Morgans, William T. , 1844-1882
Biographical Note
William Thomas Morgans (also Morgan) was born to Eleazer and Mary J. Morgans in New York in 1844. He enlisted in the Union Army as a Sergeant on August 21, 1862, to fight in the American Civil War. Morgans was placed in the 143rd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment and worked his way up to First Lieutenant, earning the honorary rank of Brevet Captain and mustering out on July 22, 1865. After the war, Morgans married Sofia Inderlied (1844-1918), and they had nine children.
After the war, Morgans is listed as a printer and type maker in the U.S. Federal Censuses. He established the Callicoon Recorder in Callicoon, New York, then the Liberty Register in Liberty, New York.
Around this time, Morgans also created his own printing press and a type-cutting machine. He and George Young formed the Youngs & Morgans Manufacturing Company in 1876 in Napanoch, New York, but their factory burned down in 1880. That same year, Morgans and H. K. Wilcox formed Morgans & Wilcox Manufacturing Company in Middletown, New York. Hamilton Wood Type Co. acquired the business in 1897.
Morgans died of pneumonia on April 14, 1882, and is buried alongside his wife in the Liberty Cemetery in Liberty, New York.
Sources:
U.S. Federal Census, 1850-1900
"William T. Morgans", Findagrave.com,https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54309299/william_t-morgans, accessed January 24, 2025.
"Morgan, William T.", National Park Service's Civil War Soldier Database, https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm?soldierId=3E7F7ABC-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A, accessed January 29, 2025.
"Just As His Success Came, the Story of the Lad who Printed the Calicoon [sic] Recorder on a Press Made from a Maple Log and an Old Tombstone", the New York Sun, May 1, 1882, available online from the Library of Congress's Chronicling America database, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1882-05-01/ed-1/seq-4/, accessed January 29, 2025.
"William T Morgan" in the U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/search/collections/1555/records/327662, accessed January 29, 2025.
"Morgans & Wilcox Proving Press", Howard Iron Works Printing Museum, https://howardironworks.org/assets/img/collection/hiw-pr-morgan-wilcox.html, accessed January 29, 2025.
"What Is Wood Type?", Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum, https://woodtype.org/pages/what-is-wood-type, accessed January 29, 2025.