Thomas Jefferson Morgan

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Husband Thomas Jefferson Morgan ¹

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           Born: 3 Apr 1815 - North Strabane Twp, Washington Co, PA 2
     Christened: 
           Died: 30 Mar or 30 Nov 1850 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2
         Buried: 

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         Father: Thomas Morgan (1784-1855) 3 4
         Mother: Catharine Duane (Abt 1787-1863) 3

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Wife

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General Notes: Husband - Thomas Jefferson Morgan

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He commenced the study of law with Isaac Leet. He established a newspaper at Washington, Pennsylvania, called Our Country, which he published a few years. In the summer of 1836 he raised a company of men for the war in Texas. In December of 1837 he was located at Columbus, Ohio, and received the appointment of chief clerk in the post-office of that city. In 1841 he completed his study of the law in Columbus with Noah H. Swayne. He was clerk of the Senate of Ohio in 1841-42. In the spring of 1846 he was appointed law clerk in the office of the solicitor of the treasury of the United States. In the spring of 1847 he was appointed secretary of legation at Brazil, under Governor David Todd, of Ohio. He died of yellow fever at Rio de Janeiro.

In 1836, when Texas was at war with Mexico for the purpose of gaining her independence from the latter country, Maj. Thomas Jefferson Morgan, of Washington, conceived a project to raise a body of men to fight in the Texan army under his command, and when the war should be ended successfully for Texas, these men to settle there on ample tracts of land which, as he was assured by President Houston, would be granted to them in payment for their military services. With this plan in view he issued an address
"TO ALL PATRIOTIC AND ENTERPRISING MEN,
"EMIGRANTS FOR TEXAS.
"To Rendezvous at Washington, Pa., on 6th September, 1836."
In this address, which was from beginning to end an extremely florid and highly-colored one, he said, "History does not furnish so wide and fertile a field for enterprise, as ever having been presented to the view of any people. Those individuals who have no other aim in this life than the mere accumulation of riches, where will they have so favorable an opportunity to realize their hopes as is now offered upon the plains of Texas? If wealth then be your sole desire, go to Texas, the fairest of a thousand lands." . . . "The undersigned has been authorized to recruit two hundred and eighty volunteers, and in accordance with this authority I now call upon the freemen of Western Pennsylvania, and of the surrounding districts of Ohio and Virginia, and upon all patriots, wherever may be their habitation, to join me in my undertaking. It is my desire that all volunteers should rendezvous at Washington upon the 6th of September, or as speedily afterwards as practicable. . ."
The result of this appeal was the enrollment of thirty men, who were formed into a company which was called the "Morgan Rifles," and of which T. Jefferson Morgan was made captain by the votes of the members. The time of their march from Washington, as designated in published orders, was Monday, September 19th. They marched on the 20th, and proceeded by way of the Ohio River to Louisville, Ky., receiving some accessions to their numbers on the way. From Louisville they continued down the river to New Orleans, and thence proceeded to Texas, but did not arrive there until after the war had been closed by Gen. Houston's final battle and victory of San Jacinto, which gave independence to Texas. Whether the men of Morgan's command carried out their original idea of becoming settlers there or not is not known. Only a small proportion of those who marched from Washington were actual residents of Washington County.

1 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 310, 868.

2 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 868.

3 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 867.

4 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 221.