Jedediah Morgan (March 14, 1774 – December 10, 1826) was an American farmer and politician from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Life

He was born in North Groton,

New London County, Connecticut New London County is a County (United States), county in the southeastern corner of Connecticut and comprises the Norwich, Connecticut, Norwich-New London, Connecticut Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Hartford, Conne ...

, the son of Thomas Morgan (1742–1815) and Sarah (Leeds) Morgan (1744–1832). In 1792, he removed with his father to a farm about 3 miles south of the Village of Aurora, NY. In 1797, he married Amanda M. Stanton (d. 1811), and they had five children. On January 26, 1812, he married Harriet Steele, and they had eight children, among them the pioneering anthropologist, social theorist and state legislator,

Lewis H. Morgan Lewis Henry Morgan (November 21, 1818 – December 17, 1881) was a pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist who worked as a railroad lawyer. He is best known for his work on kinship and social structure, his theories of social e ...

(1818–1881). In 1822, he left the farm, and went to live in the Village of Aurora. In 1823, he was elected Supervisor of the Town of

Ledyard, New York Ledyard is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Cayuga County, New York, Cayuga County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 1,654 at the 2020 census. The town was named in honor of Revolutionary War Genera ...

. Jedediah Morgan was a member of the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, while the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Established in 1777 by the Constitution of New York, its members are elected to two-year terms with no term l ...

(7th D.) from 1824 to 1826, sitting in the 47th, 48th and 49th New York State Legislatures. In 1824, Morgan was one of only three State Senators who voted against the removal of

DeWitt Clinton DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769February 11, 1828) was an American politician and Naturalism (philosophy), naturalist. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator, as the mayor of New York City, and as the sixth governor of New York. ...

from the

Erie Canal Commission The Commission to Explore a Route for a Canal to Lake Erie and Report, known as the Erie Canal Commission, was a body created by the New York State Legislature in 1810 to plan the Erie Canal. In 1817 a ''Canal Fund'' led by ''Commissioners of the C ...

. In 1826, he resigned his seat in the Senate due to ill health, and died soon afterwards, at

Aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

Cayuga County, New York Cayuga County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 76,248. Its county seat and largest city is Auburn. The county was named for the Cayuga people, one of the Native American tribes in the I ...

Sources

''Life Sketches of the State Officers, Senator, and Members of the Assembly, of the State of New York in 1868''
by Samuel Ralph Harlow & Stephen C. Hutchins (pg. 103ff; "Lewis H. Morgan")
''The Promise of Progress: the Life and Work of Lewis Henry Morgan''
by Daniel Noah Moses (2009; pg. 9ff)
''The New York Civil List''
compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 125f and 143; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858) {{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Jedediah 1774 births 1826 deaths People from Ledyard, Connecticut People from Aurora, Cayuga County, New York New York (state) state senators New York (state) Democratic-Republicans Town supervisors in New York (state) 19th-century members of the New York State Legislature