Scotland County NcArchives Photo Person.....Morgan, 1837-1916, Mark 
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Name:               Mark Morgan, 1837-1916
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Mark Morgan, 1837-1916

Transcribed by Mary Modlin.  This book is available for online reading or PDF 
download from Google.

MARK MORGAN, manufacturer, banker, legislator and agriculturist, of Scotland 
County, was born near Lillington, in Harriett County, North Carolina, on the 
22nd day of October, 1837.

Through the long sickness of his father, forced into the factory to work at 
the age of seven, bereft of his father at ten, the youngest of eight children 
of a widowed mother; to-day the president of three cotton mills, vice-
president of a bank and interested in various business enterprises, to the 
success of which his mind and means have contributed; denied for himself the 
privileges of school, to-day a patron of learning.  Mark Morgan presents an 
illustration of that energy and purpose that does things in spite of 
circumstances, and shows that the same spirit that made North Carolina 
soldiers glorious in war leads to merited success in the paths of peace.  The 
native sons of North Carolina have been among the chief workers in her 
industries, and among them stands the name of Mark Morgan, written high among 
the rest.

On his father's side Mr. Morgan is descended from Welsh and Scotch ancestors, 
while his maternal line is of English descent.  His grandfather, John Morgan, 
emigrated from Pennsylvania after the Revolutionary War and settled on the 
Cape Fear River, his relative, Mark Morgan, having settled in Orange County on 
a creek bearing his name near the present village of Chapel Hill, part of the 
site of the State University being donated by Mr. Morgan of this family.  The 
mother of John Morgan was a Miss Reese, a member of a prominent Welsh family 
which located in Mecklenburg County.  All of his sons emigrated to Alabama and 
other States in the Southwest with the exception of Reese Morgan, who remained 
in his native county until about the year 1845, when he was employed by the 
Rockfish Manufacturing Company, and moved his family to the village of 
Rockfish, now Hope Mills, in Cumberland County, where that company operated 
one of the first cotton mills established in the South.

Here the father was soon stricken with disease that lingered for a long time, 
resulting in his death in 1847, leaving a wife and eight children.  The heavy 
demands of sickness in the family forced even the youngest boy into the 
factory at the age of seven, where he worked as bobbin boy for twelve and more 
hours per day for fifty cents per week at first, a princely wage of eight and 
one-third cents per day!  Gradually working his way up from one line to 
another, he mastered every detail of the work of the cotton mill of that date, 
besides learning the mechanical operation of the business, being able to make 
all the repairs needed to be done outside of the factory, often forging for 
himself such tools as upon sudden emergency he found use for.  Denied 
opportunity to attend school, having attended in all less than eight weeks, 
when he arrived at his majority he was not only recognized as one of the 
foremost and most capable machinists of the State, perfectly familiar with 
every detail of cotton manufacture, but had made such progress in his studies 
by the light of a pine-knot fire, after the day's work was over, that he 
possessed a good business training, had a fair English education, and was a 
ready and accurate calculator, even to the intricacies of the science of 
mechanics as applied to his business.

At the call to arms for the Civil War, Mr. Morgan was an officer of the 
Rockfish Liberty Guards, being first lieutenant.  He with his company tendered 
his services to the State for the war, but Governor Ellis refused to send the 
company to the front, because the men were for the most part employed in the 
manufacture of cotton, holding that they could serve better by giving their 
efforts to the production of thread and cloth.  The fact that North Carolina 
soldiers were better clothed than those of any other Confederate State was due 
in no small part to such foresight as was exercised in this act of the 
governor.  The company was enlisted, however, and placed under the command of 
Major Childs, with headquarters at Fayetteville, being directed to proceed 
with their daily work as far as possible, but subject to be called out for 
military duty at any time.

It is a matter of history that the company was ordered into active service 
several times.  It participated in the capture of the arsenal at Fayetteville 
in April, 1861, closing its service in 1865, being on the 8th and 9th of 
March, 1865, under orders, engaged in destroying cotton and other stores, and 
commanded to protect and finally burn bridges in front of Sherman's army, and 
fall back to Fayetteville in face of the advancing enemy.  After a very hard 
day and night's work on the 8th and 9th of March, 1865, the company, having no 
commissary, dispersed for food and a little rest early on the morning of the 
9th, being ordered to report for further duty a few hours later.  The physical 
endurance of the men had been tested to the utmost, the work being most 
laborious.  So nearly prostrated was the whole company that the captain was 
met at the appointed time for assembling by only four of his men, being Mark 
Morgan, first lieutenant; his two brothers, John Morgan, sergeant, and Matthew 
Morgan, private, together with Henry Hall, lieutenant.  The Federal army had 
invested the village, and upon assembling, these five were discovered and were 
set upon by a superior force.  The captain escaped by galloping his horse away 
with several of the enemy in hot pursuit shooting at him.  The others 
dispersed, each for himself attempting to evade the Federal soldiery through 
the day, and, by superior knowledge of his surroundings, to reach the 
Confederate forces under cover of darkness the following night.  A sick wife 
and infant son, his first born and only son, at home, drew Mr. Morgan there to 
say what might be forever "good-by," and while at his home on March 9th he was 
discovered and captured by Sherman's forces, taken before the officer in 
command and paroled.  His home was invaded by his captors, and every piece and 
parcel of his household property and other effects there was broken p, torn, 
shattered and utterly ruined or destroyed save the bed on which his sick wife 
lay and the clothing on his own person.

The Federal army passed on, leaving Mr. Morgan to attend to his distressed 
family.  He found himself and family with no morsel of food and none to be had 
in the village or community, and he with no property whatever save $50 in gold 
which he had saved with some Confederate currency.  His first food was 
procured by his walking seven miles to Fayetteville, where he got nineteen 
pounds of corn meal (all he could get at any price) for $19 in Confederate 
currency.  Hastening home with this for his sick wife, he found Rev. Angelo 
Benton, learning of their distressed circumstances, had given his wife some 
bacon, which Mr. Benton saved by securing in some way a guard for his own 
home.  With this food life was sustained.

The Southern soldier returned to his office, store, farm or shop, as was his 
avocation, to find varying conditions of destruction and decay, there to fight 
a battle scarce less heroic than had been his clash of arms.  To Mr. Morgan 
the factory where he wrought was office, store, farm and shop; it was now 
marked by a mass of ruins, tangled and twisted at the touch of the invader's 
torch, lighting the heavens as it wafted away in smoke, the end of everything 
material on which he had builded his hopes.

Life had to be begun over.  But in the providence of God a little corn mill in 
the neighborhood had saved a small, dilapidated factory, Beaver Creek Factory 
by name, the two being so near together that the vandal soldier could not burn 
the factory without destroying the mill, and he needed the mill to grind his 
meal.  When the mill was no longer needed, the factory seemed to be forgotten, 
and in some strange way it stood out among the devastation around, saved.  
Here Mr. Morgan found employment at once, almost, and for a year he repaired, 
refitted and rebuilt the machines in this factory, and even with his own hands 
built new machines for it.

In 1867 Colonel Thomas M. Holt of Haw River tendered Mr. Morgan the 
superintendency of Granite Mills on Haw River, which position Mr. Morgan held 
for several years.  While here he invented the first successful appliance of 
its kind and manufactured in a blacksmith shop, with only the common outfit of 
such shops, a governor for heavy water-wheel gates to turbines, which governor 
gave perfect satisfaction, a thing not theretofore accomplished.  One of 
exactly the same pattern is at this day in service at Richmond Cotton Mill in 
Scotland County.  The capacity of this factory, Granite Mills, was greatly 
enlarged and the production or per cent, of manufactured product from raw 
material, was greatly increased while Mr. Morgan managed it; but the work was 
very heavy, and Mr. Morgan's health failed to such an extent that he felt 
compelled to give it up and rest, and so tendered his resignation.

After a period of rest and recuperation, he began to look about for a place of 
healthfulness and remunerative work not too heavy for his then condition.  
Investigating what was then the Laurel Hill Mill, in what was Richmond County 
(now Scotland), with an unfailing water-power, located in a most healthful 
section of the long-leaf pine and in the edge of the sand region of North 
Carolina, since become renowned for healthfulness, he found the old mill had 
stopped its wheels because its machinery was in such poor condition that its 
products were no longer salable.  Observing the never-failing water-power and 
relying upon his capacity as machinist, his fine judgment told him that there 
was an opportunity.  He leased the property from Colonel Charles Malloy, the 
sole owner, in 1872, and began repairing the four hundred spindles he found 
here, discarding the six looms that comprised the weaving department.  To 
avoid the odium of the inferior goods so recently offered under the name 
of "Laurel Hill Cotton Mill," the newly-made goods were offered under the name 
of the "Beaver Dam Cotton Mill."  Such was the quality that, though his name 
was soon superseded, occasionally now there come inquiries for the old Beaver 
Dam Cotton Mill thread.

Notwithstanding the high standard to which Mr. Morgan soon raised this mill, 
he saw that success such as he aimed at was not to be attained without 
thoroughly modern machinery.  Colonel Malloy saw that in Mr. Morgan he had 
found one whose capacity and practical experience insured success, and to make 
it more certain he sold Mr. Morgan an interest in the factory, taking him into 
partnership under the firm name of Malloy & Morgan.  New machinery replaced 
the old, and a new era opened for the mill, the name of which was now changed 
to its present corporate name, Richmond Cotton Mill, though it was not 
incorporated until after Colonel Malloy's death.  The name was taken from the 
county---Richmond---in which the property was situated, though now it is 
Scotland County.  During the years the mill was operated by Malloy & Morgan, 
partners, many were the difficulties encountered.  The surrounding country is 
very productive in cotton, which was bringing a high price at the time.  The 
work in cotton fields was more attractive to most laboring people, who were 
hard to get into cotton mills.  Mr. Morgan walked through the surrounding 
country personally soliciting the services of such laborers as were properly 
open to such proposals, and by his personal contact with prospective laborers 
protecting the character of the mill settlement by not taking people whose 
appearance seemed to indicate criminal tendencies.  In truth, while such 
personal solicitation has long since passed, he has always endeavored to 
protect the character of his people by excluding the viscous, so much so that 
it is a matter of pride often referred to by his more experienced hands that 
they were with Mr. Morgan so long.  Nor is this confined to his mill 
operatives, but applies to his farm laborers and tenants as well.  Often they 
state that they intend to remain with Mr. Morgan so long as they live, if he 
will keep them so long.

The product of the factory was sold in these days in five-pound hanks or 
bunches to small merchants and even to the consumers in some cases, making the 
problem of disposing of the thread quite a difficult one.  So his traveling 
through the surrounding community took the form of seeker after laborers and 
also customers.  On one occasion, approaching on foot a substantial farmhouse 
near night, he sought lodging for the night, which was refused, contrary to 
the usual Scotch custom.  As Mr. Morgan turned to go the good housewife asked 
her husband who was the traveler and his business.  To her great surprise she 
heard the name of one of her intimate friends of childhood and youth, and it 
dawned upon her that he had been turned from her door.  Imagine the pleasure 
and surprise when he was recalled to stand face to face with his friend of 
other days, one with whom he had often sung from the same book in the village 
choir, for they were both musical in youth.  It is needless to say he received 
a royal Scotch welcome.

Malloy & Morgan lost heavily by a failure of a business house with which they 
did a large business, but this misfortune, instead of depressing the spirits 
of Mr. Morgan, seemed to renew his purpose to succeed.  In a few years he had 
the satisfaction of seeing the mill out of debt and a surplus sufficient for 
the comfortable conduct of its operations without embarrassment at any time.

So well did this enterprise pay, and so helpful was the outlook, in 1887 Mr. 
Morgan's only son was admitted into the business, and Ida Yarn Mill built.  
This mill was named in honor of a little deceased daughter of Mr. Morgan.

Colonel Malloy having died, Mr. Morgan joined with his son, M. Lauder Morgan, 
his son-in-law, Mr. W. H. Morrison, and Messrs. J. H. McIlwinen and Daniel 
Blue, in 1892, and built another cotton mill, the Springfield Cotton Mill.  
About this time each of the cotton mills was incorporated under its individual 
name, each being a separate organization.  Mr. Morgan is president of each, 
Mr. W. H. Morrison is treasurer of each.  The three mills manufacture yarns 
exclusively.

In whatever engaged, it has been the ambition of Mr. Morgan to reach the 
foremost position possible based upon merit.  Long experience in cotton 
milling caused him to note all improvements in machinery, and his progressive 
spirit led him to adopt them as rapidly as possible, so that the products of 
his mills have ever ranked among the highest grades and realized the highest 
prices.  From the time of his first connection with the Laurel Hill Mill to 
the present, not once has he failed to realize a comfortable dividend from his 
investments.  Succeeding so admirably in these enterprises, Mr. Morgan 
continued to enlarge his manufacturing interests, and early became identified 
with the cotton mill at McColl, South Carolina, and contributed to the 
erection of the Cotton Seed Oil Mill at Gibson, North Carolina.  Needing 
additional facilities for handling his large financial interests, he joined in 
the establishment of a bank, and became one of the stockholders and a director 
of the First National Bank of Laurinburg, North Carolina, and is vice-
president of the Scotland County Savings Bank.  His enterprising spirit has 
led him into other operations which have been helpful to his community.  He is 
the largest stockholder and is president of the Red Springs Cotton Seed Oil 
and Fertilizer Company.  He has also engaged largely in agriculture, and has 
achieved success in this as well as in his other pursuits.  But for his 
greater reputation as a manufacturer he would be widely and favorably known as 
a prominent farmer of the State.  The same thoroughness that he has displayed 
in his favorite vocation has marked his operations in every other field of 
endeavor.  His eminently practical mind, correct in judgment and unflagging in 
attention to details, united to a superior intelligence, makes him a master in 
every line of work that he takes up, while the example of his success and the 
inspiring result of his business operation shave been of great and permanent 
benefit in developing confidence in these industrial enterprises and promoting 
the establishment of more factories in this section of the State.

A factor that enters largely into his success is his genial humor, droll and 
quiet, often hitting off a subject with an incident aptly illustrating the 
case, provoking laughter and good humor without in any degree letting down the 
high tone of his conversation.  In his dealings with his employees the 
kindliness of his nature is ever assertive.  Those of his employees whose 
lives and characters are worthy look upon him as a true friend and benefactor 
after they get to know him and thoroughly understand him.

Having to struggle for his own education, practically without instruction save 
such as his sainted mother gave him after their day's cares had drawn upon 
their strength, tired, with no trained teacher to guide him, he learned well 
the value of an education, and to this day deplores the fact that the door of 
the school-room was closed to him almost before it had opened.  This feeling 
of distrust as to his own acquirements attained under such difficulties had 
helped to give his always modest nature a diffidence which has made him slow 
to assert himself in public, and has often deprived those who would hear him 
gladly of his fine insight into matters when in deliberative assemblies.  He 
has always had a lively interest in schools, and has aided annually in giving 
educational advantages to his community.  His children he educated liberally, 
and is now educating grandchildren.  It is incidentally a matter of pride that 
his daughter, Mrs. Margaret Morgan Blue, was the first graduate of Red Springs 
Seminary at Red Springs, North Carolina.

Hardly ever a year passes that his means do not open the door for some poor 
youth to enter school for some grade, having assisted to every grade of 
instruction, from the most elementary to the finishing schools of Europe.  
True, they promise to pay back, and generally do, but that some do not does 
not keep him from the enjoyment of having helped some who are most worth 
indeed.

It is not strange, then, that Mr. Morgan should be placed upon the Board of 
Trustees of Red Springs Seminary, a school under the care of the Fayetteville 
Presbytery, while he is an Episcopalian.  His services on that board, as 
usual, have proven most valuable.  The president of that institution, now the 
Southern Presbyterian College and Conservatory of Music, says in a letter to 
the writer:  "Mr. Morgan has been of great service to us in our work.  He has 
not talked much, but his counsel has been not only safe, but progressive.  I 
believe I have failed but once to take his advice, and then I found I made a 
mistake."

In 1904 educational circles were surprised to learn that he, an Episcopalian 
had given to this institution the money with which to erect a much-needed 
building, costing $7000.  This is recognized as the largest single gift by any 
native resident of the State to female education.  It was given in a manner 
characteristic of the donor, without any announcement on his part beforehand 
or waiting for a theatrical moment to bestow the gift.  He had considered the 
situation, and as he stated to one some time later who spoke of the unusual 
gift by one of one denomination to a school under the care of another 
denomination:  "They told me they gave training at this institution at actual 
cost, the equipment being given free, the tuition and charges simply paying 
the necessary bills for teaching and expenses of maintaining the students.  I 
thought I would help them to larger accommodations and greater usefulness, and 
so I gave them the money for the building."

The building is known as "Morgan Hall."  On May 18, 1904, the Grand Lodge of 
Masons laid the cornerstone, on which is the following inscription:  "Morgan 
Hall.  Erected by Mark Morgan in Honor of his Wife, Margaret, and as a Gift to 
the Women of North Carolina."

Let no one consider that this gift indicates lack of fine church pride in Mr. 
Morgan, for such is not the case.  He is broad enough to look beyond and above 
all church lines, but is well known to those about him to be faithful and true 
to his own church, the church of his fathers.

Mr. Morgan has never held public office until the present.  He is the honored 
representative of Scotland County in the General Assembly of North Carolina, 
being chairman of the Committee on Manufacture and Labor, besides holding 
other important assignments.  He had cast against him only sixty-five votes 
out of a total population of nearly 20,000.  Mr. Morgan is a Master Mason, 
affiliating with Laurinburg Lodge, No. 305.

Mr. Morgan's home life has been that of beautiful devotion to his wife and 
children.  He was most happily married on September 3, 1863, to Miss Margaret 
L. Cameron, daughter of Mr. Angus Cameron of Johnsonville, Harnett County, 
North Carolina.  Between them there has been a blending of taste, a molding of 
soul, that has made the twain one in hope, heart, aspiration, purpose; the one 
strengthening the other, sharing and lightening the burdens, bowing together 
over the bier of the little daughter, able to say, "It is well with the 
child;" later staggering under the sorrow of loss of first born, their only 
son, M. Lauder, but able to look up into the great beyond and behold his 
glorified spirit beckoning them to their eternal home.

To Mr. and Mrs. Morgan were born four children:  M. Lauder, who married Miss 
Eugenia Morrison.  She died in February, 1898, to be followed by him May 18, 
1899, leaving five children---Bessie, Marcus Morrison, Edwin, William Lauder, 
and Eugene Arrowood.

A daughter, Miss Lena, married Mr. William H. Morrison (brother of Mrs. M. L. 
Morgan).  Mr. and Mrs. Morrison have two children living---Esther McLean and 
Genial.

A daughter, Ida, died in infancy.

The youngest child, a daughter, Miss Margaret, married Dr. K. A. Blue, a 
prominent physician of Laurinburg, North Carolina, and they have one son, Mark 
Morgan Blue.

It would be improper to close this sketch without saying of the lamented M. 
Lauder Morgan that truly did he wear the pure flower of a blameless life, 
strong of purpose, steady and true in every relation, give to thought, but of 
little speaking, gentle and tender and pure as a woman, diligent, thoughtful 
of his parents, considerate above everything of his mother from boyhood up, in 
whom he confided always, he presented a true type of the strong man, 
successful in every undertaking, whose manliness was only equaled by his 
gentleness.  His death fell as a blow, sudden, almost, and unexpected up to a 
few hours before it, laying upon his parents a sorrow almost above which they 
were able to bear.

Mr. Morgan has this year built and give in fee simple to the diocese of North 
Carolina an Episcopal Church in the town of Laurinburg, in memory of his son, 
M. L. Morgan, his son's wife, Mrs. Eugenia Morgan, and his daughter, Ida 
Malloy Morgan, deceased.

Maxcy L. John.

Additional Comments:
Source:  Ashe, Samuel A., Weeks, Stephen B., and Van Noppen, Charles L., 
Biographical History of North Carolina, From Colonial Times to the Present, 
Volume II, Charles L. Van Noppen, Greensboro, N.C., 1905, pp. 282-292

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