Does anyone know how John Morgan came to be called "John Hamilton Morgan"?

Group of Southern States Missionaries about 1880

3-John Morgan, 4-Matthias Foss Cowley (SS Mission 1880-1882)

Used with permission, John Hamilton Morgan Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT. purchased 2012.

Great Grandfather John Morgan's FamilySearch.org family tree is marked "Read Only." Amy's 2014 question is still found there and accessible.

Does anyone know how John Morgan came to be called "John Hamilton Morgan?" The book "The Life and Ministry of John Morgan," makes the following statement about the middle name, but the co-author, Nicholas G. Morgan Sr., does not give a source for the information: "Although christened 'John Hamilton Morgan,' the 'Hamilton' name coming from his mother's people, my father confined his name, throughout his mature life to 'John Morgan.'" Every record I recall seeing from John Morgan's lifetime calls him "John Morgan" with no middle name or initial, with the exception of the 1850 US Census, which calls him "John W." Anyone familiar with any letters or other sources that show him using the middle name "Hamilton" during his lifetime?
25 May 2014   by Amy Tanner Thiriot

During August of 1894 Matthias Cowley was attending to John Morgan as he lay dying in Preston, Idaho.  Cowley's journal entries reveal some helpful family history facts.

Last year cousin Karen discovered a drawer full of 5 x 7 index cards her Grandfather Nicholas G. Morgan had copied his own father's journal entries onto. Among the cards were eleven with Matthias Cowley's August 1894 journal entries.

The card I transcribed below is very telling.

(continued from the previous card where he is writing about Mary Ann Linton Morgan)

Aug 19 – 92 After moving away for some time, she again returned and again, the third time – and this time rented Adam Hunter’s house in which another little baby boy was born [Jan 26, 1894] and whom they called for me – Mathias Cowley. His father blessed him and I blessed him again the night after his father’s death.

After the burial, Mrs. Helen [lined through M. Morgan] Snyder and myself attended the services in the Tab. and listened to Pres. Housdale of the Michigan University on the Essentials of the Mind. After meeting called on Geo. A & Lucy Smith, his wife, the later a second cousin of mine. Returning to Bro. Morgan’s by request of Sis. Helen M. Morgan,  I blessed her little baby boy, sealing upon him the name of John Hamilton. Slept that night at Bro. Morgan’s.  

The following image shows three other index cards of the eleven in Nicholas Morgan's file drawer.

If there is interest, I will add the transcription of the other ten index cards that describe John Morgan's days at Preston, return train trip to Salt Lake and his funeral and burial.

Thank you cousin Karen.

Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Tennessee 1886 and the Incline Railway 2014.

(Continued from here.)

The view from the front seat of the Incline Railway Car is straight down to Chattanooga below. Fortunately the decent is at 6 mph. 

Traveling up or down the incline rail you pass another train traveling in the opposite direction. The track momentarily separates half-way through the one mile ride.

I insisted we travel to and from Lookout Mountain by this means because great grandfather John Morgan wrote that he took his wife Mellie with him on the Incline Rail in the 1880's.  Or so I thought. I haven't been able to locate that account in his journal since.

The first of January 1886 John Morgan traveled to the Southern States Mission and his daughter, Mellie, accompanied him to act as his secretary. She became ill during her stay and President Morgan remained in the area longer than he'd planned to nurse her to health.

March 14 1886  … got a carriage and took Mellie [daughter] and Misses Sarah and Susie Fowler to Lookout Mountain. Went to Rock City, Natural Bridge and other points Returned at 6 p.m. Mellie standing the trip pretty well. … 

(To be continued.)

Lookout Mountain and John Morgan and Southern States Missionaries.

The November 14, Men and Women of Faith in the Latter-days Lecture in the Assembly Hall “Faith to Persevere; Southern States Mission” was highlighted in yesterday’s Church News.  I attended the lecture and enjoyed hearing Heather Seferovich’s research and look into the lives and service of the missionaries who served there. Including Great Grandfather John Hamilton Morgan. The picture included in yesterday’s newspaper account caught my eye. Nicely dressed young men perched on the top of Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

John Morgan’s journal of his years in the South recounts numerous trips to that site. A hike up Lookout Mountain was a rite of passage with President John Morgan and all of his newly arrived missionaries, visiting friends and family.

He recorded two visits to that mountain in 1886. In January John Morgan’s sixteen-year-old daughter Mellie traveled with him as secretary to the SS Mission. She became ill during her stay there and her planned return home had to be delayed. After four-six weeks of convalescing in Tennessee he wrote of his daughter’s renewed health and stamina. Prior to their departure West in the latter part of March he took Mellie and some friends up to Lookout Mountain.

In November of that year his wife Mellie traveled from Salt Lake City to Kansas City to join him for a month in the SS Mission. She accompanied him on his mission work throughout the month, and traveled home with him and converts emigrating West. While they were in Chattanooga John took his wife Mellie to Lookout Mountain.

Lookout Mountain from Wikipedia

On November 24, 1863 the Battle of Lookout Mountain was fought on the slopes of the mountain. The majority of hand to hand combat took place near Cravens' house about halfway to the summit. Lookout Mountain’s shape and location can in some conditions cause a unique weather phenomenon. After dawn, fog will sometimes descend from the cooler mountain top to the valley below and stop about halfway down, an event which took place the day of the battle and is the reason for its romantic name, the "Battle Above the Clouds". The battle was won by Union forces, enabling them to lift the siege of Union forces in Chattanooga.

An account of John Morgan's Civil War Service is posted here at The Ancestor Files.

John Hamilton Morgan Journal, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Bessie Morgan. Salt Lake Tribune Society Page, April 7, 1901 .

Salt Lake Tribune, April 7, 1901

In Society

Bessie Morgan turned eleven in 1901. That Spring she was mentioned “In Society” in the Salt Lake Tribune for Sunday, April 7, 1901. It appears she was one of twenty-two young people who attended a party during the week before Easter.

The newspaper article began, “Holy Week was without any large or important event, society devoting most of its time to church-going and millinery openings. The weather last evening was not of a description that would denote a brilliant Easter parade today after the church services, a custom of the day in fashionable circles in nearly every city in the country.

“The festive high ball is to be relegated to obscurity at the Country club.

“The Easter bonnet is quite gay this year. 

This picture of Bessie Morgan from among her older brother, Nicholas Groesbeck Morgan’s papers (thanks to cousin Karen M.) is of Bessie as a young woman. Her daughter Winnifred had never seen it before I showed it to her in 2010. Bessie's hat makes the picture fit well with this article. Bessie does not look eleven-years-old in her hat. 

  

The newspaper article continues, “On Tuesday evening Miss Ruby Thomson entertained, her guests being Genevieve James, Elsie De Groo, Ruby Thomson, Gail Morgan, Jessie Freeman, Jennie Freeman, Bessie Morgan, Rosella Price, Ethel Liddle, Julia Smith, Florence McFarlane, Perry Liddle, John W. James, Harold James, Ralph Kunkle, Art, Kunkle, Clarence Van Saub, Guy Hart, Earnest Smith, Will Thomson, Wallace Burt, Raymond Thomson.”

I recognized some of these young people and put them together using their last names. There were twenty-two young people at Miss Ruby Thomson’s party and many of them were there with brothers and sisters.

James; Genevieve, Harold, John W.

Thomson; Ruby, Will, Raymond

Morgan; Gail (13),Bessie (11), Wallace Burt (12)

Liddle; Ethel, Perry

Freeman; Jessie, Jennie

Smith; Julia, Earnest

Kunkle; Art (12), Ralph (14)

Clarence Van Saub

Elsie De Groo

Rosella Price

Florence McFarlane (13) (Florence was 22 in the 1910 Salt Lake Census—Waterloo District)

Guy Hart

In 1902 Bessie’s older sister, Ruth, married Sol Burke Kunkle. Kunkles also lived on York/Bryan Avenue. Bessie’s oldest sister, Helen, was married to Andrew Burt. Wallace Burt, Bessie’s nephew, was born to them in 1890, the year before Bessie was born. 

A different Tribune Society Page explained that the party Bessie Morgan and twenty-something other young people attended was a surprise party. Such interesting trivia!

Bessie Morgan Rex. Unknown day in May 1937 letter.

These Spring 1937 letters explain so many things. Cousin Gail H. gave me this picture of her Grandmother Gail Clayton. It is a picture of Bessie Morgan Rex (L-R) and her sisters Gail Morgan Clayton and Helen Morgan Burt Austin. It was probably taken in front of one of their homes while Bessie was in Salt Lake receiving treatment from Dr. Pyott.



[unknown day in May 1937]

My dear boy,

I had a part of a page typewritten to you & now I cant find it. You didn’t get a letter last week did you.  It was my fault. I was to write. I had been to S.L. [Salt Lake] and came home feeling so much better, but it will take me some months to build up. So it was my slowness, dearie.

It is a beautiful May morn. Daddy has just loaded a 7B milk cow for market. The only one thank goodness.

I told you so much on that piece of paper. I don’t think they are sending missionaries to Brazil any more. None going this time. Your shirts will reach you in time to wear them home.

Clara & her mother & father were in to see me a week ago. It was the music festival. She is a lovely girl. Tonight is the Primary May festival. This is a busy time of year.

I hope you get your money on time this month. Daddy is late

 

getting it down. It will come, so don’t worry. 

So you get the Reaper? Well there is not much to read. It might keep you in practice with your English. It will be “Pardon my foreign accent.” Will you. Yes? I’m glad it is cooling off there – and warming up here. It has been a long winter. Seems so good to see green grass again. Salt Lake is lovely this time of year. Winnie and I had such a nice time. She is a dear. 

 

Well, I better close & find that piece of paper. Will write more next time. Am getting stronger & have more ambition. I need it. I went to Dr. Pyott. His is chiropractor dietician & I take no drugs. He has certainly done wonders for me. 

Helen says H. Hunger is going with Ruby’s cousin, a Probst girl.

Keep up your good work my son. I hope you keep the spirit with you when you come home as well as Mearl P. has. He is a fine young man. I know the Lord is helping you. Love & kisses from all of us.

Lovingly Mother

 

Note: There is a 1946 picture of the Pyott Sanitorian and Clinic at 1213 East 13th South in Salt Lake on the Utah State Historical Society picture database here.

 

John Hamilton Morgan and daughter, Mellie, 1886 trip to Southern States Mission, Part 4, conclusion.

1886 John Morgan traveled with the emigrants February 19-21 from Chattanooga to Kansas City, where he saw them safely off, and began his return to Chattanooga. He arrived there on the 22nd, was met by brother Kimball at the depot and found Mellie no better.

February 22-25, ... Busy at work at my cash book and other office work during the day, wrote some and attended to Mellie the greater part of the day. ... John Morgan continued to attend to his convalescing daughter, Mellie, much of the following month. On February 28th he wrote, Mellie not improving much. And on March 1 … Obtained a feather bed of sister McDaniels for Mellie. …

March 6 Read and wrote during the day. Attended a circus at night. Mellie improving very much. …

March 8 Wrote and read during the day. Attended to Mellie who is improving slowly. …

March 13 Elder Jno. P. Murphy called this a.m., having just arrived from Utah to fill a mission. He spent a part of the day with us. Wrote some letters today and in the evening we administered to Mellie.

March 14 Accompanied brother Murphy to the Depot and saw him off to Georgia. Afterwards got a carriage and took Mellie and Misses Sarah and Susie Fowler to Lookout Mountain. Went to Rock City, Natural Bridge and other points. Returned at 6 p.m. Mellie standing the trip pretty well. …

March 17 Mellie still improving, but quite weak.

March 18 Mellie not so well today. Wrote some letters and attended to Mellie. Beautiful weather.

March 19 Writing and reading today. In the evening brother [perhaps Elias S.] Kimball returned from a seventeen day trip into Georgia. Reported all well.

March 20 At work with brother Kimball getting things in shape to go west.

March 21 Reading and writing the entire day.

March 22 Made preparation to start west tonight. Finished up my correspondence and looked up my business. At 6:10 p.m. took M. and C. train to Memphis. Mellie feeling much better. …

March 25 Arrived at Pueblo at 8:10 a.m. and had breakfast. Waited until 12:35 p.m. and took west bound train to Salida at which point I left Mellie to go on alone while I turned back to Pueblo. Snowed considerably. A fire in Salida today burned two of the center blocks in the place.

"In her youth Mrs. Austin acted as her father’s
secretary and accompanied him
on numerous tours of the mission and to other
parts of the United States."--From the obituary
below.

Wouldn’t it have helped us now if her granddaughters had been named in her obituary?

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

From John Hamilton Morgan journal, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah.