Etowah County AlArchives Biographies.....Moragne, James M. October 18 1843 - living in 1893
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Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    JAMES M. MORAGNE, the present able probate judge of Etowah county, was born
in Gadsden, Ala., October 18, 1843, the son of John S. and Mary E. (Whorton)
Moragne. As the name implies the family is of French extraction, and came in the
early times to South Carolina. The grandsire of James M Moragne came to Alabama
about 1830 and settled near the present site of Gadsden on the Coosa river,
where the father of James Moragne lived and married about 1834, and had five
children, James M., however, being the only survivor. The first wife died about
1847, and the father was married a second time, Sarah J. Revels becoming his
wife. To this union were born six children, all living in Etowah county, as
follows: Mary E., wife of J. W. Duncan; John B.; Frank L.; Joseph H.; Walter E.,
and Samuel A. The father of James M. was a strong Federal democrat prior to the
war, and after become a republican, and represented Cherokee (before the
formation of Etowah county) in the state legislature, and at the breaking out of
the war he raised a company, went as its captain to the field, but was compelled
to retire on account of sickness. He was one of the first men to pay any
attention to the great mineral wealth which underlies all that section of
Alabama, having, in 1850, discovered a vein of valuable ore close to Gadsden,
and after the war, opened mines there, and realized well from the profits
developed, and his heirs still collect handsome royalties on the output He took
great interest in the subject, and once was awarded a medal at a state fair for
the finest specimens of valuable minerals presented. He was one of the pioneers
of Gadsden, and died in 1880. James M. Moragne enlisted in the Confederate army
in 1861, in company G, of the Tenth Alabama infantry, and served in the first
fight at Dranesville, where he was severely wounded in the right shoulder and
was out of active service ninety days. He afterward fought at Seven Pines, Seven
days' fight, Second Manassas, Harpers Ferry, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg,
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and in
the trenches at Petersburg, and his regiment made the last gallant charge on the
enemy at the Crater. He returned to his home after the war, studied law, was
admitted to the bar, practiced one year, and at the age of twenty-five, was
appointed probate judge of the county, by Gov. William Smith. He served a term
of six years as judge, and since that time has been engaged in farming and real
estate transactions. Mr. Moragne has always been an independent thinker in
politics, never allowing himself to be guided by partisan views. He has recently
been re-elected to the office of probate judge as an independent. He was married
in 1870 to Mary E. Hughes, of Gadsden, by whom he had seven children, of whom
five survive as follows: Joseph S.; Fannie S.; Mary E.; Jennie and Nena. Those
deceased are James F., who died at age of seventeen, and Kate, who died at age
of four. The wife of Judge Moragne is a member of the Presbyterian church.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 1017-1018
Published by
Brant & Fuller (1893)
Madison, WI

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