Peter Milton Morgan

  General Notes:

Served in Civil War with 1/2 brother Aaron Morgan and friend Nate Kerst.Jane Campbell, his great-great grandaughter is transcribing his diary as of 1996. A photo of Peter, Aaron and Nate is with the diary.
Peter Milton Morgan - Company 1, 118th Ohio volunteers, Lima, Ohio, Army of Ohio. Served from Aug 1862 to July 1865. Summary of locations; first 10 mo as Kentucky Central RR guard; eastern Tennessee with Burnside; Seige of Knoxville; fighting at Mossy Creek, Sweetwater, Loudon, Kingston; May 1864 joined Sherman on Atlanta campaign; Buzzard's Roost, Kennesaw mntn, Snake Creek Gap; at Lovejoy Station under Thomas; battles of Spring Hill, Franklin, Nashville; thru Washington and Alexandria VA, to Smithville, NC; taking of Fort Anderson, Fort Wilmington, and Fort Goldborough; marched to Salisbury, NC for guard duty until June 28, 1865; transferred to head of Chesapeake Bay, to Cleveland. Mustered out and discharged - never wounded. His 1/2 brother Aaron died of typhoid fever in 1864 near Kenesaw Mtn.
Flowery biographies of Peter and son Harry were printed in "History of Fresno County California" by Paul E. Vendor, published by the Historic Record Company, L.A. CA 1919. Family members said they would hardly have recongnized them from the glowing descriptions.
Vera Morgan Pack, worte the following of the Morgan family:"My grandfather, Peter Milton Morgan, aged 19 during his first year in the Union Army, and my grandmother, Catherine Mathis (Kate), were from Ohio. They were married after peace was declared. With their small daughter Iza, and a number of relatives, including several of the Mathis family and Aunt Murilla (Marilla) Morgan Ragan with her husband John, an Army buddy of my grandfather's, they followed the railroad to Kansas.
"My grandmother was not quite ready for my father's birth, so they found an old doctor who gae her something which delayed his arrival by a month, until they had a sod house ready in Sedgwick, Reno County, (should be Harvey C.) Kansas. On Feb 13th, 1871, Harry Clarence Morgan, weighed 15lbs, arrived ...Exactly two years to the day later, a second son was born. He had no real name until he chose one for himself -Claude Duval (Vera later states that he became a railroad mechanic.)"
"Grandpa Morgan was a railroad car porter for years. Grandmother Kate died when my father was 19. Grandfather remarried a widow, Mary Sager,who had a lovely daughter Blanche, about Iza's age....Grandpa and Aunt Mary were together until her death about 20 or 25 years later. They lived in Great Bend, Kansas."
"Grandpa Morgan had come to Fresno and had persuaded my folks to come out and go on a ranch he had found ner Clovis in the Garfield Colony...We arrived on a foggy February day...I went to Johnston's with Blanche."
"He decided he was not going to be a burden on Mother, so he finally went to the Soldier's Home where he developed diabetic gangrene and a foot was amputated. He died there and was buried in Fresno."

  Noted events in his life were:

• Census, 1880, Sedgwick, Harvey, Kansas. ¹
P. M. Morgan, 36, hay dealer, born in Ohio. M. C. Morgan, 29, keeps house, born in Ohio. Iza L. Morgan, 11, born in Ohio. Harry C. Morgan, 9, born in Kansas. Claud Morgan, 7, born in Kansas.

Peter married Mary Catherine Mathis on 28 Mar 1868 in Spring Hills, Champaign, Ohio. (Mary Catherine Mathis was born on 22 Feb 1850 in Urbana, Champaign, Ohio and died on 15 Aug 1890 in Newton, Harvey, Kansas.)

Peter next married Mary E. Sager on 29 Aug 1893 in Harrisburg, Poinsett, Arkansas. (Mary E. Sager was born on 15 Feb 1851 in Champaign County, Ohio.)