Emily Malbone Morgan (December 10, 1862 – February 27, 1937) was a prominent social and religious leader in the

Episcopal Church in the United States The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop of ...

who helped found the

Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross The Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross (SCHC) is an organization for Episcopal/Anglican women founded by Emily Malbone Morgan in 1884. SCHC has chapters across the United States and India. There also is a virtual chapter for members who don ...

as well as the Colonel Daniel Putnam Association.

Early life

Emily Malbone Morgan, born in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

, was the youngest child and only daughter born to merchant Henry Kirke Morgan (1819-1911) and his devout wife, the former Emily Malbone Brinley (1824-1907). Emily Morgan never married and ultimately survived all her brothers: Edward (1857-1874), Henry (1854-1931), William (1850-1936), and George (1848-1908). Her parents could trace their ancestry to colonial times, and her brother George became a prominent Episcopal priest and Rector of Christ Church in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

in 1887 (a position he held until his death in an automobile accident two decades later). The house in which she was born and raised had previously belonged to the parents of

J. Pierpont Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...

Emily was mostly home schooled by her mother (including via travel to Europe), and throughout her life had many operations for thyroid and other conditions, but became known for her good humor and management gifts. The family belonged to Trinity Church in Hartford, and her mother corresponded with some in the

Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of O ...

. Emily briefly attended Miss Haines's school in Hartford. As a teenager, Emily became interested in writing, as well as involved in girls' clubs and an organization called the United Workers.

Career

In 1883, Morgan's childhood friend, Adelyn Howard, fell ill with a hip disease, which made her a lonely invalid in a town in which she had no friends or family. The following year, Morgan, with Howard and Harriet Hastings of

Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley () is a New England town, town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Wellesley is part of Greater Boston. The population was 29,550 at the time of the 2020 census. Wellesley College, Babson Col ...

founded the

, to allow the shut-in Adelyn—and other religious women who valued thanksgiving, intercessory prayer, and simplicity of life—to pray and work for social justice. Morgan had a talent for providing hospitality, and considered her "greatest desire...has always been to make tired people rested and happy." The group ministered to women working in the nearby textile mills, in part by establishing houses throughout the northeastern United States where such working-class women and their children could vacation. In 1889, two years after moving to New Haven, Morgan began her writing career, publishing ''A Little White Shadow,'' the proceeds of which she used to fund vacation homes. That same year she established the first of many, ''Heartsease'' in

Saybrook, Connecticut Deep River is a New England town, town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, Middlesex County, Connecticut. The population was 4,415 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The Deep River Center, Connecticut, town center is designated by the U. ...

for "tired women, girls and children." As such, Morgan can be considered part of the Deaconess movement in which over 5000 Protestant women participated circa 1890. In 1901, Morgan purchased what became their headquarters and retreat center, in

Byfield, Massachusetts Byfield is a village (also referred to as a "parish") in the town of Newbury, in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It borders West Newbury, Georgetown, and Rowley. It is located about 30 miles north-northeast of Boston, along Int ...

, which was named ''Adelynrood'' upon its renovation in 1915 (remembering both Howard, who had died in 1898, and an old word for "cross"). Another home with daily religious services attended by Protestants, Jews and Catholics, was called ''Beulahland''. In 1906, Morgan bought the Putnam Elms, the

Windham County, Connecticut Windham County is a county located in the northeastern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. As of the 2020 census, the population was 116,418, making it the least populous county in Connecticut. It forms the core of the region known as the ...

home of Morgan's maternal great grandfather Colonel Daniel Putnam from 1791 until his death in 1831. She also helped found the

Colonel Daniel Putnam Association Emily Malbone Morgan (December 10, 1862 – February 27, 1937) was a prominent social and religious leader in the Episcopal Church in the United States who helped found the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross as well as the Colonel Daniel ...

in 1910. In her later years, Morgan led a Sunday School class at

Trinity Church, Boston Trinity Church in the City of Boston, located in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. The congregation, currently standing at approximately 4,000 households, was founded in 17 ...

Legacy

Emily Malbone Morgan was buried in Hartford's Spring Grove Cemetery. The Episcopal Church (USA) remembers her liturgically on

February 25 Events Pre-1600 * 138 – Roman emperor Hadrian adopts Antoninus Pius as his son, effectively making him his successor. * 628 – Khosrow II, the last great Shah of the Sasanian Empire (Iran), is overthrown by his son Kavadh II. ...

. Her cousin,

Daniel Putnam Brinley Daniel Putnam Brinley (March 8, 1879 – July 31, 1963) was an American muralist and painter. He was born in Newport, Rhode Island, the son of Edward Huntington Brinley and Rebecca Maitland Porter Brinley. Brinley spent his childhood at his parent ...

(1879-1963), became a well-known muralist, as well as a leading Episcopalian, and her biographer

Vida Dutton Scudder Julia Vida Dutton Scudder (1861–1954) was an American educator, writer, and welfare activist in the social gospel movement. Early life She was born in Madurai, India, on December 15, 1861, the only child of David Coit Scudder (of the Scudder f ...

is also honored on the Episcopal liturgical calendar (on October 10). The Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross currently has approximately eight hundred members and continues to operate retreat centers.

Bibliography

*A Little White Shadow (1889)
Prior Rahere's Rose
(1893) *Poppy Garden (1894)
A Lady of Olden Time
(1896) *Flight of the Swallow (1902)

edited by

(1944)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Emily Malbone 1862 births 1937 deaths American fiction writers Anglican saints