Compiled and written by Jim Moyer 1/9/2016
updated 2/23/16, 2/6/2017, 2/7/2017, 2/8/2017, 2/28/2017, 4/22/2017, 4/23/2017, (2/23/2019, 2/24/2019 just prologue changed) , 4/29/2019, 7/4/2019
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HIGHLIGHTS
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Daniel Morgan
did not have a ghost of a chance
to have a monument.
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In here we record those efforts.
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This is an ongoing story.
So there may be more efforts in the future.
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We do wish to honor
the sincere efforts
of all those who worked
for a monument for Daniel Morgan.
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And they all worked hard.
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The last effort involved a plaque in 2017.
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Daniel Morgan finally got a monument.
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But South Carolina claims it did a better job.
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South Carolina came for Daniel Morgan’s
Ghost in 1951.
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Life Magazine story on it in 1951.
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They didn’t get him.
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Oh way before that, the New Jersey “grave robbers” came.
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And yes the story of the Wrong Cannon
sitting on Daniel Morgan’s grave site for 20 years.
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And along the way one wonders how majestic the monument would have been had President McKinley lived a little longer.
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Holmes Conrad certainly got him interested.
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And then there’s JP Morgan.
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JP Morgan is alleged to be related to Daniel Morgan. He was interested to finance a monument. That’s part of this story too.
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There is way too much here, yet more to discover.
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This story is Daniel Morgan’s After Life.
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Read this in pieces.
Each piece you pick is quite a story
in and of itself.
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My favorite piece is Judge Woltz’s part.
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Imagine Cowpens, South Carolina coming here to Mount Hebron Cemetery in Winchester VA to dig up Daniel Morgan and take him where the statues honoring him are so much better?
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This was too good of a story. If you were part of this, you would have posed too. This was national news.
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It wasn’t only just a feature in a 1951 Life Magazine photo article. This news was played everywhere.
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Everyone knew Daniel Morgan then. Things went “viral” even back then.
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Judge Woltz in his 2000 article, entitled “Second Battle of Cowpens,” writes, ” Sadly of that group (those who worked this legal case), only Justice Whiting and I survive.”
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Of the papers filed in this case, Judge Woltz writes, “As to the various papers filed, I note at this late date, I signed one of them. Henry H Whiting, then Mr [J.Sloan ] Kuykendall’s young and first associate and years later a colleague of mine on the circuit court and later still the first local appointee to the Virginia Supreme Court in over one hundred years also signed one. “
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Seven years after this article, Judge Woltz lies next to Daniel Morgan.
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DANIEL MORGAN’S AFTERLIFE
1802 TO 2007
Sources:
Quoted material is in orange and from sources:
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Winchester Frederick County Historical Society Journal Volume XIV 2002 issue on Daniel Morgan, pages 112 to 130, by Elizabeth C Engle and Mary Thomason Morris for an article entitled: Cannons and Marble: A Monument for Daniel Morgan.
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Winchester Frederick County Historical Society Journal Volume XIV 2002 issue on Daniel Morgan, pages 132to 144, by Judge Robert K Woltz for an article entitled The Second Battle of Cowpens.
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Hereafter the above sources will be noted as Engle or as Woltz.
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Links and pictures are added confirming the 2 above sources.
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July 6, 1802
Daniel Morgan dies
Daniel Morgan died … in his home on Amherst Street. He was buried under a flat stone slab in the grave yard at Old Stone Presbyterian Meeting House on Piccadilly Street. Seven Survivors of the Morgan Riflemen fired a salute over the grave the guns they had used in the Revolutionary War.
From page 115, Engle.
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We have not confirmed whether this house is Daniel Morgan’s or his daughter’s. . . yet.
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We will look into that to see which story is correct.
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This Plaque Inscription on a slab is not upright but rather lays flat on ground.
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Even after the move from Old Stone Presbyterian Meeting House on Piccadilly Street, this slab lays flat on ground at Mount Hebron Cemetery.
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Click on Picture to Enlarge.
Hit Backspace to return here.
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Major-General Daniel Morgan
On July 6th, 1802
in the 67th year of his age.
Patriotism and valor were the
prominent features of his character
and the honorable services he rendered
to his country during the Revolutionary War
crowned him with glory
and will remain in the hearts of his countrymen
a perpetual monument to his memory.
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June 24, 1843
New Resting Place Planned
…minutes of the Mount Hebron Cemetery Company state in part, “Resolved that the central circular plot in the cemetery be and the same is appropriated without charge as a place for the interment of the remain of General Morgan and his companions in arms known as the Dutch Mess, Viz, John Schultz, Peter Lauck, Charles Grim, Adam Heiskell, Adam Kurtz and Jacob Sperry.”
From page 116, Engle.
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Ed note:
But although discussed, noted, and mentioned for the next 25 years, Daniel Morgan’s ghost doesn’t get moved to Mount Hebron until June 13, 1868.
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1855
Miss Hibbard and Bishop Meade
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Miss Hibbard, a Northern schoolteacher
who was governess for the
children of Bishop Meade of Clarke County
wrote in her diary that the brick vault
was broken and a tree was growing
through one corner.
The broken slab was covered
with moss and leaves,
and the surrounding grass was high enough
to obscure the grave.
From page 115, Engle.
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Click on Photo to enlarge.
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Hit Backspace to return here.
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Ed note:
See Wikipedia on Bishop Meade.
Find a Grave website on Bishop Meade.
Name is William Meade (November 11, 1789 – March 14, 1862) was a United States Episcopal bishop, the third Bishop of Virginia
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See Marker History website – Bishop Meade lived close to Burwell and Daniel Morgan’s Mill .
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July 4, 1856
Morgan Continental Guards
Sometime before the date of July 4, 1856, an appeal was placed by the Morgan Continental Guards, addressed to the ‘People of Virginia’ …. In part, the text read, “Almost 80 years have passed since independence, and Morgan’s grave is yet to have a monument .. . When Mount Hebron Cemetery was formed in the 1840s, space was set aside for a gravesite for Morgan and other member of his Dutch Mess.” George Randolph Tucker, Lewis Lauck, and J.B Gileson signed the appeal. Right below the appeal was an invitation from Thomas A.T.Riely and Hugh H.Lee for all to attend the laying of the monument’s cornerstone on July 4, 1856. Further research revealed that the monument funds were embezzled and the project collapsed.
From page 115, Engle.
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Ed note:
Quite a story on these Continental Morgan Guards.
See Handley Library’s Stewart Bell Jr Archives on them.,
which holds still the original uniform of this group.
See this excellent detail on the Continental Morgan Guards.
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1861-1864
War Between the States
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Thomas Cartmell in his book, Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Descendants, wrote of Morgan’s grave that during the Civil War “many depredations were made by Union soldiers. …Pieces…were broken off and carried away as relics.” Apparently he felt that only Yankees would be souvenir hunters.
From page 116, Engle.
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Summer of 1865
New Jersey Grave Robbers?
Cartmell also reported that a delegation from New Jersey came to Winchester in the summer of 1865 to take Morgan’s remains back to that state on the grounds that Morgan was a native son. Cartmell credits Col. William R. Denny and the citizens of Winchester with forestalling this attempt by hiding the slab until Morgan’s body was moved from its resting place at the Old Stone Church to Mount Hebron Cemetery in the middle of the night. This story seems to have been embellished in the retelling.
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June 13, 1868
Daniel Morgan Grave Moved
The Mount Hebron Cemetery Minutes state that
“General Morgan’s remains were dis-interred
at the Old Presbyterian graveyard
at 5 o’clock on Saturday evening, June 13, 1868,
and removed and buried in Mount Hebron Cemetery.
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These were present on the occasion :
H.m. Brent, R.Y. Conrad, John N. Bell, Lloyd Logan, Jos. S Carson, Wm. H Streit,
Nat. Brent, O.L. Crum, J.J. Williams, and William R. Denny,
all members of
the Board of Managers of Mount Hebron Cemetery Co.
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Also present:
E.J.Senseney, E.S.Brent, H.M.Brent Jr., Stephen Stackhouse, G.Curry, Mr.Thayer,
and a number of boys, white and black.
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Joe Chapman, Superintendent of Mount Hebron,
and Barney, a colored man,
opened the grave and removed the remains,
consisting of all or nearly all the bones
which were contained in a mahogany coffin
[and] placed [them] in a walnut coffin
[made] by Mr. Stackhouse.
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John F. Wall and Dr. James Conrad arrived on the ground before completed.
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Signed, P.W. Boyd, Secretary.”
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According the authors of this article we are covering, the newspapers of the day that were reviewed in the course of our research did not report on the moving of Morgan’s body.
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Above from Page 116 Engle.
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On page 127 Engles:
We learn much, much later in 1951
something else happened in 1920
regarding this day 13 June 1868,
that the Missouri Historical Society
revealed that the metal identification plate from Morgan’s original coffin was part of their collection. No one seems to know how the nameplate migrated to Missouri, but in 1920 a Henry Hanger of Saint Louis, Missouri had donated it to the Historical Society. The newspaper article from which this information was taken stated that Hanger could not remember how he acquired the artifact. There was inscription on the back of the plate:
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“Taken form the coffin of Maj. Gen. Daniel Morgan, whose remains were this day exhumed after having lain in the ground 66 years. June 13, 1868.”
Page 127, Engle.
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1876
William Greenway Russell
William Greenway Russell in a news article reprinted in the 1953 edition of, What I Know About Winchester stated that [Daniel Morgan] is the man whose remains rest in Mount Hebron Cemetery with nought but an old, broken slab to mark his resting place. We hope it will not be long before a suitable monument will be erected to the memory of this great, good and brave man, who did so much for his country.
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Russell also noted that the slab had been repaired and replaced after Morgan’s removal to Mount Hebron Cemetery. The date of this repair is unknown.
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NO DATE
J. P. Morgan descendant of Daniel Morgan?
In an undated Baltimore Sun article in the Daniel Morgan Collection at the Handley Archives, financier J. Pierpont Morgan proposed to “visit Winchester in the near future and erect a handsome monument over the grave of his ancestor, General Daniel Morgan. The grave is in [Mount] Hebron Cemetery. Nothing remains of the flat stone which originally covered it but a few scattered fragments, the rest having been carried away.” The monument Morgan proposed to erect is described as “of such magnitude as is worthy of General Morgan’s greatness.”
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Ed note:
See Wikipedia on J.P. Morgan :
“John Pierpont “J. P.” Morgan (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation in late 19th and early 20th Century United States.”
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Link on the Morgan name and lineage worldwide
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Two follow up questions for you dear Reader,
if you want to pick up the relay race baton on this:
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Is John Pierpont Morgan related to Daniel Morgan?
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And when was this Baltimore Sun story printed? .
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August 13, 1891
Nemo’s Poem
Kate McVicar’s nom de plume was Nemo, published a poem in the Winchester Star on this date, decrying the absence of a marker on Morgan’s grave.
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The article’s authors, Engle and Morris
theorize the story on J Pierpont Morgan
noted above
was near this date
because the poem states
“a noble generous friend,” might help out.
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January 1892
No to 25k from Congress
Thomas O’Ferrell introduced a bill in the United States House of Representatives requesting Congress appropriate $25,000 to preserve the grave of Gen. Daniel Morgan and erect a monument to him in Mount Hebron Cemetery. This effort apparently failed, as no further record has been found.
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March 2, 1900
Fire Departments to the Rescue
Winchester Star headlined Local Firemen to Erect Monument. This and subsequent articles reported that the fire departments of Winchester had organized a Morgan Monument Fund to assist Congressman Hay to have his bill, first introduced in December 1899, recognized.
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“This movement has been brought before the United States Congress, but that eminent body seems disinterested in the worthiness of the object An ungrateful and non-sentimental government has persistently refused to recognize the services which the rugged hero of the Revolutionary War has rendered his country. A bill is pending Congress for a monument, but it is likely to remain there un-acted upon.”
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April 11, 1900
Meet the President and Congressman
The Morgan Monument Fund group traveled to Washington . . .
to meet Congressman Hay and
visit President McKinley in the White House.
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Several men of the delegation were Masons
belonging to the Winchester Lodge,
where the President had joined
the organization during the Civil War.
The Winchester Star reported that
“members of secret orders
that McKinley belongs to,
gave him their peculiar grip.
This caused considerable
merriment in the party.”
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Ed note:
While you’re imagining that “peculiar grip” mentioned above, walk by the Bank on the corner of Loudoun St Walking mall and Piccadilly Street and look for a plaque in the walkway next to Brewbaker’s Restaurant in Winchester VA. There you will see a plaque noting McKinley had joined the Masons here in Town.
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Their current lodge is further down Loudoun Street.
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At the close of the visit, the delegation was entertained by Major Holmes Conrad at his Club House, the residence where Dolly Madison had lived in as a widow and where she died.
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Ed note:
Four interesting points in this last sentence:
The Club House, the club itself, Dolly Madison, and Major Holmes Conrad.
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That “Club House” ?
Where Major Holmes Conrad entertained?
From Wikipedia Cutts-Madison House.
” The Cutts-Madison House , known as the Dolley Madison House, is . . . . located at 1520 H Street NW Washington, D.C. . . . best known for being the residence of former First Lady Dolley Madison, who lived there from November 1837 until her death in July 1849. “
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Wikipedia on the Cosmos Club:
“The Club originally met in the Corcoran Building on the corner of 15th and F Streets, N.W., but moved to Lafayette Square in 1882. Eventually, the Club occupied the Tayloe and Dolley Madison Houses on the eastern side of the Square, and razed two rowhouses between them for additional space.”
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Wikipedia on Holmes Conrad:
Previous President Cleveland hired Holmes Conrad (very instrumental on Handley Library in Winchester VA) to be Solicitor General. Solicitor General? Linger on that job description for a moment. President McKinley retained Holmes Conrad to work on a case before the Supreme Court, where Holmes Conrad argued many a case over the years. This puts him in Washington DC at that club house, where Dolly Madison had previously lived as a widow and had died there. The Major served in the War between the States and interested in a monument for this patriot, Daniel Morgan.
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The Committee then met with Senators Daniel and Martin who promised to prepare a bill and bring it before the Senate, asking the needed appropriation. The bill was already on the calendar for the House of Representatives. The day after the trip, the Star reported that President McKinley expressed much interest in the project and that he would speak to influential congressman to “recognize Congressman Hay for his motion. It will be recalled that Speaker Henderson some time ago refused to recognize Mr Hay when he asked that the Morgan monument bill be passed under a suspension of rules.”
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[Ed note:
Daniel Morgan’s ghost lost an interested promoter in the President who enjoyed a local connection – joining the Masons in Winchester VA in the ending days of the Civil War.
President McKinley died of a gun wound from an assassin September 14, 1901 ]
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July 6, 1902
Graveside Service
43 members of the Friendship Fire Co of Winchester VA marched to Morgan’s grave and held a memorial service, complete with the strewing of flowers. This centennial service was reported as the first public acknowledgement of Daniel Morgan, and there was speculation that it might be the inauguration of an annual event.
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July 7, 1902
Get a Cannon
The Winchester Star reported that the earlier 1900 proposal to mark Morgan’s grave had been strongly advocated by The Honorable James Hay before the US House of Representatives. It was also reported that the Morgan Memorial Association had recently secured two Revolutionary War cannon that would soon mark Morgan’s grave. Later issues of the newspaper were checked but show no further information on these cannon.
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August 1902
Wealthy Philadelphians
The Keyser Tribune in WV picked up a Winchester Star report that a group of wealthy Philadelphians had lately visited Morgan’s grave, and upon learning its sad condition, propose erecting a monument to their native son. [Ed note: wasn’t Daniel Morgan born in NJ? ]
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June 1910
Portland Maine Admirers
Winchester Star reported a Daniel Morgan Association had been formed in Portland Maine. Members of the association had read Cartmell’s Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Descendants and decided to take on the monument project. The news article reported that a monument fund-raising prospectus would shortly be issued. Nothing further is known of this effort.
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1921 is a busy year
THE SAGA OF THE CANNON
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February 11, 1921
Cannon purchase budgeted
The Board of Managers of the Mount Hebron Cemetery met “to consider the acceptance of a cannon offered by the War Department through Mr. Frank B. Crawford, to be placed in General Morgan’s lot . . . It was moved by Mr. Maphis and carried that the Board accept the cannon, [and] that an appropriation of six hundred [dollars] or as much thereof as necessary . . . be used to pay transportation and other charges.”
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March 14, 1921
Cannon from Maine – Cost Overrun
Congressman T.W. Harrison attended the next Cemetery Board meeting on this date, and the correspondence concerning the cannon donation was turned over to him. He was asked to approach the Secretary of War about obtaining a cannon from a closer arsenal than Fort Knox, Maine, as the charges to deliver the cannon to Winchester would be in excess of $700 — more than the budgeted amount.
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April 14, 1921
Fort Loudoun Chapter D.A.R.
The Winchester Star reported that the Fort Loudoun Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution had initiated a Morgan Monument Fund. A drawing was held to decide which of the three banks in Winchester would hold the funds. Louise Glass pulled the winning ticket, and sixty-five dollars already raised was deposited with the Farmers and Merchants Bank. The final disposition of the funds is not known, as the minutes of the Fort Loudoun Chapter do not begin until December 1921, when the chapter was formally organized, and no mention is made of them after that date. However, by 1932 the chapter minutes show that a Daniel Morgan Scholarship Fud had been instituted at Union Theological Seminary, to which the chapter donated one hundred dollars a year. Nothing more is known of this project.
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April 26, 1921
Cannon from NJ – 8″ Rodman Gun
The Cemetery Board minutes for [this date], report that Stewart Bell Sr. and John Maphis had visited Congressman at the War Department. A letter from the Ordinance Department had been received stating that an eight-inch Rodman gun, complete with carriage and eighty cannon balls, was available from a New Jersey arsenal. Freight costs would be $225. The board voted unanimously to accept the proffer and passed a resolution of thank to members of the Ordinance Department and Congressman Harrison. The resolution also thanked my father, Frank B. Crawford, for “his timely and apt conception of the plan of securing so suitable a memorial, and for his active services in bringing about its consummation.”
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May 6, 1921
Different Cannon from Tennessee?
The Star reported that a gun had been selected from an arsenal in Tennessee, but freight costs to Winchester would be $1000, so the committee had turned down the government offer. The relationship of this gun to the one discussed at the April meeting of the Cemetery Board is unclear. This report conflicts with the Cemetery Board minutes.
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Late June or early July 1921
UPSET? or VERY UPSET?
My brief role (the author is Engle speaking here, co-auther Morris helped her do the research) in this saga took place in late June or early July of 1921, my eleventh year.
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My father (Frank B. Crawford) got an early morning message to come to the Pennsylvania Railroad station on Amherst Street. [Ed note: This became the Winchester Little Theatre 1974 to now as of 2017 ] When he did not return for lunch, Mother sent me to bring him home. When I arrived at the station, I found my father in an open box car, apparently struggling to move a large cannon. No one else was there, but Father told me that the railroad needed the cannon to be removed from the boxcar so the car could continue its journey.
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Father returned home with me, and during lunch I learned that the cannon had come to mark Daniel Morgan’s grave, and that its arrival was apparently the result of long-time efforts. Father was gratified his wish for a marker for Morgan’s grave had been granted, but he was upset that the cannon was not a Revolutionary War era cannon as he had originally envisioned.
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Father never discussed the cannon again in my presence. He was embarrassed by the controversy over the incorrect vintage of the cannon for the rest of his life.
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July 2, 1921
Where to place and point the Cannon
A meeting of the Cemetery Board was called on July 2, 1921, to decide the placement of the cannon on General Morgan’s lot. According to the minutes, my father was invited to attend. After viewing the cannon in the boxcar, the board decided to place it in the north end of the lot, with the muzzle facing south.
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July 7, 1921
Morgan Grave Cannon Here
. . . was a headline on the front page of the July 7, 1921 issue of the Star. The article reported that a Civil War cannon had been shipped from a government arsenal in New Jersey to mark Morgan’s grave. The cannon was in the process of being unloaded and would be erected at an early date. Stewart Bell Sr and J.J> Maphis were credited with securing the cannon after Mr. Frank B. Crawford had made the initial suggestion. There is no further mention oin either the newspaper or the Cemetery Board minutes of the final installation of the cannon.
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Between June 20 and July 15, 1921
Disbursements
Stewart Bell reimbursed $10 for his trip to Washington.
Cumberland Valley Railroad was paid $83.01 cannon freight.
Cumberland Valley Railroad paid $69.79 cannonball freight.
Jim Darr, local house mover, paid $125 on July 9.
Jim Darr was also paid $45.50 on July 13 for moving the cannon.
James Hodgson was paid $15 for helping Jim Darr.
B&O Railroad paid $4.15 for removing the cannon from the boxcar.
Mr. Barr paid $8 for stone.
Glaize & Brother Hardware was paid $16 for sand and cement.
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November 1922
One more disbursement
F.C. White was paid $3 for hauling the cannonballs to the cemetery
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Over the next 20 years
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suggestions to remove the cannon surfaced many times because it was not of Daniel Morgan’s era.
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Click on photo to enlarge. Hit backspace to return here.
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1923
And then there’s another cannon.
This one isn’t involved with Daniel Morgan.
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Instead, this cannon is sitting on the grounds within Fort Loudoun footprint on Noah Solenberger’s land. There’s a debate on whether will it go? In front of the Handley Library? Or a the Corner of Braddock and Cork where the Washington Office museum is?
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But that’s another story.
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Back to the Cannon we were discussing
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January 27. 1942 Winchester Star
January 29, 1942 Washington Post
Cannon to be Scrap for the war effort
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The need for scrap metal early in WWII had sealed the cannon’s fate, and taken the beleaguered Mount Hebron Cemetery Board off the hook. The huge naval cannon, its carriage, and the eighty cannonballs were sold for scrap, part of the war effort. News photos showed the huge gun being lifted from its carriage by a crane with the help of a large group of workers.
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The machinist from the scrap company reportedly expressed amazement at the fine workmanship in the gun. He said the gun was not rusted at all, and he expected to get about twenty-three tons of metal from the piece. It took two days to dismantle and remove the gun, carriage, and cannon balls from Mount Hebron Cemetery to Kent Street, where it was broken into pieces and loaded on boxcars for shipping to the metal works.
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Both newspaper articles on the removal were filled with anecdotes on how the cannon came to Winchester and the long-lasting furor it had engendered. Research later determined that although the stories contained a germ of truth, many of the details had been filtered through the gauze of time.
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END OF CANNON SAGA
Daniel Morgan gets to Rest In Peace, now?
No. No RIP for Daniel Morgan.
But maybe that’s a good thing, surmises Judge Woltz.
ENTER 2nd BATTLE OF COWPENS, SC
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July 1951
Enter The 2nd Body Snatcher
2ND ? Remember the New Jersey body snatchers in the summer of 1865 ? This one now is from South Carolina.
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…the President of the Winchester Lions Club received a letter form the Lions Club of Cowpens, South Carolina, asking their help in moving Daniel Morgan’s remains for reburial near the Cowpens Battlefield Park. The Winchester club disclaimed responsibility and turned the letter over to the Winchester Frederick County Historical Society.
From Page 125, Engle.
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August 5, 1951
Body Snatchers Arrive at Mt Hebron Cemetery
… an undertaker, J.G.Floyd of Cowpens, South Carolina, and two helpers arrived unannounced at Mount Hebron Cemetery and requested help in removing the body of Daniel Morgan. They carried letters from the mayor of Cowpens and Josephine Neville Strong Callahan, Morgan’s great-great-great-granddaughter, authorizing them to disinter Morgan’s body and take it back to Cowpens.
From Page 125, Engle.
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August 7, 1951
Chicago Tribune
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A HERO OF 1781 BECOMES ISSUE is the headline of this article.
To see the article how it appeared, click on:
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http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1951/08/07/page/5/article/a-hero-of-1781-becomes-issue-in-new-battle
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To read the article in an easier format, click on:
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1951/08/07/page/5/article/a-hero-of-1781-becomes-issue-in-new-battle#text
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THE PETITION
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August 10, 1951
Exact Court Petition from South Carolina
The suit itself was filed on August 10, 1951 by the town attorney for Cowpens, J. Manning Poliakoff with local attorney Robert E. O’Neal co-signing the bill of complaint. In Virginia and perhaps all states a so-called foreign attorney in a suit must associate a licensed attorney in that state with him. This is so a court can have a control over proceedings and counsel it might not have with only a nonresident attorney handling the case. news reports stated that the Clerk of the Court, P.J. Marshall, opened his office on a Saturday evening to allow filing of the suit. The following Monday, G.G. Baker, Sergeant (now called Sheriff) of the City of Winchester served the suit papers on the cemetery president. Within the required twenty-one days of that servicea nine-age answer was filed by Mount Hebron Cemetery represented by the highly able and respected local attonreny J.Sloan Kyukendall.
Page 135, Woltz.
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Difference in Dates given of filing?
Engle used the date reported in the news.
Woltz, being a lawyer and later a Circuit Court Judge,
used the Clerk of Court filing date.
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August 13, 1951
Court Petition from South Carolina
South Carolina filed a petition to the Winchester Corporation court to uphold their right to the removal. A counter suit was filed to prevent it.
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The debate raged through August and into the fall.
From Page 126, Engle.
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August 20, 1951
Time Magazine article
According to this article, cemetery superintendent Oscar Harry exploded upon reading the letter to the Lion’s Club of Winchester: “General Morgan, sir? You’re not taking General Morgan today, tomorrow, or the next day!”
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Superintendent Harry quickly contacted W. Nelson Page, president of the Cemetery Board, the members of the Mount Hebron Board of Managers, and Ben Belchic, president of the Winchester Frederick County Historical Society. The men assembled hurriedly to confront the “new and bold attack to snatch the body of General Daniel Morgan.” The South Caroline contingent retreated, but vowed to return. The next day the Mayor of Cowpens, S.T. “Tip” Mosely, arrived with the committee’s attorney, and the fight began.
From Page 126, Engle.
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THE DEBATE
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South Carolina Not Unified
According to Woltz, “Newspapers in the two largest cities of that state as well as some letters to their editors perhaps surprisingly took the part of Winchester in the battle and in favor of letting the general rest where he lay.”
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Woltz, on page 134,
mentions some differences above
but most of the leaders
predictably favor their location:
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For Winchester VA
Winchester Mayor Mifflin B. Clowe
Congressman Burr P. Harrison
US Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr.
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For South Carolina
Congressman Joseph E. Bryson
US Senator Olin D. Johnson
Governor James F. Byrnes
Mayor of Cowpens SC, Roy Cash
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PARTIES TO THE COURT CASE
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Parties to Petition to INTERVENE
Winchester Frederick Co Historical Society
Mt Hebron Cemetery Board
T.G. Scully and his law partner, Robert K. Woltz filed on the same date 10 August 1951 as the Cowpens attorney a petition to “intervene.” : If one is not party to a suit but claims to have a substantial interest in I then the only way to become party is to ask the court to allow the invention, else anybody and everybody who wanted to jump into the case could do so without good cause.
Page 135. Woltz.
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Also filed by same groups above: DEMURER, meaning, “the one who brings the suit still has no case that is legally cognizable.”
Page 136, Woltz.
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Parties to BILL OF COMPLAINT
COWPENS, SOUTH CAROLINA
Josephine Callahan, ancestor to Daniel Morgan
complainants listed on Page 133, Woltz
…was five legal size pages of length and constained a total of 36 paragraphs of allegations. Among its allegations were the relationship of Jospehine Callahan to Daniel Morgan, that Morgan was a general in the United States Army, and rediculosly that he “lived in the State of Virginia for a few year, ” that he was the greatest military figure of his time, his crowning achievement “and most glorious hour of triumphant victory took place near Cowpens …”
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The allegations contrast the neglect of Morgan’s grave and his loss of identity among the citizens of Winchester with the great esteem with which is held in South Carolina and the existence of tangible evidence of that esteem there.
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The complaint also alleges that after due diligence “the place of repose of General Morgan’s wife has not been located.”
Page 136, Woltz.
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..a South Carolina undertaker . . . was armed with a handwritten note of Josephine Neville Strong Callahan, complainant in the suit mentioned above, asserting that the general [Daniel Morgan] was her great-great-grandfather and authorizing removal of his remains to Cowpens. [The South Carolina undertaker] also carried a letter from mayor Cowpens authorizing him as his agent to remove the remains from Mount Hebron to Cowpens.
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Page 133, Woltz.
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OVER THE TOP LANGUAGE
IN THE COMPLAINT
Woltz notes the complaints from Cowpens SC, are “effulgent, almost hyperbolic, a method lawyers sometimes use to emphasize a point …”
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Historical? Hysterical?
Context for the Modern Know it all Eye
In defense of Attorney Poliakoff, and his perhaps overblown language, the reader today must realize that slightly over fifty years ago when this dispute arose, our country was in a vital and dangerous Cold War with the “evil empire” of communism and we were in an actual shooting war with the communist regime of North Korea. Indicative of this intense and well grounded national fear of communism in 1951 was the early germination and growth of what became known as McCarthyism.
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Answer to the Bill of Complaint
…contains thirty-nine paragraphs on nine legal size sheets. It admits a few of the opponent’s allegations, denies a number and with respect to most neither admits nor denies “as it [the respondent] is not advised to the truth or falsity thereof, and calls for strict proof of said averment.”
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Woltz goes on to praise his fellow colleagues for their legal written response. He lists the names who signed that response as himself, and “Henry Whiting, then Mr. Kuykendall’s young and first associate and years later a colleague of mine on the circuit court and later still the first local appointee to Virginia Supreme Court in over one hundred years also signed one.”
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Page 137, Woltz.
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THE DECISION
Woltz wished the merits of the case
could have been debated before a Judge
but that never is to be.
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Woltz wishes it could have been, since the issues were so interesting.
He found two major principles in Dead Body Law:
“. . . The most important is the wishes and desires of family members or descendant.”
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The other important consideration is if “. . . that a body has lain for a long-time in a location should not be removed except for strong reason.”
Page 135, Woltz.
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Instead the issue is decided on the technical grounds.
The deadline to post bail correctly was not met.
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Woltz explains that any suit brought by a non resident requires putting up bail because it “might be difficult or impossible to collect court costs . . . “
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Page 137, Woltz.
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“As Joephine Callahan was a resident of California, and the Town of Cowpens of South Carolina, counsel for the cemetery astutely requested that they post bond for costs and the court sustained the request ordering that bond of $250 be posted within the statutorily required time.
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Mayor [Roy] Cash of Cowpens then deposited a cashier’s check in the sum of $250 with the clerk of court.
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After passage of sixty days allowed for post the bond, argument was had and the court ruled that a cashier’s check is not a bond as required by statute, but did over objection grant plantiffs the opportunity within five days to post a bond in that amount.
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They were not able to do so within that period of time so the motion of the respondent Mount Hebron Cemetery Company the court order date January 7, 1952 dismissed the case.”
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The case was then dismissed.
Page 137-138, Woltz.
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Josephine Callahan
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/NEVILLE/2003-03/1048133584
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http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3079790&id=I592994795
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THE LAST CHAPTER
OF
2ND BATTLE OF COWPENS
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Summer of 1951
Raleigh [Engle’s husband] and I returned to Winchester with our girls for our annual visit. As we did every summer, we went to visit family plots in Mount Hebron Cemeteryh, just down Morgan Lane from Daniel Morgan’s grave. As our car with South Carolina tags drove through the stone archway into Mount Hebron Cemetery, men seemed to materialize from everywhere. They watched as we drove up the hill and turned left toward Morgan’s grave. Two men followed our car on foot as we pass Morgan’s gravesite and drove on until we reached our destination, the Gold family lot farther down the lane. Only when we emerged froe the car – and were identified as local people – did the group disperse. Never had I felt so uncomfortable and unwelcome in my own hometown.
From Page 127, Engle.
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We learn also, as this furor became a national issue, in 1951
something else happened in 1920
regarding that day of the re-burial 13 June 1868,
that the Missouri Historical Society
revealed that the metal identification plate from Morgan’s original coffin was part of their collection. No one seems to know how the nameplate migrated to Missouri, but in 1920 a Henry Hanger of Saint Louis, Missouri had donated it to the Historical Society. The newspaper article from which this information was taken stated that Hanger could not remember how he acquired the artifact. There was inscription on the back of the plate:
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“Taken form the coffin of Maj. Gen. Daniel Morgan, whose remains were this day exhumed after having lain in the ground 66 years. June 13, 1868.”
Page 127, Engle.
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September 3, 1951
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This story was just too fun, not to pose for it.
This was getting national press !
Everyone in the 1950s knew who Daniel Morgan was.
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Life Magazine article
…featured a photo-article on the commotion …
From Page 126, Engle.
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Judge Robert K. Woltz lamented when he wrote the article in 2002 how few of people from that time are left.
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He also savored and wondered about how young he was then and grateful to have been involved in a legal case such as this so early in his career.
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Judge Woltz in 2000 article, entitle “Second Battle of Cowpens,” writes, ” Sadly of that group (those who worked this legal case), only Justice Whiting and I survive.”
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Winchester Frederick County Historical Society Journal Volume XIV 2002 issue on Daniel Morgan, pages 132 to 144, by Judge Robert K Woltz . Article entitled The Second Battle of Cowpens.
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November 26, 1951
Cowpens Gives Up the Ghost
It’s Over, Done
…the Cowpens contingent gave up the fight in court, and that particular skirmish in Daniel Morgan’s twentieth century war was over.
Page 127, Engle.
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January 7, 1952
Officially the Court Case was dismissed on this date. The difference in dates on when this fight was over, might be the 60 days time on posting bond. But that doesn’t reconcile the contradiction: Engle states the Town of Cowpens quit the fight while Woltz stated the Town of Cowpens posted a cashiers check as bond.
Page 138, Woltz.
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April 1952
Rock of Ages Co of Barre Vermont
The nation-wide debate of 1951 seemed to provide the needed impetus for a successful monument project. In April 1952, the Rock of Ages Company of Barre, Vermont, placed a bid to design and execute a monument memorializing Daniel Morgan, to be placed by his grave. The Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society, the Fort Loudoun Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution , and the Lions Club jointly signed a contract for the proposed memorial. The Daniel Morgan Fund agreed to raise $2000 to pay for the monument. Even the schoolchildren got involved, with seven local schools donating at least $41.98 to the cause.
Page 127-128, Engle.
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Is this Daniel Morgan Fund the same as the April 14, 1921 Morgan Monument Fund initiated by Fort Loudoun Chapter of DAR noted on Page 121 Engle?
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Sunday, April 26, 1953
Marble Monument Commemorated
The Result of all the Controversy and Effort
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…a procession wound through downtown Winchester led by the Rouss Fired Department Drum and Bugle Corps. One hundred-fifty people gathered for the dedication ceremony. Representative Burr P. Harrison gave the keynote address. The Daughters of the American Revolution laid a wreath on the grave. Children, descendants of the original Morgan’s Riflemen unveiled the marble monument. The American Legion Post fired a volley to end the ceremony.
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The monument, with a bas-relief of Morgan and replica of the medal awarded to him in 1781, is inscribed:
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The people of Winchester, Virginia, dedicate this memorial to the patriotism and valor of General Daniel Morgan in the cause of American Independence.
Page 127-128, Engle.
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Note: Find picture of that 1781 medallion awarded Daniel Morgan.
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2005?
STATUE OF DANIEL MORGAN
placed at Old Stone Presbyterian Church
(where Daniel Morgan was originally buried)
near the present roundabout E. Piccadilly Street.
Click on this link to see picture of the statue, plaques, historical markers.
Winchester Star article Links are broken.
I will be following up on those articles’ dates to post here at a later date.
Winchester Star article by Jerry Holsworth, November 18, 2013
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Winchester Star article by Amy Alonzo, January 31, 2015 estimates statue installed 10 years ago
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March 22, 2007
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Judge Robert K Woltz is buried next to Daniel Morgan.
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See Daniel Morgan Memorial in the background.
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Click on picture to enlarge. Hit Backspace to return here.
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Daniel Morgan: Reconsidered Hero by Richard L Morgan PhD, 2001
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WINCHESTER — In an effort to document the full story of Revolutionary War Gen. Daniel Morgan, the Fort Loudoun chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) marked his grave site in Mount Hebron Cemetery on Friday evening before a crowd of roughly 100 people.
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Sara Boppe, registrar of the local chapter of the DAR,
said the group tries t
o preserve history and document
the service of patriots
from the American Revolution.
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The chapter includes women from Frederick County, Clarke County, Warren County and Winchester.
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The local DAR has 175 members, who helped raise $9,134 to place a brass plaque on the monument by Morgan’s grave and to hold the ceremony. Kathy Birch, the chapter’s treasurer, said the expenses ended up costing $7,264.
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The plaque lists the military titles he held during his lifetime, as well as his birthplace and place of death. Sharon Strickland, the chapter’s public affairs officer, said the plaque was designed to give observers the full picture of who Morgan was, since there was much information missing from the existing monument and grave. She said his grave had been broken in pieces, though it was put back together as best as possible. However, much of the marking on the grave was either incomplete or unreadable, according to Strickland.
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Midway through the ceremony, rain began to fall, but most of the audience stayed put as Boppe told the crowd Morgan’s life story, including his involvement in the French and Indian War, his imprisonment by the British after the failed invasion of Quebec, and his victory at the Battle of Saratoga.
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“It showed patriotism at its best,” Strickland said of the crowd withstanding the rain. “We can put up with a little bit of rain. [Revolutionary War soldiers] put up with Valley Forge.”
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Boppe described Morgan and his recruits as skilled hunters and fighters that had the instincts and stamina to survive long periods in harsh elements with little provisions.
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Morgan’s finest hour, according to Boppe, came in the early morning of Jan. 17, 1781, at Cowpens, a popular pasturing area for cattle in the South Carolina upcountry. It was there that Morgan used the terrain to his advantage and placed his soldiers — grouped in three lines — downhill to achieve victory against British Lieutenant Col. Banastre Tarleton. At the outset of the battle, the sharpshooters on the front line picked off Tarleton’s dragoons before retreating.
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“The British surged forward, thinking they had what they perceived to be a scant line of skirmishers on the run, only to be met with the withering fire of the second line, with the third line moving forward to continue the onslaught,” Boppe said.
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Morgan’s men mistook an order to turn and face the enemy as a signal to retreat, but Morgan was able to use the confusion to his advantage and ordered his men to turn around to fire again.
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“The British, believing they had won, broke ranks and charged only to soon find themselves surrounded by both gunfire and American soldiers,” Boppe said. “The British surrendered, with Morgan stating that he gave them a ‘devil of a whipping.’”
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The victory at Cowpens was considered one of the most decisive American victories. Morgan retired not long after the battle after suffering from sciatica that made it too painful to sit on his horse. Morgan died on July 6, 1802 at his daughter’s house surrounded by family.
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“He was a really great war hero who a lot of times outside of Winchester is forgotten about,” Boppe said. “We know he’s great and I’m sure people in Cowpens and Saratoga know he’s great. But he’s one of those people that doesn’t have that notoriety that he deserves.”
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— Contact Josh Janney at jjanney@winchesterstar.com
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Source:
https://www.winchesterstar.com/news/winchester/daniel-morgan-grave-marker-dedicated/article_3f13aa74-f6bf-5e80-8e2d-85f08601f957.html
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Links
Quoted material is in orange and from sources:
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Winchester Frederick County Historical Society Journal Volume XIV 2002 issue on Daniel Morgan, pages 112 to 130, by Elizabeth Gold Crawford Engle and Mary Thomason Morris for an article entitled: Cannons and Marble: A Monument for Daniel Morgan.
and
Winchester Frederick County Historical Society Journal Volume XIV 2002 issue on Daniel Morgan, pages 132 to 144, by Judge Robert K Woltz for an article entitled The Second Battle of Cowpens.
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The above sources will be noted as Engle or as Woltz.
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General Daniel Morgan: Reconsidered Hero by Morgan, Richard L. Published 2001
https://archive.org/details/generaldanielmor00morg
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NOTES
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Medals for Daniel Morgan
Ctrl F to find all references to Daniel Morgan
http://www.hellenicaworld.com/USA/Literature/JFLoubat/en/TheMedallicHistoryUSA.html#page045
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Hannah Washington’s letters of 24 Feb. and 12 Mar. 1791 to GW recommended George Flowerdew Norton (b. 1751) of Winchester, Va., for a position in the excise service (DLC:GW). Edmund Pendleton also recommended Norton to GW, on 9 April:
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0028#GEWN-05-08-02-0028-fn-0001
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Across the street from the Daniel Morgan House
is the home of an interesting person now forgotten
Ambler’s Hill, home at 223 Amherst Street. The home is the birthplace of John Esten Cooke. It was built in 1786 by John Hatfield Norton. Photo was used in “Images of the Past.”
http://handley.pastperfectonline.com/photo/55D9F177-F83C-40B4-A6A7-804523370470
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George Flowerdew Norton, 1751 – 1828
George Flowerdew Norton was born on month day 1751, at birth place, to John Norton and Courtenay Norton.
They had 3 children: Courtney Norton and 2 other children.
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https://www.myheritage.com/names/george_flowerdew
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Tyler’s Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Volume 3
John Norton came to Virginia and settled in Yorktown before 1745. … John Norton had four sons, John Hatley Norton, George Flower- dew, Daniel and Henry, …
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Posted: Jan 08, 2013 10:34 AM EST Updated: Jan 22, 2013 10:35 AM EST
The earliest part of the Daniel Morgan House in Winchester is timber frame, constructed in 1786 for merchant George Flowerdew Norton. Later owned by Morgan, a Revolutionary War general who lived there until his death in 1802, the house underwent successive expansions around 1800, 1820, 1885, and 1915, eventually resulting in a late Georgian-style 17-room, two-and-a-half story residence. The house served as a hospital during the Civil War, and in 1865 owner Eleanor Boyd convened a group of local women there to designate June 6 as Confederate Memorial Day. They also developed plans for the city’s Confederate cemetery. In the latter part of the 19th century, the back ell of the house was used for a school, whose students included the future Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Governor and Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr.
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National Register
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Captain Cook
see some relations
http://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/john-hatley-1760-1832
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