ARMATAGE MORGAN, DEARBORN, Co. INDIANA

ARMATAGE MORGAN, Harrison Township, one of the old settlers of Dearborn County, was born in Montgomery County, Penn., in 1816. His parents, Enoch and Margaret (Moss) Morgan, were also natives of Pennsylvania, and were there married. In 1818 the family left their home near Philadelphia to seek a home in the West. They came by wagons over the mountains to Pittsburg, and from there by a keel-boat down the Ohio River to Cincinnati. The next move was to Harrison, where Enoch Morgan and his brother, together, entered 160 acres, which they subsequently divided, after selling twenty acres to a third brother, a blacksmith by trade, and who, when he first came to this county, plied his trade for some time with an iron wedge driven into a block of wood to serve for an anvil. On the farm above referred to Mr. and Mrs. Morgan resided till their deaths, and here our subject grew into manhood, working for his parents till twenty-two years of age.

He then purchased a farm of 120 acres of Robert Cassidy, for whom he labored five years as payment for the same. In his thirtieth year (February 5, 1846), he married Hannah Lynas. a native of this county, and daughter of Joseph and Sarah (White) Lynas; her father, a native of England and an old Revolutionary soldier. Her parents were early settlers of this county. This union has been blessed by six children, three of whom are still living: Joseph, Jennie and George W. The two sons are both farmers; the daughter, a teacher in the Harrison high school.

After his marriage, in 1846, Mr. Morgan settled on his present farm, and, for about six years, lived in an old log cabin of the popular pioneer sort, when he moved in a wheelbarrow to the comfortable residence which has since sheltered his family. By dint of hard labor, industry and economy, assisted by a faithful and persevering wife, Mr. Morgan has provided well for the frosts of old age, and is now enjoying the fruits of his earlier labors. For many years Mr. Morgan was quite extensively engaged in the culture of small fruit, and at one time had twenty- nine different species of the cherry on his premises, and other fruits accordingly.

It is worthy of note that the family seems doomed to accidents, several members having thus lost their lives. The father was drowned in a canal; his brother Edward was killed by striking a tree while riding rapidly by it on horseback; a third, Benjamin, was killed in falling down a stairway, and a brother-in-law of our subject was killed by a falling tree. Mr. Morgan's family are associated with the Christian Church, of which he has been a worthy member for more than half a century.