ARTHUR MORGAN
Arthur Morgan (1816-1878) and his wife, Louisa LaMotte Morgan (d. 1897), moved to Georgetown in 1854. Their children were born the same year, twins Katherine LaMotte Morgan (1854-1934) and Joseph LaMotte Morgan (1854-1904). The family was described as Roman Catholic but “half Irish and half French” due to Louisa Morgan’s French Huguenot family origins. Arthur Morgan was from a family of Irish immigrants who settled in Georgetown. His brother, John Morgan (d. 1866), a merchant, was the father of William Doyle Morgan (1853–1938), who would serve as intendant and mayor of Georgetown from 1891 to 1906. Arthur Morgan partnered in Morgan & McQuaid, a shipping and commission firm located on Front Street at the site of what in 1888 became the J.B. Steele Building, now the River Room Restaurant.
There was not much Catholic presence in Georgetown until well after the Civil War. So during their years as residents, Arthur and Louisa Morgan opened their home to itinerant priests who passed through Georgetown. After Arthur Morgan’s death in 1878, Morgan's nephew, William Doyle Morgan, continued the Morgan tradition from his home at 732 Prince Street. Like his uncle, he opened his house for gatherings of Catholics or when a priest came to town to offer Mass. In later years, W.D. Morgan had a chapel built on the first floor of his house. In 1901, St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church was built. Finally, Georgetown had a Catholic church where mass was held after the church was dedicated in 1902.
Arthur Morgan not only purchased the Bluff property in 1866, he also purchased what was then a peninsula across the Sampit River from the site (and today is an island known as Goat Island). However. he failed to get a deed for it until 1874. The peninsula had long been a source of controversy, as the original deed was lost, and innumerable Georgetown folks claimed it but could not offer proof. This had been a problem for Arthur Morgan and after his death, it proved to be a problem for his wife and children. Beginning in 1879, the Morgans appeared in court regarding the peninsula lands, responding to an action (Congdon v. Morgan, 14 S.C. 587, 1881) for recovery of land and for damages commenced by none other than George R. Congdon (who would later purchase the Bluff property from the Morgans) and Benjamin Hazard, plaintiffs, against Louisa Morgan, Joseph L. Morgan, Kate L. Garber and her husband, James R. Garber. [Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of South Carolina, Book 35. (South Carolina Supreme Court, Elihu Hall Bay West Publishing Company), 1916: 15: 251-255.]
It’s a long story but basically Arthur Morgan had contracted with one Myers in 1866 to purchase the peninsula lot of land. Afterward, Morgan erected a turpentine works on the peninsula and continued to use it until the works burned in 1877. After Morgan’s death, his children had taken possession of the peninsula and erected a building on it, when they were ousted by the act of an agent of Congdon & Hazard Co., the defendants, who claimed they had purchased the land for $115 from a prior owner, one Shackelford's bankrupt estate. The jury found a verdict for the plaintiffs. Congdon & Hazard appealed the verdict, which was heard in court in 1880, again finding for the Morgans.
Meanwhile Louisa Morgan had left the area after Arthur’s death in 1878. She died at Uniontown, Alabama in 1897. After she received last rites of the Roman Catholic Church, her last request was that she be laid to rest by the side of her husband in the old Episcopal Church Cemetery in Georgetown, her old home. In compliance with this request her son, Joseph LaMotte Morgan, brought her remains back to Georgetown and fulfilled her wish. [Georgetown Times, “Mrs. Louisa LaMotte Morgan Died at Uniontown Ala. June 17 1897 at the ripe age of 71 years 2 months and 2 days” (June 23,1897).]
As for the Morgan children, Kate LaMotte Morgan married Dr .James Rhodes Garber of Birmingham, Alabama, and lived there. Joseph LaMotte Morgan graduated from Georgetown University in D.C. and served as secretary of the legation at Mexico City under the administrations of both Cleveland and Harrison, and for a short time as consul general. In 1883, he married Sara Monica Frisbie in a ceremony performed by the Archbishop of Mexico in his private chapel. She was the granddaughter of Gen. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, the California military commander, politician, and rancher who shaped the transition of California from a Mexican district to an American state. Monica’s father, Gen. John B. Frisbie, founded Vallejo, California, which was named for her grandfather, and the nearby city of Benicia, which was named for her grandmother (née Francisca Benicia Carrillo). Unfortunately, Monica died in 1885, two years after her marriage.
Joseph L. Morgan was later special agent in the proposed building of the Nicaragua Canal, in that government's canal project, an endeavor in which Morgan hoped to make a huge commission. His hopes were not realized. The project fell through when the United States abandoned plans to construct a waterway in Nicaragua after it purchased the French interests in the Panama Canal. On February 3, 1904, the Georgetown Times published the following: “The news was received on Monday of the death of Mr. Jos. L Morgan, who was well known here as a boy—his father, the late Mr. Arthur Morgan, residing on the bluff, in what is now known as the Congdon house. He had an attack of pneumonia on Saturday, in New York, and died on Sunday last. He was a first cousin of our Mayor Morgan.” On February 24, the Georgetown Times again reports that Joseph Morgan died in New York, and further that his friend, Mrs. Jefferson Davis, sent a floral tribute. [“Joseph La Motte Morgan He Was A Native of Georgetown, But Left Here Years Ago,” Georgetown Times (Wednesday, February 24, 1904):1]
Meanwhile, George R. Congdon had purchased the house and property (now four lots, as Arthur Morgan had added the fourth lot to the property after 1868) from the Morgans in 1889.
by Jennie Holton Fant