Bennett, Addison.  "The Oregonian" newspaper.  31 Dec 1916.  p. 60.
 
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON MORGAN

"W.H.H. Morgan Has Resided in Oregon Since Year 1845"

   William Henry Harrison Morgan was born in Ohio on the eighth day of December,
1840, his father, Edward Morgan, being a farmer at the time.  Two years later
the family removed to Lee County, Iowa, and resided there on a farm until the
early Spring of 1845.  The Oregon "fever" was running strong in that section at
the time, and the elder Morgan determined to seek a new home and get a farm of
his own.  So they sold off their furniture and what other personal property they
had, packed a few dishes, mostly of tin, their bedding, clothing and seven
children into two wagons, hitched thereto four yoke of oxen, trailed two milch
cows behind, and "set sail" for the Oregon country, which they reached in the
Fall of that year.
   Of the trip across the plains W. H. H. Morgan remembers but very little.  He
was only five years old when they arrived at Linnton, there being no Portland
then.  But from hearsay he accounts for Indian raids, mishaps on mountain
trails, troubles in getting across the streams and all such difficulties as the
pioneers of those days met up with in their journey of over 2000 miles.  One
incident he remembers hearing his parents tell of frequently, and that was an
accident that befell them in crossing Burnt river, in Eastern Oregon.  The wagon
in which he was riding upset in midstream and he was thrown in under the bedding
and was almost dead when rescued.  He also remember of often hearing of how the
trip from The Dalles down the river was made, the wagons being brought down the
stream and the oxen driven over the Indian trail.  On the way tow of the oxen
and one cow were lost, so they arrived with six oxen, one cow and what little
plunder they had in the wagons and a smooth silver half dollar in cold cash.
   Arriving in Linnton, the elder Morgan went to the store, there being but one
there, to invest his four bits in flour to bring despair to the early pioneers.
They did the best they could without flour, and went at the first work at hand
to earn a little money to make their filing on the land.  Most of the country
thereabouts was covered with brush or timber, but he heard there was open
country on Sauvies Island, a few miles down the Columbia from Linnton.  Going to
look at it, he found it fully up to his expectations, and selected a section
which he soon took up his abode upon and went to Hillsboro and made his filing.
Sauvies Island was at the time inhabited principally by Hudson Bay farmers,
white men who mostly had squaw wives. So the "society" was nothing to brag
about.
   Soon they had a log house erected, and by the following Spring they were
ready to plant their crops.  Mr. Morgan related that the wheat yielded well, and
remembers the operation of cutting and threshing it.  The former was done with a
short scythe, something like a sickle, then it was flailed out on the ground and
his father would stand on a high stump and throw the wheat and chaff in the air
for the wind to fan the latter out, and the boys caught the wheat in a sheet.
Mr. Morgan says that the sweetest morsel he ever ate was the "mess" of boiled
wheat and sweet milk which they had from the first "threshing."
   When the Morgans settled on Sauvies Island it was noted for its wild fowl,
ducks, geese and cranes.  It was the favored hunting ground for the Indians and
whites for miles and miles around.  The waters in the sloughs and along the
shores between the island and the Oregon mainland were thick with Wapato, a sort
of wild potato, and the fowl fed principally on the vines and tubers of that.
He says that it gave a flavor to the meat unknown at the present time, and its
fattening qualities were so great that he has caught both ducks and geese that
were actually too fat to fly.
   Where is the Wapato now?  It is no more.  That great game fish, the
celebrated carp, was introduced, and "he" harvested the Wapato, leaves, vines,
tubers and all.  There are still lots of wild fowl on the island, but not like
in the olden days, when at times the air was alive with them.  Mr. Morgan says
he has often seen, when he was a little lad, more ducks and geese in an hour
than now inhabit the island in an entire season.  Shooting both barrels of an
old shotgun into a flock of geese once he killed 33; at another time with a
double discharge into a flock of ducks he killed 45.  The Morgans forged ahead
quite rapidly in the early days, for there was usually a good demand for game,
principally for mallard and canvasback ducks and cranes.  These often commanded
as much as $5 a dozen.  Cranes were very plentiful, as were also deer, but both
are might infrequent visitors now.
   Ever since he was five years old Mr. Morgan has lived on Sauvies Island.
When his father died in 1873 he continued to farm the place, and has continued
to do so up to the present time, although he spends much of his time at his fine
home on Hawthorne avenue, where he brought his family for educational purposes.
   In the Spring of 1850 his father sold the original donation claim and took
another section nearby.  He received $500 in "cash money," at a time when that
sum was quite a fortune.  The son had added an adjoining half section to the
original tract, and now has 960 acres, making one of the largest and finest
farms in this vicinity.
   As the son was approaching his twenty-fourth birthday, having lived and
worked continuously with his father, a young woman by the name of Sarah
Elizabeth Orchard came to spin for his mother.  She resided with her parents at
Springville, a few miles on the west, on the "mountain," the location of the
settlement being on what is now the skyline boulevard, then a mere mountain
trail.  Thus started an acquaintance that soon culminated in a trip to Vancouver
and a marriage.
   Eleven children have been born to them, eight of whom are now living.  The
elder Morgan was married twice, and a son by his first wife is now residing on a
farm in Douglas County, his age being 95 years, George Morgan, a well-known
citizen of the Roseburg vicinity.
   Although Mr. Morgan is now past his seventy-sixth birthday, he is hale and
hearty, and Mrs. Morgan looks more like a matron of 40 than the mother of 11
adult children.  They are not numbered among the plutocrats of the land, but
have sufficient of the world's goods for their modest wants, and their fine home
in town is a real home in everything the word implies.  A son-in-law is the real
manager of the farm and big dairy business there carried on, but Mr. Morgan
spends a good portion of his time at the old home and takes great pride in
having one of the really successful farms of Oregon.  Both he and his wife have
every reason to look forward to many happy years, and in this hope a multitude
of friends and acquaintances join.


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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in May 2010 by Diana Smith.  Submitter has
no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.