Frank J. Morger
Chouteau County
History of Montana, Sanders, 1913

No man can attain the honor of occupying the highest office 
within the gift of a municipality unless he is possessed of 
more than average ability and is capable of so handling 
affairs as to redound to the public good.  Frank J. Morger, 
former mayor of Fort Benton, Montana, was chosen for this 
present high office largely because of the ability he had 
shown in handling his own affairs.  Mr. Morger was born in 
Jones County, Iowa, March 3, 1863 and is a son of Franz 
Joseph and Jemima Jane Morger.

Mayor Morger's father was a native of Switzerland from 
which country he came to the United States as a very 
young man, locating in Jones County, Iowa.  At the 
outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in an Iowa 
infantry regiment, serving throughout the Rebellion 
and participating in a number of hard-fought battles.  
At the close of hostilities he located in Nebraska where 
he was engaged in farming until his death at the age of 
forty-four years, his demise probably hastened by the 
hardships he had endured while fighting under the flag 
of his adopted country.  His wife, a native of 
Pennsylvania accompanied her parents to Iowa in 
early life and still survives her husband, being 
eighty-two and a resident of Colorado.

Frank J. Morger accompanied his parents to Nebraska 
and in 1873 went with his mother to Colorado where he 
attended the public schools of Longmont for three years.  
He commenced work at an early age and until eighteen was 
engaged in various occupations at that time going to Fort 
Fetterman Wyoming.  During the next six years he worked 
as a cowboy with the Northeastern Cattle Company and the 
C. Wright Cattle Company and in 1886 came to Fort Benton 
Montana, securing employment with the Milner Cattle 
Company in Chouteau County, a firm with which he was 
connected for ten months.  He continued in the same 
line with the St. Louis Cattle Company for a number 
of years but in 1898 engaged in the liquor business 
in Fort Benton in which e continued four years, 
selling his interests to engage in the cattle 
business with a ranch on the Shonkin River which 
he carried on for seven years with much success.  
Selling out at the end of that time, Mr. Morger 
returned to Fort Benton and bought an interests 
in the general merchandise business of Davis 
Brothers, the firm name now being Davis Brothers 
and Morger.  He is interested in various business 
ventures and holds a directorship in the Benton 
Drug Company.

On November 24, 1892 Mr. Morger was married to Miss 
Ruby Estella Davis, daughter of William Davis, an 
early pioneer settler of Fort Benton, and they have 
five children: Earl Romatus, born on October 1,2 
1893 and Myrtle Lenett, born on August 15, 1895, 
both attending high school; and Frank Fenton, born 
on December 7, 1896; Mary Jane, born on January 10, 
1897 and Walter J. born on April 15, 1901, all 
attending the Fort Benton graded schools.