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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York published by John M. Gresham & Co. in 1891.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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CHARLES W. MORGAN is one of those practical, sagacious, enterprising business men who constitute a very welcome and important factor in the material welfare and progress of a community, and Jamestown is fortunate in possessing such a man. He is a son of Harvey and Amy (Crawford) Morgan, and was born in Randolph, Cattaraugus county, New York, August 12, 1855. Caleb Morgan, (great-grandfather) was born July 19, 1740, and died at Randolph, Vt., September 9, 1810, in the seventy-first year of his age. He married Ann Brooks, who was born March 18, 1745, and died December 11, 1816, by whom he had several children. Rufus Morgan (grandfather) was born in Brattleboro, Vt., May 4, 1781, and died in Randolph, Vt., October 17, 1827. He married Ruth Kibbe, who was born April 9, 1783, by whom he had eleven children: Laura, born September 5, 1806; Maria, born March 22, 1808; Norman, born June 30, 1809; Catherine, born February 23, 1811; Caleb, born July 19, 1812; Frederick, born October 12, 1814; Nancy, born March 12, 1816; Elijah, born September 29, 1817; Heman, born September 2, 1819; Harvey (father), born August 13, 1821; and Israel, born February 12, 1825. The maternal grandfather, William Crawford, was born in Hebron, Washington county, this State, April 5, 1798, was a farmer by occupation and died in Napoli, Cattaraugus county, same State, October 27, 1875. He married Betsy Shaw, of White Creek, N. Y., by whom he had thirteen children, all of whom were born in this State: Susan, born in Hebron, Washington county, April 19, 1820, and died in Middleburg, Schoharie county, September 12, 1859; Matilda M., born in Hebron, February 20, 1822, and died in Napoli, Cattaraugus county, October 15, 1880; John, born in Hebron, December 10, 1823; Amy (mother), born in Hebron, August 30, 1825; William, Jr., born in Bethany, Genesee county, August 23, 1827, and died in Java, Wyoming county, April 5, 1849; Harriet, born in Bethany, January 1, 1829; Phoebe R., born in Bethany, September 1, 1831; James, born in China, Wyoming county, July 21, 1833; Dolly B., born in China, July 2, 1835; Cornelius, born in Java, May 5, 1837; Ira, born December 23, 1842, and died in Napoli, September 10, 1857; Franklin C., born in Java, November 3, 1845; and Daniel S., born in Java, December 26, 1847. Mrs. Crawford was born in White Creek, Washington county, August 15, 1802, and died in Napoli, November 4, 1878, both husband and wife being in their seventy-seventh year when summoned to join the silent majority. Harvey Morgan (father) was born in Randolph, Vt., August 13, 1821, and when a young man emigrated to Cattaraugus county, this State, and thence to Allegany county, where he still resides, having retired from business, his profession being that of a dentist. In politics he is a republican, and on June 6, 1844, he married Amy Crawford, a daughter of William Crawford, by whom he had four children: Henry, born January 3, 1846, died February 22, 1867, who entered the army during the late civil war, was taken prisoner and imprisoned at Cahawba, Alabama, during the last eighteen months of the war, from the effects of which incarceration he died shortly after his release; Alice, born May 18, 1850, married to George T. Berry, had two children, Fred. N., born, Dec. 8, 1867; and Lewis A., born April 14, 1870, who died, and she married for her second husband C. H. Kilburn, who is one of the members of the North American Photo- Copying Co., of Jamestown; Charles W.; and Julia, born Nov. 8, 1857, died Feb. 6, 1862.

Charles W. Morgan was educated in the common schools of Randolph, this State, supplemented by a commercial course in Chamberlain Institute, from which he graduated when sixteen years of age, and afterwards accepted a position as book-keeper and clerk in a grocery store in Randolph, where he remained until February, 1874, when he went to Blue Rapids, Kansas, and engaged in the grocery business, but becoming dissatisfied returned to Randolph in the autumn of the same year, taking a position as clerk and book-keeper in a hardware store, where he remained several years. In January, 1881, he came to Jamestown and engaged in the plumbing and steam-heating business in which he was very successful. In May, 1885, his health being seriously impaired, he sold out and remained inactive until January, 1886, when he organized the Maddux Reclining Chair Co., which was afterwards reorganized under the firm name of Morgan, Maddox & Co., and engaged in the manufacture of polished centre tables, with wood, marble and plush tops, which he also made an emphatic success; but being interested in three land companies in Buffalo, owning twelve lots of valuable real estate in Jamestown and a farm of one hundred and twenty-five acres in Cattaraugus county, he was unable to devote an adequate amount of time to the table business and therefore sold out his interest in that firm in July, 1890. In October of the same year he commenced the erection of a large factory to be devoted to the manufacture of furniture, the building being located midway between the Erie and the Chautauqua lake railways, and on the bank of the Chautauqua lake outlet, a few rods from the wharves of the large steamboats, rendering the facilities for receiving material and shipping products unsurpassed. He then organized the Morgan Manufacturing Co., associating with him L. C. Jagger, thus forming one of the strongest practical business firms in western New York. Their specialty is the finest grades of library and parlor tables and their factory, which is 50x120 feet and five stories in height, with an addition of thirty-one feet for the boiler, engine and dry kiln, is equipped with the most modern and best makes of machinery, mostly located on the second floor, which is four inches thick and so rigid that there is scarcely a tremor when all the machinery is in motion. The bench work is done on the third floor, the tops finished and the tables set up on the fourth floor and the frame finishing on the fifth floor. Everything has been done to facilitate the business which large practical experience and ingenuity could suggest. The firm employs from one hundred to one hundred and fifty men, according to the season, and are bound from the nature of things, their enterprise and experience and their reputation, to achieve a phenomenal success. In the winter of 1889-90 Mr. Morgan aided in organizing the Tousley Harvester Co., of which he is president.

On May 26, 1875, Mr. Morgan united in marriage with Stella, daughter of Thaddeus Cornell, of Randolph, Cattaraugus county, by whom he has two children: Ray Hart, born March 17, 1876, and Alice Marie, born December 11, 1885.

In politics Mr. Morgan is an independent republican and in religion is a member of the Independent Congregational church. He is a member of Randolph Lodge, No. 448, I. O. O. F., of Randolph; Mt. Moriah Lodge, No. 145, F. and A. M.; Western Sun Chapter, No. 67, R. A M.; and Jamestown Commandery, No. 61, K. T., of Jamestown. Having cared for himself since he was fifteen years of age and accumulated a handsome property by his own unaided efforts, he may be safely ranked as a most successful self-made man, who enjoys the confidence, respect and esteem of all who know him.

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This family biography is one of 658 biographies included in Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York published in 1891. 

View additional Chautauqua County, New York family biographies here: Chautauqua County, New York Biographies

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