Catherine GARRETSON

1692 - 1773  (81 years)

• Name	Catherine GARRETSON
  Birth	16 May 1692	New Castle County, DE
  Gender	Female
  AFN	37GM-V4
  Death	16 May 1773	Berkeley County, VA [now WV]
  Notes	[Continued from the Notes on Catherine GARRETSON's husband, Morgan MORGAN, Sr.] It was not until 1743 that Frederick held its first independent court, and subsequently, as Morgan had continued his position of Justice in Orange County until this time, was re-commissioned as a Justice of Frederick in November of that year. One of the first acts dictated by this new court, was the establishment of West Virginia's first road, directed and overseen by Morgan Morgan which connected his home to the county seat of Winchester, a distance of about twelve miles. As the Report of the Colonel Morgan Morgan Monument Commission says, the road struck out from Winchester "into the wilderness - pointed civilization westward in its onward course," connecting to Morgan's home, which beyond, was nothing "but Indian, buffalo and pack-horse trails". From the beginning of this roads foundation, it had been of the utmost importance, being a gateway through the wilderness for settlers to their future western homes beyond, as well as a strategic military thoroughfare. "It was the route of young Washington . . . in command as military instructor, etc., of the militia for the northwestern counties of Virginia" . . . , and it was additionally partly traveled by General Braddock and his troops on their way to Fort Duquesne. It was four years after the foundation of this road that David Morgan, of which Dale Payne wrote of in his Biographical Sketches of the Pioneers, "became one of the earliest pioneers to explore the region of the Monongahela River". It was in 1747 that David, along with Jacob Prickett, Nathaniel Springer, John Snodgrass, and Pharaoh Ryley "assembled on the Cacapon River at Capt. James Coddy's Fort, to await word from Lawrence Washington and Mr. Cresap before proceeding on an expedition to locate land for Mr. Washington and Company". . . . Lawrence was the elder half-brother of George Washington, who was, as Joseph Ellis wrote in His Excellency, "a surrogate father" . . . for the future first president. The party set out to pay visit to Charles Poke, the famous Indian trader who was then living along the South Branch of the Potomac River, and who too, with David, was at Captain Samuel Brady's funeral. Poke had been one of the earliest traders to penetrate the seemingly endless wilderness of western Virginia and Pennsylvania, and David's party were hoping to interview Charles in regards to the whereabouts of Traders Track Road. Although Poke was not at home at the time of their arrival, his wife was able to give them the information needed for their journey. In early May, the group had reached the forks of the Cheat River, where they "remained until about the middle part of June, exploring up and down the Monongahela". . . . It was here that they encountered the Mingo Chief, Guyasuta, who with eight warriors, befriended the young surveyors. This is the chief told of in Story of Old Allegheny City, whom "George Washington once called the 'Great Hunter'". . . . Tradition has it that Jacob Prickett inquired from Guyasuta the name of a nearby stream, and after the chief declared that it had no name, Prickett claimed the stream in Guyasuta's honor. It became known as "Guyasuta Creek for many years" . . . , though eventually gave rise to the name Ten Mile. It is additionally ironic to note that later Guyasuta would come to play a role in the defeat of General Braddock's 1755 expedition, of which both David and Jacob Prickett were soldiers, and it was there that Keziah Shearer, a daughter of Henry Batten's, had claimed that David received "a big scar on his cheek from the fighting". . . . The year following this exploration of the Monongahela, David, along with sixteen year old George Washington, were appointed to assist "George William Fairfax on a surveying expedition of the Fairfax holdings in the Shenandoah Valley". . . . Their work constituted the northern line of the Fairfax estate, which also doubled as a portion of the boundary between Virginia and Maryland. Additionally, it is believed, as disposed by one Joseph Hartley, an old friend of David's, that he "was a first class surveyor and surveyed most of the tracts [in the Monongalia region] in early times". . . . Unfortunately however, many of these surveying records were presumably destroyed in the Morgantown courthouse fire of 1796. It was in 1757 that George Washington had first ran for a position in the Virginia House of Burgesses for Frederick County, only to lose to Hugh West and Thomas Swearingen, a son of Thomas Swearingen "of the ferry," and husband of Mary Morgan, a daughter of Captain Richard Morgan of Frederick. However, Washington and Col. Thomas Bryan Martin had come to defeat West and Swearingen in the following year, and we subsequently find that while David Morgan cast his vote in Washington's favor, his father, Col. Morgan Morgan, had voted against the future president, rather preferring West and Martin. In Charles S. Morgan's Biblical record, earlier mentioned within this sketch, it sets fourth that Morgan had "died colonel of his county" . . . , and the inscription on Morgan's original tombstone, made shortly after his death, confirms the honorary title. Of this position, the Morgan Morgan Monument Commission referred to Garner and Lodge's History of the United States, discussing Virginia's colonial system of government, which claims: At the head of the county was a lieutenant who corresponded in a rough way to the Lord Lieutenant of England, was sort of a deputy to the governor and bore the honorary title of 'Colonel.' He was commander of the county militia and as a member of the Governor's Council exercised other important non-military duties. . . . It was in 1753 that Lord Thomas Fairfax, Earl of Cameron, had succeeded Morgan as the county's chief Justice, and it was on March 8th of that year, that now being the presiding officer of the court, "administered the oath to Col. Morgan, qualifying him to his military commission of Lieutenant-Colonel". . . . It was thus that Morgan's rank was second only to George William Fairfax, the Colonel of the County at that time, son of Lord Thomas Fairfax, and George Washington's closest friend. Additionally, George Fairfax's sister, Anne, had married Washington's elder brother, Lawrence; Washington himself, as his letters permit us to assume, would later fall "passionately in love with his best friend's wife" . . . , the young Sally Fairfax. It was four years later, being 1757, that upon Colonel George William Fairfax's death, Morgan succeeded in becoming Colonel of his county, and this, the last major feat known of Morgan's life, was a position that he held until death. The end of this sketch, of course, ends with Morgan's life, being in 1766, the same year his son Zackquill had settled in Monongalia County, and later came to found Morgantown, West Virginia. Priscilla Kingston had wrote that Morgan "lived a pattern of piety and good citizenship until the advanced age of seventy-eight," and while under the roof of his son, Rev. Morgan, he "breathed his spirit into the hands of his creator" . . . on November 17th of that year. Subsequently, Morgan was buried in the cemetery of Morgan's Chapel, and his wife, Catherine, who survived Morgan by seven years, was later buried at his side. Nearly one-hundred years following Morgan's death, after the western counties of Virginia had separated during the Civil War, Morgan was credited with having many "firsts" within the state. Today, West Virginia acknowledges Morgan as having been its first white settler, the first civil officer, the first judicial officer, the first commissioned military officer, the first road engineer in supervision of the state's first public enterprise, the first licensed tavern keeper, and the official sponsor of the first church. On April 17th, 1923, the West Virginia State Legislature passed a bill providing for the erection of a monument to Col. Morgan Morgan near his place of burial. Governor Ephraim F. Morgan, a sixth-generation descendant, had appointed a commission to carry out the provisions of the act, which is thus the same commission which was so often quoted throughout this sketch. Consequently, the monument was unveiled and dedicated on September 13th, 1924, forever in remembrance of Morgan's sterling and steadfast character.
  Person ID	I9881	Frost, Gilchrist and Related Families
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024

  
  

  Father	Henry GARRETSON
  Family ID	F95	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Col. Morgan MORGAN, Sr.,   b. 1 Nov 1688, Wales d. 17 Nov 1766, Frederick [now Berkeley] County, VA [now WV] (Age 78 years)
  Marriage	Abt 1713
  Children	1. Anne MORGAN,   b. Between 1715 and 1721, New Castle County, DE d. SC   2. James MORGAN,   b. 22 Aug 1715, New Castle County, DE d. 17 Nov 1731 (Age 16 years)   3. David MORGAN,   b. 12 May 1721, New Castle County, DE d. 5 May 1796, Monongalia [now Marion] County, VA [now WV] (Age 74 years)   4. Charles MORGAN,   b. 20 Mar 1723, New Castle County, DE d. 1778 (Age 54 years)   5. Henry MORGAN,   b. 10 Aug 1727, New Castle County, DE d. Apr 1824 (Age 96 years)   6. Evan MORGAN,   b. 25 Nov 1731, Orange [now Berkeley] County, VA [now WV] d. 25 Nov 1791, Berkeley County, VA [now WV] (Age 60 years)   7. Zackquill MORGAN,   b. 8 Sep 1735, Orange [now Berkeley] County, VA [now WV] d. 1 Jan 1795, Morgantown, Monongalia County, VA [now WV] (Age 59 years)   8. Morgan MORGAN, Jr.,   b. 20 Mar 1737, Orange [now Berkeley] County, VA [now WV] d. 20 Oct 1797, Berkeley County, VA [now WV] (Age 60 years)
  Family ID	F4651	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024