William Morgan was born in Knox County, Indiana, August 18, 1822. His parents were Zadock and Mary Morgan, who, shortly after the birth of the son, moved to Greene County, Indiana, where he grew up and obtained a limited education at the subscription schools. In 1844 he came to Rock Island County, Illinois, where he was engaged for eighteen months cutting saw-logs, giving one-half the logs cut to teamsters for hauling them to the mills at Rapid City, and one-half of all that he received at the mill for sawing them into lumber. He settled on an eighty-acre claim of Government land in LeClaire Township in 1846, and his first house was constructed by placing four posts in the ground, boarding the sides of a square thus formed and covering it with clapboards. When he crossed the river at Pleasant Valley he owned three yokes of oxen and the charge for ferrying him across was one dollar and fifty cents. Having only a Mexican dollar, which was worth but ninety-five cents, he could not pay the toll, and was not able to meet the obligation the following fall, when he did so by working it out.
He soon began to accumulate a little money, however, and investing what he made in land, he continued adding to his eighty acres until he owned six hundred acres, for which he paid from two dollars and fifty cents to sixty-five dollars an acre. At a later date he went to Jasper County, Iowa, and purchased nine hundred acres, which he divided among three sons. In April, 1890, Mr. Morgan retired from the business of farming and removed to Princeton. He owns a pleasant home there, and having recovered his health, which had previously been somewhat impaired, he is enjoying the rest to which he is entitled.
He was united in marriage to Elizabeth Stafford, and eight children have been born to them, two of whom are dead. John married Miss Mary M. DuBois; Clinton C. married Miss Mary Thompson of Omaha; Jasper (now deceased) married a Miss Gibson; Sylvester married a Miss Jackson; Casins (now deceased) married Hannah Smith; Mary M. married Henry Whitson of Davenport, and Martha married Isaac Delano.
Mr. Morgan was married a second time in 1885, Rachel Slaughter becoming his wife at that time. A Democrat in principle, Mr. Morgan inclines to independence in political action or at least to liberal views and warmly espouses the doctrines of the American Protective Association. He has traveled extensively and is a man of broad, general information, considering the limited opportunities which he had for obtaining knowledge in early life.
BIOGRAPHIES