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Author: HuntingtonV
Surnames: Morgan, Wurrell, Wickham, Crum, Slesser, Griffin
Classification: biography
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From Biographical Memoirs of Huntington County, Indiana, 1901, pages
513-516
Among those men whose efforts have contributed so much to the development of this section
of the state is he whose name stands at the head of the present article, Charles H.
Morgan, a man of sterling worth and upright character, whose wide circle of friends have
only words of a complimentary nature regarding him. Mr. Morgan was born in Wayne county,
Indiana, some miles north of Richmond, January 9, 1824, and there grew to maturity. Upon
arrival at man's estate he was married to Miss Mary Wurrell, who was born in Wayne
county, North Carolina, whence his own parents had come. His father was Micajah Morgan,
the son of Benjamin, one of the substantial old Friends who came from the south to settle
in the eastern part of this state in the early days of the last century. The old
Friends' meeting-house at New Garden, north of Richmond, was the center of much that
has helped shape the history of this country; and Benjamin and Micajah Morgan were among
its most respected and influ!
ential members. Charles H. was born into the society and was reared under the kindly
influences of the old and strict teachings of the sect, withdrawing from the society when
he took a wife outside the pale of the church. It was the custom, when a member had done
something that the officers thought demanded attention from them, for the society to
appoint a committee to visit the erring one and ascertain if he were not sorry for the
act, and if he would come before the meeting and acknowledge that he was contrite, they
would accept his explanation; but, if he remained obstinate, the society simply passed
resolutions withdrawing from him. Not being wiling (sic) to say that he had chosen a wife
from the world and was sorry therefore, he was left outside the circle of the society. In
1849, his father giving him a tract of one hundred and twenty acres of wild land in
Jefferson township, Huntington county, Charles H. made that his home and there devoted the
best ten years of !
his life to the making of a farm from the wilds. In 1859 he settled o
n another new place in Jackson township, Wells county, where he has resided for forty
years, leaving it, in 1899, when he retired to a pleasant home in the village of Warren,
where the evening of life is being passed in the enjoyment of the returns assured him by
the many years of most difficult and persistent labor. His earlier life here was filled
with a struggle for existence, as his land was of so level a character that it was
difficult to make it produce crops adequate to the needs of his growing family; but, after
removing to Wells county, he had better success in all his undertakings. He was widely
known as a fine chopper, and was often employed to clear the timber from tracts of land
and place them in shape for cultivation. Few men have done more toward the clearing and
improvement of the country than he, as he has converted nearly three hundred acres of
heavily timbered land into productive fields. His home farm became one of the most
desirable in his vicinity, !
its high grade improvements speaking emphatically of the industry and management of the
owner.
The older residents have a distinct recollection of this gentleman's operating the
first threshing machine and separator ever seen in this region. In fact, it was the first
separator ever made in the city of Richmond, where so many thousands of complete threshing
outfits have since been produced. He began to thresh grain when the machine consisted
simply of a cylinder, through which the grain was passed, and generally known as a
"chaff-piler," it being necessary to shake the grain from the chaff with a fork,
and cleaning it from the chaff by passing it through a hand fanning mill. This was of
course a great advance over the former method of pounding the grain out with a flail and
winnowing it by letting the grain fall through a wind created by the dextrous manipulation
of a blanket. When the power separator appeared it was thought perfection had been
reached in the matter of threshing; in fact, all later developments along this line have
been simply a perfecting of this !
machine.
Ever feeling a deep interest in all that tended to make advancement in the business of the
farmer, he not only became a promoter of the better breeds of stock, but was also
instrumental in the organization of the Warren Fair Association, the results of which are
now apparent on every hand in the better grades of all kinds of animals and in the more
up-to-date and business-like methods of farm operations. He became a director in this
movement, and was not only an exhibitor of his own farm products, but rendered every
encouragement along that line to others. He was thought to be beyond all reason when he
paid one dollar per peck for the first seed of the Early Rose potatoes, but the wisdom of
this was soon apparent to all, as that variety and the Empire soon had thousands of
growers. He was known far and wide as the grower of the largest pumpkins, his exhibit of
two grown upon one vine that weighed upward of three hundred pounds exciting the greatest
curiosity. His efforts!
at the securing of new varieties resulted in the greater productiveness of the farms of
the county, the first four bushels of Mediterranean wheat producing one hundred bushels
and thus exciting the interest of farmers to the possibilities of there being something
better in the grains or even in the methods of cultivation than had before been followed.
It is to such men who take the initiative in those matters that credit must be accorded
for the advancement of all lines of agriculture, and the getting away from the old,
worn-out ruts that would otherwise be adhered to for another generation. Those farmers
who have made a special study of their business as other lines of business have to be
studied, and who adapt themselves to the conditions of the times and adopt the modern
scientific methods of procedure, stand second to no class of business men, and the results
in almost every instance warrant the efforts that the pioneers of improvement have made.
As a director of th!
e Fair, he took a stand in opposition to horse-racing, and was censure
d by many who pretended that such excitement as it occasioned was a necessary adjunct; but
the result of its elimination illustrated the views he had formerly announced.
Mr. Morgan's views on public matters fully accorded with those of the Republican
party, having that inherent hatred for the institution of slavery generally found in the
members of the Friends' society; and upon the outbreak of the Civil war, in the days
of the nation's peril, he did not hesitate to offer his services for the preservation
of the nation, and was mustered into Company A, Forty-seventh Regiment, Indiana
Volunteers, under Colonel James R. Slack, whose lamented death occurred on the streets of
Chicago July 28, 1881, after having been stricken with paralysis when about to board a
street-car. Soon after the regiment was organized it was sent to Kentucky; the following
spring was transferred to the west and cooperated in the taking of New Madrid and Island
No. 10, the brigade consisting of five Indiana regiments. After the capture of Fort
Pillow it was sent to Helena, Arkansas, where the Colonel was made post commander. From
this place, upon one occasion about si!
xty men were sent across the river to guard some cotton that had been captured, and while
there the rebels came upon them and killed or captured nearly all of the party; Morgan
being among those who were taken prisoners, was retained for about ninety days, having
been removed several times from place to place. When General Tillman, who had been
exchanged for General Prentiss, was placed in command of Vicksburg, the prisoners were
fairly well treated and the soldiers who guarded them proved to be a fine lot of Kentucky
boys, for whom Morgan brought many letters north when his parole came and he was conducted
to the Federal gunboats. He was ordered to report to the parole camp at Cairo, but first
visited the headquarters of his regiment at Helena; the colonel told him to remain and
that he would arrange the matter with the authorities. Being soon after promoted and his
captain made the colonel, Morgan was allowed to return home on a furlough, and when the
final exchange wa!
s effected in the fall he was reported as lost in the exchange. While
the regiment was at home on its veteran furlough he rejoined it at Indianapolis and
returned to the front, taking part in the Banks expedition up Red river, and was in all
the engagements that occurred while the dam was being replaced to allow the vessels to
retreat down the river. The exposure upon this service gave him a sunstroke, from the
effects of which he never fully recovered, and for which he now receives a pension. He
was mustered out after three years and four months actual service.
After traveling life's pathway together for forty-five years, he and wife were
separated by her death in September, 1890, and some time after he was married to Mrs.
Sarah J. Wickham, widow of Benjamin Wickham, of Van Buren, whose maiden name was Sarah
Crum. Her father, Richard Crum, of Warren, died while a soldier. Five children are
living to give honor to this venerable citizen: Abraham, of Jackson, Wells county; Naomi,
wife of J. Slesser; Sarah, wife of William Griffin; Micajah, of Bluffton; and Charles M.,
of Wells county.
Formerly a Republican, Mr. Morgan was one of a few men to vote for Peter Cooper, and has
operated with the Prohibition party for some years. Reared a Friend, he became a
Wesleyan, and later a member of the United Brethren, being one of the most prominent in
his church, where he has been a trustee for fifteen years.
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