Person:George Morgan (53)

[obituary from unknown newspaper, 1810]

DIED.

On the March, in the 62th year of his age, Colonel George Morgan of Morganza.

Few men of the present day, so richly merit the tribute of obituary respect, as he, who is the subject of the above melancholy record. The characters who in '75 full of ardor and of youth, rushed forward in crowds, to stem the oppression of England, are now but thinly scattered over the union; like the leaves of autumn, they are daily dropping off, and in a few years, we shall have nothing left but their example, and may we not weld [illegible[, their spirit. The truly respectable subject of this sketch was among the first of those patriots.

At the early age of 21, Mr. Morgan, then the youngest of one of the first mercantile houses, in the colonies, tore himself from the arms of an accomplished and lovely wife, to whom he had just been united, and banning ??? with the spirit of useful enterprise, traversed the gloomy wilds that then separated Philadelphia from the Ohio. He arrived in Pittsburgh in the year 1763 [??? or 1765], when it was scarcely more than an Indian village; his views were commercial, in the prosecution of which he descended the river, explored the Illinois, and returned to Philadelphia by the way of New-Orleans. The consequence of this journey was the establishment of an extensive trade with the western parts of American and the Spanish colonies; in the pursuit of these plans, he made frequent visits to Louisiana and the Floridas, and became intimately versed in the habits and manners of the numerous tribes of aborigines who then thickly hovered on the north western frontier ---

From the sound judgment and benevolent policy which he displayed is those relations, he required that popularity and knowledge, which so certainty qualified him for the many important offices he filled, in the west, during the storm of the revolution.

In the year ___ he founded New-Madrid, at the request of the Spanish government, and with the permission of his own [government].

He was first lieutenant in the first volunteer company, that was raised in Pennsylvania, commanded by General Cadwalader [sic]; he was shortly after promoted to the command.

In April '76 he was sent by Congress to Pittsburgh, with the important appointment of "agent for Indian affairs for the middle department".

In '77 he received the commission of the Colonel in the army of the United States, and was offered an important command to the north, which he wished to accept, but he was induced to relinquish it at the request of Congress that he would bestow his exertions on the arduous task of preserving tranquility on the Indian frontiers; they viewed him as pre-eminently qualified for the serious trust, and in the latter end of '77 he accepted the commission of "deputy commissary general for the western district in the armies of the United States". In this station the journals of the house of Congress bear the fullest testimonials of his ability and integrity. The different treaties he concluded with the various tribes evince a heart replete with patriotism and benevolence. In '86 he was elected a member of the "American Philosophical Society"

Though he bore his part in the military scenes of our country with a genius surpassed by few, yet his mind was more in unison with the peaceful pursuits of life. As a farmer he has shown conspicuous; his whole soul was at one period devoted to improvements in cultivation. He was one of the original founders of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, and had the satisfaction of receiving the first gold medal ever awarded in America as the reward of agricultural invention; in the prosecution of his schemes, he was restricted by no contracted notions of expense or trouble, he looked forward not to the immediate increase of his own fortune, but to an honest fame and the improvement of this country. He was an honorary member of all the "Agricultural Societies" of his day. At an advanced age he removed to the western country, and closed the evening of his useful life in the bosom of an affectionate family, leaving the amiable partner of 46 years, to mourn his loss.

Notes by Howell Morgan, c.1950:

George Morgan, the youngest son of Evan, and grandson of David, married Mary Baynton, whose mother, Elizabeth Chevalier, was lineally descended from Maximilien De Bethune, Baron de Rosny, Duc de Sully. George Morgan was the first Indian Agent appointed by the Colonies, and his commission is signed by "JOHN HANCOCK, President, Continental Congress." He was a great Colony Builder (see Max Savello's George Morgan, Colony Builder). He was famous with the Indians as a "truthful white man" and was named "Tamamend" (the affable one) by the Delaware Indians, whose language, among others, he spoke. As an agriculturist he was noted for his success on his 9,000 acres, and for the theses he wrote.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Daughters of the American Revolution. Index of the rolls of honor (ancestor's index) in the lineage books of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (1988). (Baltimore, Maryland, United States: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1960, 1980, 1988, 1998)
   Vol. 110, p. 143.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6} Find A Grave.

   George Morgan