JOHN M. MORGAN.

View Portrait of Mr. & Mrs. John M. Morgan

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          Although he has passed the venerable age of four score years John M. Morgan, now living retired at Columbus City, takes a lively interest in world affairs and continues a valued factor in the community. Long identified with agriculture and stock-raising in Louisa county, his name is known throughout a wide section and it is always spoken with the respect due to one who in all his transactions has aimed to be strictly honorable and just.

          He was born in Wales, September 10, 1830, a son of John and Catharine (Evans) Morgan. The father emigrated to America with his family in 1844 and in 1845 arrived in Iowa, settling in what was then known as the Welsh neighborhood, west of Columbus City. For more than thirty-five years he engaged in farming, becoming the owner of a valuable property of two hundred and fifty acres. He died in 1882 and his wife is also deceased. In their . . .

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. . . family were four children: Elizabeth, who married John Reese, of Columbus City, and is now deceased; Ann, who became the wife of Edward Davis, of Columbus City, and is also deceased; John M.; and Evan, deceased.

          John M. Morgan received his early education in his native country and at fourteen years of age crossed the ocean with his parents to seek his fortune in the new world. He soon adapted himself to conditions different from those he had known earlier in life and became a patriotic and progressive American citizen. He remained an inmate of the parental home after reaching his majority and assisted his father in the cultivation and management of the home place. After the death of the father he purchased the interests of his brothers and sisters, becoming the sole owner of the farm. He carried on general farming and stock-raising with marked success and so continued until 1905, when he sold out and bought a comfortable residence in Columbus City, where he has since lived.

          On the 27th of February, 1865, Mr. Morgan was married to Miss Ann Lewis, a daughter of Thomas and Mary (Roderick) Lewis, both of whom were born in Wales. They came to this country in 1848 and took up their residence near Burlington in Des Moines county. After the close of the Civil war they removed to Livingston county, Missouri, where Mr. Lewis engaged in farming. He died at the age of seventy-four and his wife is also deceased. In their family were five children: Joseph, who is living in Missouri; William, who removed to the state of Nevada and is now deceased; David and Margaret, both of whom are deceased; and Ann, now Mrs. John M. Morgan. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Morgan: Lewis, of Missouri; Abbia, now a resident of South Dakota; John, who makes his home is Louisa county; and Thomas, deceased.

          In religious faith Mr. Morgan adheres to the Congregational church, to which he is a liberal contributor. Politically he supports the platforms and candidates of the republican party but has never done so through any desire to secure public office, as his interest has centered in his family and his business. He enjoys the reputation among his acquaintances of being a man of excellent judgment, possessing all the attributes that belong to a good citizen. He and his wife have many friends and are fully worthy of the high respect in which they are held by young and old in Louisa county.