My Genealogy Hound

Ex-Judge William T. Morgan, farmer and stock raiser, was born in Gibson County, Tenn., in 1843, and is a son of John and Susan (Basinger) Morgan, natives of Tennessee. The father was reared principally in North Carolina, but when grown returned to his native State. When our subject was about two years old his parents removed to Yell County, Ark., and when he was about eleven they went to Texas, where they lived until 1860. They then returned to Yell County, Ark., and afterward went to Missouri and Kansas. The father died in Crawford County in 1879. Her served about eighteen months in Company E, Third Arkansas Cavalry, United States Army, in Arkansas, and participated in the battle at Prairie De Hand. The grandfather was of Dutch descent, a native of North Carolina, and a soldier in one of the early wars. Mrs. Morgan died in Yell County, Ark., and Mr. Morgan was afterward again married. William T. is the fifth of a family of eight children, and during his youth attended school but about eight months. When eighteen he joined the First Arkansas Cavalry, United States Army, and a few months later joined the First Arkansas Infantry, serving a year. He then served five months in the First Arkansas Cavalry, and in 1863 joined the Third Arkansas Cavalry, with which he remained until the close of the war, serving as sergeant. He operated in Arkansas, Missouri and Indian Territory, and participated in the battles of Prairie Grove and Pea Ridge, and a great many skirmishes. He was discharged at Louisburg in May, 1865. In 1869 he was married in Newton County, Mo., to Elizabeth, daughter of James Coats, and in 1886 married Mrs. Margaret Rance, daughter of A. B. Hudson, a native of Indiana, who died in Texas when Mrs. Morgan was a girl. Mr. Morgan has four living children by his first wife, and one by his second. In 1869 he settled upon his present farm, which was then in the midst of the wilderness, but which, with patience and industry, has become a fine farm of 560 acres of finely cultivated land. Mr. Morgan had but a team and $150 when coming to this county, and his property is the result of his own labor and management. From 1872 he served as justice of the peace of Richland Township about twelve years, and although several of his judgments were appealed, they were never reversed. In 1884 he was elected county and probate judge, and served two years. He is an active worker in the Republican party, and cast his first presidential vote for Lincoln in 1864. He is greatly interested in the educational advancement of the country, and has been school director many years. He is a District Master Workman of the K. of L. and President of the K. of H. and F. A.