maiden name was Menafee, her husband having been killed by the Indians four months after her first marriage. The Morgans were at this time living at Will's Creek Settlement, a few miles from Fort Cumber- land. The next year we find the two brothers, Charles Rolla and lialph Morgan, joining Braddock's Expedition at Will's Creek as scouts. Daniel Morgan as a teamster, also accompanied this expe- dition. On the 28th day of June, 1755, the two Morgan brothers and a companion named Hicks, were captured by the French and In- dians in front of the advancing British army and taken to Fort D\\- quense. On the 9th of July, 1755, the three prisoners saw the French and Indians muster their forces and march out to meet the British Army, which they ambuscaded and defeated the same evening with terrible slaughter. The next morning they saw from their prison the Indians on the common, bedecked in British Officers' clothing, nearly every Indian with a red coat on, and to their horror, saw five prisoners run the gauntlet and afterwards burned at the stake with all the attendant tortures. In Feb. 1756, the two Morgans with their companion Hicks made their escape, securing but one rifle, and in at- tempting to cross the Monongahela river on a raft in the floating ice. Hicks was thrown from the raft and drowned. The two brothers ar- rived at Fort Cumberland in March after dreadful exposure, with frozen hands and feet, having to avoid the direct road and to use all their skill in woodcraft to evade pursuit. Their father, David Mor- gan, at this time, had taken refuge in the Fort. We can find no ev- idence that there was at this time any communication between Da- vid Morgan or his two sons and their Uncle Daniel. Daniel Morgan to the day of his death, refused to even admit that he had any sis- ters or brothers." The most he ever said of his ancestry was to the Reverend Hill, who nursed him in his last sickness, and that was that his parents were Welch and had emigrated, as stated, te Penn- sylvania and to New Jersey, where he was born. But there can be no question as to his relationship. The biographical sketch of Daniel Morgan by Dixon, in his "(Jlory of America", i^ublished in 1838, mentions relationship as giv- en in tliis article. He also relates that Daniel, on his return from the Saratoga campaign early in 1778, visited his brother David near their old home in New Jersey ; David having been compelled to flee from his home near Red Stone Fort owing to Indian depredations, where the year before he had engaged in a deadly combat with three Indians, and at that time was living in very straitened circumstan- ces. He further relates that Daniel offered him a farm if he would remove to his Virginia home. David, though old and poor, had his — 3 — priile and declined the offer. This, so far as can be learned, was the last intercourse between Daniel Morgan and his relatives. No in- ducement or questioning was ever able to elicit from him anything relative to his ancestry other than above stated. However, Squire Boone's statement in "North Carolina Annals" puts the matter be- yond dispute, and as Boone was the husband of Morgan's sister Sa- rah, he evidently knew what he related. Col. Frank Triplett who descended from the Pioneer Triplett that went to Kentucky in 1775, was intimate with the Boones and doubtless had correct data concerning them. He relates David Morgan's encounter with the Indians in his "Conquering the Wil- derness" published in 1883 and speaks of him as the brother of Gen- eral Daniel Morgan. General Daniel Morgan's biographer (Graham) states that the General intimated that his difference was with his father, but this is not possible, as his father had been dead twelve years w4ien he left his mother and home. The Morgans and Boones never at any time stated any other relationship than here given, but never, so far as can be learned, sought any reconciliation with the General after he became rich and distinguished as a military lead- er. With ttie exception of the General's visit to his brother David in 1778, we have no evidence of any further intercourse of David Morgan or his sons and the General. The following is a full account of David Morgan's combat with three Indians found in Col. Frank Triplett's "Conquering the Wilderness" published in 1888, Page 214: "The hero of our sketch was the brother of General Dan- iel Morgan, and settled upon tlie Monongahela about the be- ginning of the war of the lievolution. Being fully as venture- some as his more noted brother, he disdained the protection of a frontier post, and built his cabin at some distance from any other, to have, as he expressed it, 'plenty of elbow room.' The Indians were continually prowling about these exposed settle- ments, and one morning, after sending the younger children out to a field at some distance from the house, he became un- easy, and taking his rifle, hastened to the spot. Here he found nothing unusual, and giving them directions as to the method of conducting their work, he mounted the fence surrounding the field, and began a searching survey of the neighboring woods. While thus engaged he saw three In- dians gazing at them from the opposite side of the field, and bidding the children to fly to the house and have their mother bar the door, he took a hasty aim at one of the Indians and fired. The savage fell dead, although the shot was a long one, and Morgan immediately reloaded his rifle, and getting down from the fence, proceeded to cover the retreat of the children. The Indians, on the fall of their comrade, had started toward Mor- gan, but when his gun was loaded, became more circunaspect, and took to the trees, advancing from one to another, and thus — 4 — fMuloavorin<>- to cut Morjifan off from his liousp. Seeinp: that liis children could now make p,ood their escape, Morgan, a, man of some seventy years, l)e. C. nor the records in Virginia Libra- ry at Richmond can identify this person other than just "CAPTAIN MORGAN OF VIRGINIA." The writer remembers having seen in the possession of his grandfather, Abel Morgan, a land warrant for 1440 acres of land, which contained a recital thatsaid land was grant- ed to Ralph Morgan, of Virginia, by that State, in consideration for military services. This warrant was given by Abel Morgan to Jas. H. Lane, M. C. at that time, from the Fourth Congressional District of Indiana. Said warrant was never returned. Congressman Lane was to endeavor to obtain some congressional action on it, but on re- peated inquiries from the writer's father to him, after he had remov- ed to Kansas, claimed that it had been lost. There are quite a num- ber of descendants of Abel Morgan, who remember having seen this warrant, now living, this April, 1909. We next find Ralph Morgan in Kentucky in July, 1782. His name appears as serving under Colonel Logan, who was with this command, as visiting the Battle Ground of Blue Licks, August23rd, 1782, and assisting in burying the dead. This battle was fought August 19th, 1782. Sometime in 1884, he was married to Mrs. Pris- cilla Douglas, whose maiden name was Bryan. She is said to be a niece of Mrs. Daniel Boone. Her husband, William Douglas, was killed by the Indians. August 15th, 1782, in a cornfield adjoining Bryan's Station, in attempting to enter the Fort with the reinforce- ments from Boone's Station. The newly married couple made their home for the next seven or eight years at Boone's and Holder's Sta- tions, he following his vocation of surveying, locating large tracts of land on the percentage or contract basis, usually getting one-half. In this way, he acquired large tracts of land in Montgomery, Bath and adjoining counties. Six or seven Kentucky histories contain accounts of Surveyor Morgan, of Boonesborough, while Collins re- fers to S. Morgan as being employed by Simon Kenton to locate some large warrants for him in March, 1786, and of his applying to Kenton for supplies for his crew and receiving the laconic reply, that he had no supplies for him, and that he would give him a sound flogging the first time he saw him. We have no data as to whether he kept his promise or not. The last mention of Ralph Morgan in history is an account of his appearance as a witness in a land contest in 1804, in- volving the title to the land on the present site of the city of Lex- ington, Kentucky. Ralph Morgan had four children as far as the writer can ascer- tain : Abel, RoUa, Sarah and Priscilla. Priscilla and Sarah mar- — 8 — riod brothers— John and William McCullouoh, and from tiieso have sprung large numbers of descendants of this name, a number of whom reside in the vicinity of West Port, Indiana. In the summer of 1792, two forts or stockades were built on Slate Creek, named Morgan's and Gilmore's Stations respectively, and were occupied and corn raised in what is now Montgomery county, Kentucky, but owing to prowling bands of Indians and the remote- ness to other forts, three men being killed, they were abandoned in September of the same year, the settlers returning to Boone's and Bryan's Stations. In February, 1793, six families, in all twenty-sev- en persons, again occupied Morgan's Station ; Ralph Morgan's fam- ily being one. During the last days of March, Ralph Morgan and wife took four pack-horses and went to Boonesborough to get their household goods, leaving their two oldest children, David Douglas and Abel Morgan, at the fort. On April 1st, Easter Monday, say the Historians, at 10 a. m., 1793, the men all being out looking after the planting of their crops, no man about the fort except one, and he old and infirm, the gates wide open, thirty-five Indians rushed in and captured the fort, killing the old man above named, and one woman who was unable to travel, and carried off the remainder, nineteen persons, as prisoners, after setting fire to the fort. David Douglas and his half-brother, Abel Morgan, the former twelve years of age and the latter less than eight, at the time the rush was made on the fort, were playing in Slate Creek, and on hearing the yells of the In- dians and the screams of women and children, at once fled for their lives pursued by four Indians. The boys knew of a large standing sycamore tree, hollow at the bottom, which they ran to and quickly entered, and there hid, standing on rotten portions of the tree until their pursuers had passed and repassed to their party, when they came out and made their way to Boonesborough and rejoined their parents. On the alarm being given, pursuit was made, which the Indians discovered, and massacred such of their prisoners as Avere unable to keep up in their rapid retreat. The pursuit was abandon- ed, but the captives were restored after Wayne's Treaty two years later. The two brothers lie buried side by side in a country graveyard, not more than eight feet apart, about five miles west of Greensburg, Decatur county, Indiana. The writer visited their graves in Febru- ary, 1909, and copied the following inscriptions from their head- stones: "David Douglas, Born Nov. 9, 1781. Died Jan. 23, 1861." "Abel Morgan, Born March 14, 1786. Died July 16, 1863." In 1796, at the close of Indian hostilities, Ralph Morgan rebuilt — 9 — (ho block house and stocka,d<>, and in addition, a. larj^o stone iiouso inside the stockade, in which he lived until the time of his death. The exact time of his death is not known, but was about 1809. He and his wife are buried in a graveyard near his old fort. I am in- formed by George M. Ewing, of Greensburg, Indiana, one of his de- scendants, that the old stone house is occupied and still standing where it was built by Ralph Morgan in 1796. About the year 1807, Abel Morgan, the writer's grandfather, was married to Sarah Howard, daughter of James Howard. Said James Howard was a soldier of the Revolution, as the following will show : "War Department, Adjutant General's Office, Washington, D. C, Feb. 11, 1909. The records show tliat one James Howard, of Mary- land, served as a private in Capt. William Henderson's Company, Col. Daniel Morgan's Rifle Regiment, Conti- nental Troops, Revolutionary War. His name first ap- pears without remark on the Company Pay Roll for July 1777, and is last borne on an undated Pay Roll of a part of the Company for the period from December I, 1777, to expiration of service, fifteen days being allowed for going home, the Roll showing he served six months. This Reg- iment was organized about June, 1777, and was composed of men selected from the army at large. The records of this office also show that one James Howard served in Captain Archibald Anderson's Company, 2nd Maryland Regiment Continental Troops commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Woolford, Revolutionary War ; his name first appears on a Company Muster Roll for December, 1777. Dated Jan. 6, 1778, which shows him sick in hospi- tal. And it appears on the Company Muster Roll for Feb 1778, with remark, 'Sick in Maryland.' He is shown to have enlisted for three years, or during the war. but neither the date of his enlistment, nor the termination of liis service, has been found of record, but he evidently served until the close of the war. (Signed) A. Ainsworth, The Adjutant General." The official statement that these men were selected to serve in Colonel Daniel Morgan's Rifle Regiment from the army at large led the writer to think he was in the army at tiie time the Regiment was raised. On applying to the Honorable Commissioner of Pensions at Washington, D. C, his conjecture proved correct. Beside his con- tinental service as above stated, he served six months in 1775, in James Clinton's New York Regiment; in 1776, he served five months in Captain Jackson's Company, James Clinton's New York Regi- ment, and in 1777, he served six months in Captain Potter's Com- pany, Colonel Smith's Virginia Regiment, which brought him up to June 1777, when he went into the Continental service, first in Mor- — 10 — p:ans Riflo Corps and then in 2nd Maryland nntil the close of the war. This Regiment wiien discharged, was naked, penniless, and without food, and the men were only enabled to reach their homes in Maryland by keeping together and impressing or rather seizing subsistence to keep from starvation. James Howard was in the fol- lowing battles: Long Island, Trenton, Princeton, Bemis Heights, Stillwater, Stony Point, Monmouth, Camden, Cowpens, Guilford, Hobkirk's Hill, Ninety-six and Utaw Springs. He applied for pen- sion December 3rd, 1818 and his claim was allowed. Residence, Montgomery county, Kentucky. He died October 4th, 1835, aged eighty years. He married a second wife in Montgomery county, Kentucky, Mrs. Rhoda Deboard. She was allowed a pension on an application executed December 24th, 1858. While aresident of Bath county, Kentucky, she died in 1891, aged 104 years. (James How- ard, c t f. Number 6953— issued February 10th, 1819, under Act Mar. 18th, 1818. Kentucky Agency.) In 1787, James Howard came to Kentucky and made his home at Estill Station until March 17, 1796, and located his military land warrants on Slate Creek, where he af- terwards built Howard's Mill. He was a weaver by profession. Here he lived until his death. Abel Morgan, by his wife, Sarah Howard Morgan, had five chil- dren, to-wit: Lydia Morgan, Ralph Morgan, Julian Morgan, Olevia Morgan and Martha Morgan. Lydia married Patrick Ewing; Ralph never married; Julian, born April 18th, 1815, married Samuel Gates Daily; Olevia married, first Killis McGinnis, second, Jesse Green, and third, Abel Anderson; and Martha married James King. Abel Morgan's wife, Sarah Howard, died about the year 1821. Later he married a second wife, but they disagreed and he became dissipated and squandered his entire means left him by his father, Ralph Morgan. He hadn't the slightest idea of values, but bartered his lands for mere trifles. He came home late at night after one of his foolish land sales, and the next morning, his wife arising to get breakfast, discovered cats on the gate-posts, smoke-house and on the eaves of the house— in fact, cats everywhere. Becoming alarmed, she aroused him and told him the whole place was covered with cats where dogs had treed them. He calmly explained to her that he had sold a piece of land the previous evening and had taken the first payment in cats. The writer has listened to him by the hour nar- rating his early life and that of his father. His hatred of the Indian race was intense. He invariably called them savages and many times he eiiipluisized the statement that "the only good savages were the dead ones." No wonder, for anyone who searches the early an- nals of Kentucky, as th.- writer has for the past eight months, must — 11 — be fully eonvin(!0(l that it was rip^htly named tlie "dark and bloody ground." This completes the article undertaken by the writer. The con- tinuation of the Daily Genealogy will be found in the (Jates History. The following- volumes were examined and data taken therefrom in the preparation of this article: "Daniel Morgan" by Graham, 1856. Marshall's "Kentucky" 1822. Collins' "Kentucky" 1874. "Glory of America" Dixon, 1838. "Annals of North Carolina" Petree, 1804. "Sketches of Western Adventures" McClung, 1832. ''Ye Olden Time" Neville, 1846. "Sketches of History in the West" Hall, 1835. "Events in Indian History" 1842. "Boone and the Hunters of Ken- tucky" Bogart. 1854. "Pioneer Biography" McBride, 1869 "Lee's Memoirs" R. E. Lee, 1851. "History of Valley of Ohio" Butler, 1806. "History of Indiana and Northwest Ter." English, 1897. "Conquer- ing the Wilderness" Triplett, 1883. "Battles of the American Rev- olution" Carrington, 1876. Bancroft's "History of the United States" 1870. "Western Annals" Perkins, 1847. Records in the Adjutant General's Office of the War Department, Washington, D. C. and the Records of the Commissioner of Pension's Office, Washington, D. C. The writer has also incorporated herein incidents and facts narrated to him by his grandfather, Abel Morgan, and his descendants. ^^ A.I \ '^^ -^^ .^^ .0" ^^-^^^ V ■ o „ o , U ^ » / 1 %^ "" ^0 <* ^^^" A^ ^ '■'*'. ^_ A*^ c ° " ' » «5>- « I 1 "^ ./ oC'^^^ %.j ^*^^>. "^../ ^•'^^^' - ^oV ^^^ O M O .-^ DOBBS BROS. t» " •"* AV <^ IBRARY BINDING ^ <\> »**0^ ''^ ST. AUGUSTINE . 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