George Morgan III and the Morgan Lake Ice Co

Old Gravestones of Dutchess County New York, a publication copyrighted in 1924 by the Dutchess County Historical Society, provided me with information that led me to believe that our protagonist George Morgan only had three sons; all having had a very early end to their lives prior to the 1870s. Reading this, it became clear to me why George Morgan's sister Miss Julia A. Morgan took over the Ice Co. after his passing in 1879. However, when I later came across an article dated 1917 listing George Morgan as the head of the Ice Co.1, I realized I needed to conduct some more genealogy research.

Using http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html to find any Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle articles mentioning members of the Morgan Family and the free version of the Family Tree Builder program available for download on http://www.myheritage.com/, I was able to chart most of the Morgan Family history and find that George Morgan had eleven (if not more) children! He named two of his sons after him. The first passed away at the age of one in 1832 and lies in the family plot at the Pine Plains Cemetery.2 The second, George Morgan III, passed away a century later as a patient at Bowne Memorial Hospital in September 1932.3 This was the George Morgan mentioned in the 1917 article I read. He inherited his father's company from his Aunt Julia around 1910. 

While he was the manager, the Ice Co. entered a rather unfriendly suit against the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad for $10,000 in damages in 1928.4 The suit, which I will write about in more detail in another post, ended in 1934 two years after he passed away. George Morgan found himself involved in another crime against his property earlier in 1917 when thieves stole potatoes from his potato patch in the middle of the night.5 In 1929, he had a new patch on his property; this one designated as the official dump for the city of Poughkeepsie.6 George Morgan agreed to this temporary change to his property, as well as a more permanent one. Morgan Lake was once off of Smith Street rather than Creek Road, until part of the Morgan property on Smith Street was sold to build a connection to Salt Point Turnpike (then Salt Point Road).7 Today we still drive on this connection that was paved sometime in 1931.

If you thought I was going to keep you guessing again on who took over the Ice Company after George Morgan's son, George Morgan III, I can understand why, but for once I'm just going to tell you now. His sister Eva Morgan-Niver* was the head of the Ice Company after he passed away. She played a role in the topic of the next blog post. What's the topic you ask? Sorry, but I have to keep you guessing somehow. You will have to wait to find out more next week!      

*Correction made on Saturday 8/25/12 - more research revealed that it was Eva Morgan-Niver, George Morgan III's sister, not his wife, Mrs. Effie Morgan, who became president of the Company after George Morgan III passed away in 1932.

1. "Ice Harvest in Full Swing Here," The Poughkeepsie Eagle News, Wednesday January 17, 1917. 

2. Poucher, J.W. Old Gravestones of Dutchess County New York, (NY: Dutchess County Historical Society, 1924) 194.

3. "George Morgan Dies After Short Illness" The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, Wednesday August, 31, 1932. 

4. "Brief Bits of County News," The Harlem Valley Times, Thursday November 1, 1928.

5. "Morgan's Potatoes Stolen," The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, Friday July 20, 1917.  
6. "Crispi to Request Dump Designation," The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News April 25, 1929.
7. "Purchase of Land Voted by Council: Two Contracts are Authorized to Acquire Realty for Development Projects," The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News 1931.