Jedediah Morgan was an American farmer and politician from New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

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Life

He was 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 State Senator Lewis H. Morgan

Lewis H. Morgan

Lewis Henry Morgan was a pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist, a railroad lawyer and capitalist. He is best known for his work on kinship and social structure, his theories of social evolution, and his ethnography of the Iroquois...

 (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, New York

Ledyard is a town in Cayuga County, New York, United States. The population was 1,886 at the 2010 census. The name of the town is from General Benjamin Ledyard, an early settler....

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Jedediah Morgan was a member of the New York State Senate

New York State Senate

The New York State Senate is one of two houses in the New York State Legislature and has members each elected to two-year terms. There are no limits on the number of terms one may serve...

 {7th D.) from 1824 to 1826, sitting in the 47th

47th New York State Legislature

The 47th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 6 to November 27, 1824, during the second year of Joseph C. Yates's governorship, in Albany.-Background:...

, 48th

48th New York State Legislature

The 48th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 4 to April 21, 1825, during the first year of DeWitt Clinton's second tenure as Governor of New York, in Albany.-Background:...

 and 49th New York State Legislature

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.-Background:...

s. In 1824, Morgan was one of only three State Senators who voted against the removal of DeWitt Clinton

DeWitt Clinton

DeWitt Clinton was an early American politician and naturalist who served as United States Senator and the sixth Governor of New York. In this last capacity he was largely responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal...

 from the Erie Canal Commission

Erie Canal Commission

The New York State Legislature appointed in 1810 a Commission to Explore a Route for a Canal to Lake Erie, and Report which became known as the Erie Canal Commission...

. In 1826, he resigned his seat in the Senate due to ill health, and died soon afterwards.

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; gives first name as "Jedidiah")
• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 125f and 143; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)