Figure of the Week

William L. Morgan (c.1805-1873) was from King George County where he was a merchant prior to his moving to Stafford.  Around 1854 he married Margaret Strother (c.1795-after 1862), the daughter of James Strother (died 1853) of King George.  In 1855 William purchased the old Garrard’s Ordinary property across U. S. Route 1 from Stafford Courthouse.  This was located approximately where the Valero convenience store now stands.  Here Morgan ran a store and post office.  William L. Morgan was conducting business in this building when Union soldiers invaded the area.  One New York soldier wrote that some of the men tried to buy tobacco from Morgan who refused them.  “They took the tobacco by force, and fetched the old rascal out about half a mile from his house, and compelled him to run double-quick back again, at the point of the bayonet.”  A newspaper notice stated, “Mr. Morgan’s furniture they destroyed, and burned his beds…and threatened to cut old ‘Col.’ Morgan to mince meat and make breastworks of his damned old rebel head” (Richmond Daily Enquirer, Apr. 9, 1862).  Morgan survived the war and by 1870 had returned to King George County.