Friday, January 16, 2009

Early Morgan history in Western Virginia


(Double click above to see where Wolf Pen is)

If you need a more detailed family tree, click here or scroll down the page.

From the Reference Book of Wyoming County p. 422 "the numerous families of Morgan in Wyoming, McDowell and Logan Counties are direct descendants of Abraham Morgan, born in Wales, who married Elizabeth Ealy before he emigrated to Virginia before 1775, landing at Old Point Comfort. They settled in Bedford County, Virginia, where they reared their family, of whom we have the names Jonathan, David, Samuel, Thomas, Polly and Betsey. . .Thomas married Rachel Blankenship in Tazewell County, Virginia, and lived for a short time in Bluestone. About 1804, he settled on Indian Creek. . .he is the progenitor of all of the Morgans in Wyoming County."
"Old Point Comfort" Wikipedia



According to the Wyoming County, WV history: 'In 1804, Thomas Morgan acquired 200 acres of land near Indian Creek. His farm did well, but his farm animals were constantly being attacked by roving bands of wolves. He built a log wolf trap to deal with the problem and the area became generally known as "Wolf Pen Creek."' Wikipedia says: " Legend has it that Wolf Pen's name comes from an incident when a man built a pen to capture the wolves which had been taking his sheep. The pen was of log construction similar to the type used for catching bears." Think we ought to tell them who "a man" was?

The next items are notes that someone wrote up and Grover gave to me, but I don't know who, when and in some cases why they were written.
I believe Thomas (b. 1787) Morgan and David Morgan (b. 1785) were the sons of Abraham Morgan. The photo below is of Bluestone River.


This next story (on the same page) is a little more of a mystery. If this is the same Thomas Morgan, he would only be 12 years old. I think Saini Lusk is probably Sam Lusk(b. 1778) whose son Reece Lusk married Elizabeth Morgan (b. 1813). That tells me this tale was originally hand-written before it was typed. Wikipedia says: "Gilbert, West Virginia was incorporated in 1918 and named for Gilbert Creek, which derives its name from the name of an early traveler in the area who was killed by Native Americans in the area." Read below for all of the gory details.


Tug Fork River (above)

So, Sam Lusk has been captured by the Indians. The tale continues with Andy and Rebecca Davidson. George Lester may have been one of Elizabeth Lester's relatives---she married Willard Morgan (b. 1871) It's a fascinating tale!

For more details on this story (which sounds like a movie) about Andrew Davidson and his wife Rebecca, Click here. Be sure to read it---our version has slightly different details but the gist is the same. Fascinating that the two stories are so similar! I didn't copy the information on the Buchanan Clan---I didn't see any relevance.

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