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Jasper County, Iowa
Historical and Genealogical Data Exchange
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Walter
J. Morgan It
is probable, as a rule, that few of the present generation have ever realized in
the dimmest way the transcendent possibilities that rested upon the shoulders of
the pioneers of this country, of which worthy band the well remembered late
Walter J. Morgan, of Newton, Jasper county, was an honored member. Grant it that
their lives, in certain instances, were some
what narrow and that they realized but little the great-results that ultimately
crowned their efforts; yet there exists the supreme fact that they followed
their restless impulses, took their lives in their hands, overspread the wild
prairies of the Hawkeye state and, with patient energy, resolution and
self-sacrifice that stands alone and unparalleled, they worked out their
allotted tasks, accomplished their destinies and today their descendants and
others enjoy undisturbed the fruitage of their labors. Mr.
Morgan was born May 17, 1830, at Marshall, New York, and when he was a small
boy, his parents, Walter and Louisa Morgan, came to Erie County, New York, and
there the subject remained with his parents until he was seventeen years old,
when he went to Wisconsin, locating at Kenosha, where he remained for a number
of years, and while there he learned his trade as cabinet maker, and while
living there he was married, on December 10, 1855, to Delia Derbyshire, the
daughter of S. S. and Delia Derbyshire, Mrs. Morgan's birth having occurred on
December 14, 1834, and she was living with her parents in Kenosha at the time of
her marriage. This union was
without issue. After
their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Morgan remained in Kenosha for nine years, and in
1864 they came to Jasper County, locating on a farm of four hundred acres in
Clear Creek township, where they remained two years, then, late in the spring of
1867, they moved to another farm near Newton of two hundred acres, but remained
there only a short time. moving to Newton in 1867, where Mr. Morgan launched in
the furniture business and remained here until his death, on December 7, 1883,
dying at the home where his widow has since lived, No. 306 East Washington
street, and he is buried in Newton Cemetery. Fraternally,
Mr. Morgan was a prominent Mason and Woodman at Newton. He held to the creed of
the Congregational Church, although he was not a member of the same, but he was
a liberal supporter of the local church and a great worker in the same.
He was always a friend to the poor and did many charitable acts, not for
any show or approval of the public, but out of the largeness of his heart. In
political affairs he was always a stanch Republican although he never took an
active part in public affairs. He
was very successful as a business man and left his widow a beautiful and
commodious home and quite a competency. She
has long been a favorite with a wide circle of friends in Newton and vicinity,
being the possessor of many estimable traits of character. Past and Present of Jasper
County Iowa, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, B.F. Bowden & Company,
Indianapolis, IN, 1912, p. 475. |
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