Lewis Morgan was born March 8, 1797, in Fayette, Pennsylvania, the son of Quakers and farmers William and Elizabeth Morgan. In 1820, he married Elizabeth Crozier (1800-1876), and they moved to Stark, Ohio, where they settled on a farm. Lewis Morgan was a staunch abolitionist and served on the Executive Committee of the Western Anti-Slavery Society in the 1840s and 1850s. The couple had six children: Thomas (b. 1823), John (b. 1824), Joshua (b. 1826), Eliza (b. 1828), James (b. 1832), and Susanna (b. 1834).
Four of the six Morgan children became teachers. Joshua migrated to Richland, Iowa, where he taught school, and then later moved to Denver, Colorado. He married Susan Spiker in 1856, and they had three sons. Eliza taught in Marlboro, Ohio, until her marriage to teacher Andrew McGowan and their removal to Orland, Indiana, around 1855. Susan Morgan gave lessons at a women's school in Canton, Ohio, until she married Henry Brooke in 1867. James Morgan also taught briefly, before marrying Mary "Mollie" Belding in 1854, and taking up farming. Thomas Morgan became a carpenter and married Elizabeth Wolf in 1850. They relocated to Union Township, Iowa, several years later. John remained in Stark, Ohio, where he married Elizabeth Pennock in 1848. He worked as a machinist for many years.
The children of Joshua Morgan and Susan Spiker were Charles, Wendell, and Walter Morgan. Charles was born around 1861, and worked as a farmer in Holyoke, Colorado, with his wife, Addie, and daughter, Margaret. Wendell Morgan was born around 1863 and worked as a farmer and in the railroad industry in Nebraska and Colorado. The Morgans' third son, Walter, was born around 1866, but does not appear in the collection.
From the guide to the Morgan family papers, 1834-1913, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
