Williamson-Kane County IL Archives Biographies.....Morgan, Ambert D. 1886 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 21, 2008, 8:34 pm

Author: George Washington Smith (1912)

   PETER T. LANGAN. A man whose perseverance, industry and business sagacity has
been largely instrumental in the establishment of one of Cairo's greatest
industries is Peter T. Langan, a man in whom those potential elements that are
essential in every successful career seem to center. He has been a citizen of
Cairo since 1872. His advent hither marked t   AMBERT D. MORGAN. Among the newer
residents in Herrin is one who has made for himself a warm place in the hearts
of the citizens of this town. This is the young lawyer, Ambert D. Morgan. Having
equipped himself with the best preparation possible, he has put this training to
such good use that he is fast becoming known as one of the most dependable men
in the legal profession in his county. A convincing tongue and a clear brain
ready to grasp the salient points of an argument, together with a large fund of
legal knowledge stored away in his brain, make him a formidable opponent for
even the best of his fraternity.

   Ambert D. Morgan is a native of the state to whose service he has chosen to
give his young manhood, being born in Kane county, Illinois, on the 29th of
October, 1886. His father, Lyman D. Morgan, owns a beautiful country home near
Hampshire, and here it was that the lad grew up. Small wonder that men find the
young lawyer a master of persuasive diction. Eloquence is born and bred in open
fields and under fresh skies, not in smoky cities with all their glowing picture
galleries and theatres.

   Lyman D. Morgan was born in McHenry county, Illinois, in 1844, and spent his
boyhood near Marengo, acquiring as much of an education as could be obtained
from the primitive district schools of his day. When his country called for men
he gave an eager service, enlisting in Company G, of the Seventeenth Illinois
Cavalry, to fight the misguided "Johnny Rebs." His service was such that the
opinions with which he began his term of enlistment, anent the general depravity
of the enemy, were not likely to be changed as were those of his brethren in the
Army of the Potomac, for his work was chasing marauding Indians and fighting
bushwhackers, who were disturbing the peace out on the borders of Kansas and the
Indian Territory. He was a corporal in his company, while the regiment was
commanded by Colonel Breckinridge. During the latter part of the war his command
was ordered to southern Missouri, where a sort of intermittent warfare was going
on, momentarily exciting and a necessary duty, but how often must the heart of
the boy corporal have longed to be over in the blood-stained Virginian valleys
where the destinies of a people were being hewn out with fire and sword. With
the restoration of peace Mr. Morgan returned to his deserted farm, from whence
he eventually moved to Kane county, Illinois. After the stirring scenes of his
youth he has been content to devote himself to quiet agricultural pursuits
during the rest of his life, but when the annual encampment of the Grand Army of
the Republic rolls around he is usually present to exchange reminiscences with
his old comrades in arms. He has been in command of the local post olthe above
organization, and takes considerable interest in local political affairs, his
sympathies and support being with the Republican party.

   Lyman D. Morgan married Miss Elizabeth A. Helmer, at Platte, Michigan, on the
9th day of May, 1870. She was of Scotch parentage, born at Overton, Ohio. Her
father, Erastus Helmer, was also a native of Ohio. Ambert D. is the fourth of
several children, including Professor Ora S., principal of the college of
agriculture of Columbia University, in New York city; Mabel L., of Lansing,
Michigan; Izo, wife of Earl Crandall, of Kane county; Eugenia, now teaching in
the public schools of Hampshire; and Judd, a student at the University of Illinois.

   This branch of the Morgan family was founded in Illinois by Lyman Morgan,
father of Lyman D. When a young man he came into this part of the country from
New York state, the year being 1835. In McHenry county he met and married Polly
Thomas, and four children were born to them, Leroy R., who served in the Eighth
Illinois Infantry during the Civil war and now resides in Platte, Michigan;
Lyman D.; Calvin, who died unmarried; and Lucretia, who became the wife of D.
Bowen and died in Denver, Colorado.

   Ambert D. Morgan prepared himself for college in the high schools of
Hampshire and Elgin. He was graduated from the former, but spent two years in
Elgin before entering the State University at Champaign. It had always been his
purpose to fit himself for the profession of medicine, and he entered on his
collegiate work with that intent, but after two years in the University he was
forced to leave his books and go to work. The position which he took was under
the civil service, as postal clerk, running on the Illinois Central Railroad
between Chicago and Carbondale. In addition to his duties in this capacity he
had the ambition, at the beginning of his four years as postal clerk, to take up
the study of law in the Illinois College of Law, having abandoned the idea of
becoming a physician, and he had the grit to stick to it until he received his
degree in 1909. Being now ready for active work in his chosen profession, he
resigned from the government service and located in Herrin, as an attorney at
law. During the same year he passed his examinations for the bar before the
supreme court of the state at Springfield, and was admitted to the right to
practice in all the state and federal courts of Illinois.

   On the 25th of December, 1910, Ambert D. Morgan was married to Alberta
Eubank, the ceremony taking place in Centralia, Illinois. His wife is the
daughter of James S. Eubank, a representative of one of the oldest families of
the county. He is a well known blacksmith, and his wife is Olive Whitehead. Mrs.
Morgan was born in Williamson county, in 1890. A daughter was born of this
marriage on December 16, 1911, Lillian Eugenia.

   Mr. Morgan is a faithful member of the Republican party and is interested in
the fraternal orders to the extent of belonging to the Modern Woodmen. He is
also an enthusiastic member of Alpha Kappa Phi, one of the legal group of
college fraternities.

   Mr. Morgan is a man of much promise, one whom his town will be proud to own.
He now possesses that trait in which the members of his profession are supposed
to be notoriously lacking, that is, honesty. The record of his past life tells
of too true and fine a nature for one not to believe that he will keep his
honesty and uprightness of purpose in the face of the temptations that will come
to him. At present his cleverness has won him much admiration and his personal
charm has brought to him many friends, so that his fellow citizens of the older
generation look upon him as one of those who will be ready to lift the burden
from their shoulders when they are ready to lay it down.
he entry of an orphan boy without influential friends to equip him for life's
battles or to make an opening for a successful career, and while he has won the
fight and placed himself upon a footing with the strong men of commercial and
financial power in this city, his achievement has only come after many
sacrifices, numerous disappointments and embarrassing situations, to detail
which it is not the province of this sketch to do.

   Peter T. Langan was born near Louisville, Kentucky, June 16, 1859. He was the
only child of his parents, and his mother died in 1861, soon after which date
his father seemed to have abandoned him and left him to the care and keeping of
his grandmother. When she died in 1872 his anchor to a home was cut off, and he
came to a relative in Cairo. He saw so little of a schoolroom that he can hardly
be said to have acquired any education as a lad, and the necessity of the
situation placed him in the employ of a mill owner and for two years he took his
first lessons about a sawmill, which service proved to be the entering wedge to
his greatest achievement. Mr. Langan next learned the machinists trade in the
shop of J. B. Reed, of Cairo, a business that is yet a part of modern Cairo, but
when he had completed his service he resumed work in a sawmill with T. "W.
Leahigh, and remained with him eight years. He then became yard foreman for the
Cairo Box Factory with DeMoncourt & Halliday, and acquired additional education
in the lumber business there. Having accumulated some little capital, he
purchased a sawmill and went into the forest region of southeastern Missouri,
where he was engaged for five years in cutting lumber, during which time he laid
the real foundation for a business career. Having acquired capital, Mr. Langan
now returned to Cairo and purchased the old J. V. Allen lumber yard, founded by
Samuel Walters, and the main retail yard of the city, and from 1892 to the
present his time has been devoted to the expansion of his business to cover all
departments relating to house-building and to the development of a planing mill
business with a capacity requisite to the demands of an area embracing portions
of five states and ranking as a first-class builders' supply factory. His mill
and yards cover more than three blocks in the business section of the city and
his various industries give employment to a small army of men. He does both a
wholesale and a are doors, sash, blinds, mouldings, stairs, balusters, newels,
stair-retail business and his billhead shows that his chief articles of stock
railings, mantels, frames, dressed and rough lumber, lath, shingles, store
counters, shelving, scroll sawing and turning, brackets, flooring, ceiling,
weather-boarding, builders' hardware and paints. The management of his varied
and complex enterprise requires all the time that a busy man ought to devote to
each working day, and it is this continuous application for the past twenty
years which has built up his inter-state reputation and brought him from the
area of rough waters to a smooth sea and a safe harbor.

   Mr. Langan is a director in the Cairo National Bank and of the Central
Building and Loan Association. He is a member of the Board of Trade, of the
Commercial Club and of the Retail Merchants' Association. His attitude toward
his city has earned him recognition among those who are counted upon to do
responsible service for the municipality, and he has frequently been selected by
the Mayor, as well as by the Governor of Illinois, to act as delegate to
conventions which meet to discuss deep waterways and other subjects pertaining
to improved facilities for domestic transportation. He has acquired other
property interests in Cairo beside his immense mill and business property. He is
an Elk and a Knight of Columbus, and his religious affiliation is with the
Catholic church.

   Mr. Langan was first married in October, 1883, and to this union there were
born the following children: William, who is associated with his father in
business; Edwin, who is married and in business at Mounds, Illinois; and Mabel
and Edith. His second marriage was with Miss Minnie Rennie, and by this union
there are Mary, Jamie, Peter T., Jr., Frances Cecile and George Parsons, the
latter named in honor of the distinguished mayor of Cairo. In conclusion it may
be said of Mr. Langan that he has been one of those who have believed in the
future of his city and by his active and progressive spirit has done much to
promote its industrial growth. He has never been actuated by any narrow, selfish
motives, but, prospering himself, he has enjoyed the prosperity of others,
knowing that the welfare of one individual alone never furthers but only retards
the growth of a community. He has been upright and honorable in all his dealings
with his fellowmen and has merited the respect and esteem in which he is
universally held.



Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A HISTORY OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People, and its Principal
Interests

BY
George Washington Smith, M. A.
VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED

THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1912

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