Crawford Co., AR - Biographies - William T. Morgan

***********************************************
This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb
Archives by: The Goodspeed Publishing Co

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgenwebarchives.org
***********************************************

----------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford,
Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed 
Publishing Co., 1889.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ex-Judge William T. Morgan, farmer and stock raiser, was born in 
Gibson County, Tenn., in 1843, and is a son of John and Susan 
(Basinger) Morgan, natives of Tennessee. The father was reared
principally in North Carolina, but when grown returned to his native 
State. When our subject was about two years old his parents removed to 
Yell County, Ark., and when he was about eleven they went to Texas, 
where they lived until 1860. They then returned to Yell County, Ark., 
and afterward went to Missouri and Kansas. The father died in Crawford 
County in 1879. He served about eighteen months in Company E, Third 
Arkansas Cavalry, United States Army, in Arkansas, and participated in 
the battle at Prairie de Hand. The grandfather was of Dutch descent, a 
native of North Carolina, and a soldier in one of the early wars. Mrs. 
Morgan died in Yell County, Ark., and Mr. Morgan was afterward again 
married. William T. is the fifth of a family of eight children, and 
during his youth attended school but about eight months. When eighteen 
he joined the First Arkansas Cavalry, United States Army, and a few 
months later joined the First Arkansas Infantry, serving a year. He 
then served five months in the First Arkansas Cavalry, and in 1863 
joined the Third Arkansas Cavalry, with which he remained until the 
close of the war, serving as sergeant. He operated in Arkansas, 
Missouri and Indian Territory, and participated in the battles of 
Prairie Grove and Pea Ridge, and a great many skirmishes. He was 
discharged at Louisburg in May, 1865. In 1869 he was married in Newton 
County, Mo., to Elizabeth, daughter of James Coats, and in 1886 
married Mrs. Margaret Rance, daughter of A. B. Hudson, a native of 
Indiana, who died in Texas when Mrs. Morgan was a girl. Mr. Morgan has 
four living children by his first wife, and one by his second. In 1869 
he settled upon his present farm, which was then in the midst of the 
wilderness, but which, with patience and industry, has become a fine 
farm of 560 acres of finely cultivated land. Mr. Morgan had but a team 
and $150 when coming to this county, and his property is the result of 
his own [p.1177] labor and management. From 1872 he served as justice 
of the peace of Richland Township about twelve years, and although 
several of his judgments were appealed, they were never reversed. In 
1884 he was elected county and probate judge, and served two years. He 
is an active worker in the Republican party, and cast his first 
presidential vote for Lincoln in 1864. He is greatly interested in the 
educational advancement of the country, and has been school director 
many years. He is District Master Workman of the K. of L., and 
President of the K. of H. and F. A. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------