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 City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Life

He was born in North Groton,

New London County, Connecticut New London County is in the southeastern corner of Connecticut and comprises the Norwich-New London, Connecticut Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Hartford-East Hartford, Connecticut Combined Statistical Area. There i ...

, 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 ev ...

(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 town in Cayuga County, New York, United States. The population was 1,654 at the 2020 census. The name of the town is from General Benjamin Ledyard, an early settler of the town. Ledyard is on the western edge of the county and is south ...

. 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; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan comp ...

(7th D.) from 1824 to 1826, sitting in the 47th, 48th and

49th New York State Legislature The 49th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 3 to April 18, 1826, during the second year of DeWitt Clinton's second tenure as Governor of New York, in Albany. Ba ...

s. 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 naturalist. He served as a United States senator, as the mayor of New York City, and as the seventh governor of New York. In this last capacity, he was largely re ...

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

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

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 Indian tribes in the Iroquois Conf ...

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)