Ralph "Rafe" Morgan

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~morgansociety/genealogy/david.htm

Ralph Morgan, early settler of Lexington, Kentucky Ralph Morgan, from whom the writer's family descended followed the vocation of surveyor after the peace of 1763. He was with Captain Bullitt's party that was sent out by Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, in 1773, and assisted in large surveys near the present sites of Covington and Louisville, Kentucky. Owing to the impending Indian war, this party at the request of Governor Dunmore, was escorted by Captain Daniel Boone and others through the interior of Kentucky and the Clinch River settlements back to Williamsburg, Virginia, in August 1774.

The writer has no official record, but it is certain (see Western Annals, Perkins, 1847) that both Ralph Morgan and his cousin, Daniel Boone, participated in the battle of Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774. After this battle, the army at once crossed the Ohio river and joined the main army under Lord Dunmore, and advanced to the Indian towns, where the treaty was made, at which Logan, the Mingo chief, delivered his celebrated speech. At the close of this war, Ralph Morgan returned to his father's home who, by this time, was living on the Monongahela river, near Red Stone Fort, in what is now West Moreland county, Pennsylvania, where he died in the year 1791, and is buried in an old family graveyard on the land once owned by him. a rough flat stone at the head of a tomb with the name, Morgan, only on it, is still standing.

We cannot locate there whereabouts from this time of Ralph Morgan, until 1778, when he went to visit his relatives in North Carolina and journeyed from there to Boonesborough, Kentucky, via Cumberland Gap, arriving at Boonesborough January 17th, 1779. During the early spring, he assisted his relatives in planting the spring crops, nearly everyone at the Fort being in some way related to him. He joined Captain John Holder's company and took part in Colonel Bowman's Expedition against the Indian town of Chilicothe, that started April 13th, 1779, returning and dispersing May 27th 1779. As is well known, this expedition met with defeat, but killed twenty-seven Indians and captured one hundred and seventy-six horses and other valuable plunder consisting of kettles, robes, etc.

One striking incident, very interesting to the writer, was the price obtained for the plunder. Three-gallon kettles brought at this sale, one-half as much as a horse, 327.50 in continental money and $12.00 in Apanish Milled Dollars; one 2 1/2 gallon cast-iron tea kettle brought at this sale, $18.00 Spanish Milled dollars. all the plunder was sold at public vendue and the proceeds divided among members of the Expedition. a member of this Expedition related that 'we were allowed only a peck of parched corn each and received some public beef at Lexington, we were all volunteers and found ourselves.'

For an account of the expedition and names of Kentucky people who participated see Collins' Kentucky History. This proved to be the most disastrous to the early Kentucky settlers of any they had theretofore engaged in. While it gave a momentary respite to Indian depredations, it made it impossible to make the Detroit Campaign, projected by General Clark, who depended on this force to enable him to capture Detroit, which would have at once put an end to the Indian war and saved thousands of lives and seven years of Indian massacre in Kentucky. This force had been ordered to reinforce Clark's forces, but in disobedience of command, made this raid.

We can find no trace of Ralph Morgan being in Kentucky from September, 1779 until 1782. The writer's grandfather, Abel Morgan, always claimed to the writer that his father, Ralph Morgan, served under General Greene in the Campaign of 1781, which is no doubt correct. The nearest and most official data is that one Captain Morgan, of Virginia commanding the pickets at the opening of the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill, April 25th, 1781 but neither the War Office at Washington, D.C. nor the records in Virginia Library at Richmond can identify this person other than just 'Captain Morgan of Virginia.' The writer remembers having seen in the possession of his grandfather, Abel Morgan, a land warrant for 1440 acres of land, which contained a recital that said land was granted to Ralph Morgan, of Virginia, by that State, in consideration for military services. This warrant was given by Abel Morgan to James H. Lane, M.D. at that time, from the Fourth Congressional District of Indians. Said warrant was never returned. Congressman Lane was to endeavour to obtain some congressional action on it, but on repeated inquiries from the writer's father to him, after he had removed to Kansas, claimed that it had been lost. There are quite a number of descendants of Abel Morgan, who remember having seen this warrant, now living, this April 1909.

We next find Ralph Morgan in Kentucky in July 1782. His name appears as serving under Colonel Logan, who was with this command, as visiting the Battle Ground of Blue Licks, August 23rd, 1782, and assisting in burying the dead. This battle was fought August 19th, 1782.

Sometime in 1784, Ralph Morgan was married to Mrs. Priscilla Douglas, whose maiden name was Bryan. She is said to be a niece of Mrs. Daniel Boone. Her husband, William Douglas, was killed by Indians, August 15th, 1782, in a cornfield adjoining Bryan's Station, in attempting to enter the Fort with the reinforcements from Boone's Station. The newly married couple made their home for the next seven or eight years at Boone's and Holder's Stations, he following his vocation of surveying, locating large tracts of land on the percentage or contract basis, usually getting one-half. In this way, he acquired large tracts of land in Montgomery, Bath and adjoining counties. Six or seven Kentucky histories contain accounts of Surveyor Morgan, of Boonesborough, while Collins refers to s. Morgan as being employed by Simon Kenton to locate some large warrants for him in March, 1786, and of his applying to Kenton for supplies for his crew and receiving the laconic reply, that he had no supplies for him, and that he would give him a sound flogging the first time he saw him. We have no data as to whether he kept his promise or not. The last mention of Ralph Morgan in history is an account of his appearance as a witness in a land contest in 1804, involving the title to the land on the present site of the city of Lexington, Kentucky.

Ralph Morgan had four children as far as the writer can ascertain: Abel, Rolla, Sarah and Priscilla. Priscilla and Sarah married brothers - John and William McCullough, and from these have sprung large numbers of descendants of this name, a number of whom reside in the vicinity of Westport, Indiana.

In the summer of 1792, two forts or stockades were built on Slate Creek, named Morgan's and Gilmore's Stations respectively, and were occupied and corn raised in what is now Montgomery County, Kentucky, but owing to prowling bands of Indians and the remoteness to other forts, three men being killed, they were abandoned in September of the same year, the settlers returning to Boone's and Bryan's Stations. In February, 1793, six families, in all twenty-seven persons, again occupied Morgan's Station; Ralph Morgan's family being one. During the last days of March, Ralph Morgan and wife took four packhorses and went to Boonesborough to get their household goods, leaving their two oldest children, David Douglas and Abel Morgan, at the fort. On April 1st, Easter Monday, say the Historians, at 10 a.m., 1793, the men all being out looking after the planting of their crops, no man about the fort except one, and he old and infirm, the gates wide open, thirty-five Indians rushed in and captured the fort, killing the old man above named, and one woman who was unable to travel, and carried off the remainder, nineteen persons, as prisoners, after setting fire to the fort. David Douglas and his half-brother Abel Morgan, the former twelve years of age and the latter less than eight, at the time the rush was made on the fort, were playing in Slate Creek, and on hearing the yells of the Indians and the screams of women and children, at once fled for their lived pursued by four Indians. They boys knew of a large standing sycamore tree, hollow at the bottom, which they ran to and quickly entered, and there hid, standing on rotten portions of the tree until their pursuers had passed and repassed to their party, when they came out and made their way to Boonesborough and rejoined their parents. On the alarm being given, pursuit was made, which the Indians discovered, and massacred such of their prisoners as were unable to keep up in their rapid retreat. The pursuit was abandoned, but the captives were restored after Wayne's Treaty two years later.

The two brothers lie buried side by side in a country graveyard, not more than eight feet apart, about five miles west of Greensburg, Decatur County, Indiana. The writer visited their graves in February 1909, and copied the following inscriptions from their headstones:

David Douglas, Born Nov. 9. 1781. Died Jan. 23, 1861. Abel Morgan, Born March 14, 1786. Died July 16, 1863.

In 1796, at the close of Indian hostilities, Ralph Morgan rebuilt the block house and stockade, and in addition, a large stone house inside the stockade, in which he lived until the time of his death. The exact time of his death is not known, but was about 1809. He and his wife are buried in a graveyard near his old fort. I am informed by George W. Ewing, of Greensburg, Indians, one of his descendants, that the old stone house is occupied and still standing where it was built by Ralph Morgan in 1796.