Lewis C. Morgan

Lewis C. Morgan, M. D., who is president of the Jefferson State Bank at Mount Vernon, and who has been engaged in the practice of his profession during a period of nearly forty years, was born near Dahlgren, Hamilton Co., Illinois, January 18, 1861. The Doctor is a son of Philip W. and Harriet J. (Daymon) Morgan, the former of whom died in the year 1881 and the latter of whom is still living in 1925. Concerning the other children of the family the following brief data are available: Mary became the wife of W. I. Riddle, and they have two sons and three daughters; Annie became the wife of Augustus Irwin and is now deceased, their children being two sons and four daughters; Dr. Lewis C., of this review, was the next in order of birth; Nora, deceased wife of John R. Graves, became the mother of three sons and three daughters; William G. married Sallie Karns and they became the parents of one child; O. A. is the father of three sons and one daughter, the family name of his wife having been Grigg; Emma became the wife of Willis Shipley and is now deceased; and the next child died in infancy. The late Phillip W. Morgan gave the greater part of his active life to productive farm industry and was one of the influential and highly respected citizens of Hamilton County, he having served in various local offices of public trust, including that of county commissioner, of which he was the incumbent three terms, his political allegiance having been given to the republican party. He was born in Kentucky, in 1839, and to Illinois, where he was reared and educated under the conditions of pioneer days. He went forth as a member of an Illinois regiment in the Civil war, and one of his brothers met his death on the battle line in that great conflict. The father of Philip W. Morgan was born in Virginia, of Colonial ancestry in the Old Dominion, and thence he removed to Kentucky, from which state he came with his family to Illinois about the year 1845. Here he passed the remainder of his life as a farmer and here also occurred the death of his wife, whose maiden name was Fannie Thompson and who was born and reared in Kentucky.

Mrs. Harriet J. (Daymon) Morgan was born in the State of Massachusetts, and is a daughter of Owen and Jerusha (Williamson) Daymon, her father having been born in Vermont and having been a representative of a staunch Colonial New England family that gave patriot soldiers in the War of the Revolution, on which score the sons and daughters of the subject of this sketch all have active affiliation respectively with the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughter of the American Revolution.

Doctor Morgan passed his boyhood days on the home farm, and after having profited by the advantages of the district schools he continued his studies by attending Ewing College, in which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Thereafter he completed a course in the Evansville Medical College at Evansville, Indiana, in which institution he was graduated in 1886. After thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he further fortified himself by the valuable clinical experience he gained in one year of service as an intern in a leading hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. He then initiated the practice of his profession at Dahlgren, in his native county, where he built up a large and representative general practice and where he continued to resident until 1905, since which he has been engaged in successful practice at Mount Vernon, judicial center of Jefferson County. In the period of the nation's participation in the World war, Doctor Morgan served as medical examiner for the draft board of Jefferson County, and within his tenure of this position he made examination of more than 1,500 young men who had been called into service. The Doctor has proved one of the most loyal and public-spirited citizens of Mount Vernon, and was mayor of the city in the period of 1909-1911. In 1905 he here effect the organization of the Jefferson State Bank and became a member of its original directorate. He has had much to do with shaping and ordering of the policies that have made this one of the substantial and important financial institutions of this part of Illinois, and he has been president of the bank since 1915. He is likewise a director of the First National Bank of Dahlgren, he having been the leader in its organization, in 1889, and having served as its president prior to his removal to Mount Vernon.

Doctor Morgan is found loyally arrayed in the ranks of the republican party, he and his wife hold membership in the Baptist Church, he has membership in the Jefferson County Medical Society and the Illinois State Medical Society, and in the Masonic fraternity his maximum York Rite affiliation is with the Mount Vernon Commandery of Knights Templars, the while he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, besides having membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protect Order of Elks, and the Modern Woodmen of America.

At Dahlgren, the year 1882, Doctor Morgan wedded Miss Jennie Brumbaugh, daughter of Dr. Andrew Brumbaugh and Sadie (Blake) Brumbaugh, the former of whom died in 1910 and the latter in 1918, the other two children being Carma, who is the wife of Rev. Theodore Gates, a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Della, who is the wife of Lewis Kuykendall, of Portland, Oregon. The children of Doctor and Mrs. Morgan are: Della, the wife of W. P. Wood, who is engaged in the insurance business at Mount Vernon, and they have three children, Vermadell, John L., and William (Billie); and Chloe, the wife of Irving Levhart, of Mount Vernon, and their one child is a daughter, Janice.