William Albert Morgan of Cottonwood Falls was born March 6, 1841, at Bandon, County Cork, Ireland, a son of James and Katherine (Conn) Morgan. The father was born in 1800, in Ireland. He was a wool comber early in life and later a farmer and stock raiser. He came to the United States in 1847, locating at Cincinnati, Ohio. Later he removed to Campbell county, Kentucky, where he retired, and died in 1862. His wife died in 1845. They had four sons—James, born in 1835, served in the Civil war, enlisting as a private in the Twenty-seventh Ohio infantry, was mustered out as major, and died in 1896; Thomas, G. D., born in 1836, served in the Civil war in the same regiment as his brother, and died in 1905; and Robert St. John, born in 1838, a retired publisher of Cincinnati, Ohio.

William A. Morgan was educated in the public schools of Cincinnati, Ohio. He entered the printing office at the age of thirteen years, learning that trade. Mr. Morgan is a veteran of the Civil war, having enlisted as a private in Company D, Twenty-third Kentucky volunteer infantry, and was mustered out as a first lieutenant. In his service which extended over a period of three years and three months, he lost but thirty days, being injured in battle of Stone's river, but was never in the hospital. After the war he worked at the printing business until 1871, when he came to Cottonwood Falls, Kan., when on Mar. 4, 1871, he issued the "Chase County Leader," which he published without losing an issue until Mar. 1, 1903, when he retired. He is a Republican, and in 1879, he represented Chase county in the legislature. In that body he was secretary of a caucus committee of thirteen which formulated the first measure ever introduced in the state looking to the regulation of railroad freight rates and fares. It was known as the Riggs Bill. He was active in the adoption of the prohibition law. He represented Chase, Marion and Morris counties in the state senate in 1893-95, in which body he was chairman of the committee on temperance. In 1910 he was elected justice of the peace, which office he still holds. In 1891 he was appointed by President Harrison a member of the Pyramid Indian Commission to treat for Indian lands in Nevada. In 1908-09 he was department commander of the Department of Kansas, Grand Army of the Republic. He was commander of the Loyal Legion, commandery of Kansas, in 1905. As commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, Mr. Morgan led the campaign for the erection of a memorial building at Topeka. He is a life member of the Kansas State Historical Society, is a charter member of the Presbyterian church and is a Mason. On March 21, 1864, William A. Morgan married Miss Wilhelmina D. Yoast. She was born Mar. 2, 1843, at Cincinnati, Ohio, where she was reared and married. She died at Cottonwood Falls Dec. 16, 1910, leaving two children—William Y. of Hutchinson (see sketch), and Mrs. Anna K. Coe of Cottonwood Falls. Mrs. Morgan was always prominent in the women's societies and clubs of the state. She was a member of the Topeka chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution; served as department president of the Women's Relief Corps of Kansas; as president of the Kansas Women's Press Club; as president of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association; and the Kansas Women's Republican Association. She was an active member of the W. C. T. U. for many years. In 1885, she was elected mayor of Cottonwood Falls and with a body of women councilmen filled the office with credit, doing effective work for prohibition. She was also chairman the Executive Committee of the Mother Bickerdyke Home at Ellsworth, for soldier's widows and orphans, was an active church member, being a charter member of the Presbyterian church at Cottonwood Falls. During the war Mrs. Morgan was actively engaged in the Christian Sanitary Commission, and was a volunteer nurse in a military hospital at Cincinnati.