William Yoast Morgan

William Yoast Morgan (born Cincinnati, Ohio April 6, 1866; died Hutchinson, Kansas, February 17, 1932) was an American newspaperman, author, and politician. He was the lieutenant governor of Kansas from 1915 to 1919 serving under Governor Arthur Capper.

Family and early life

Morgan's grandfather James Morgan emigrated from Ireland in 1847, settling in Cincinnati. Morgan's father William Albert Morgan (1841-1917) was apprenticed to a printer and then served in the Civil War. In 1871 he moved to Cottonwood Falls, Kansas and started the Chase County Leader newspaper, which he continued until retiring in 1903. He also served in both houses of the state legislature. Morgan's mother Wilhelmina (Yoast) Morgan (1843-1910) was active in civic organizations and politics, serving as mayor of Cottonwood Falls in 1885.^[1] Morgan himself was educated in Cottonwood Falls and then at the state university in Lawrence, majoring in journalism.

Morgan married Colie Adair (1872-1958) in November 1890; they had one daughter, Claudia (d. 1958) ^[2]

Career

After working at the Lawrence Journal for two years, Morgan purchased and edited the Republican in Strong City.^[3] He sold that paper after four years and purchased the Emporia Daily Gazette; he operated that until selling it to William Allen White in 1895. He then organized a corporation to purchase and operate The Hutchinson News in Hutchinson, Kansas, where he remained until his death. As of 1912 it had the largest circulation of any newspaper in central Kansas. From 1899 to 1903 he was the state printer.^[4]

Morgan was active in the Republican party, and in 1903 he was elected to the lower house of the Kansas legislature, and he continued to serve there until 1910. He was lieutenant governor of Kansas from 1915 to 1919 serving under Governor Arthur Capper. He was a delegate to the Republican national conventions of 1916 and 1920, and was the Republican party candidate for governor in 1922, but lost to Democrat Jonathan M. Davis.

Morgan had extensive business interests around Hutchinson, including the Hutchinson Printing Company. He served briefly as the president of the State Exchange Bank there. He served on the University of Kansas board of regents, as president of the Kansas Editorial Association, as state commander of the Sons of Veterans, and as the head of various charitable enterprises.

From 1903-5 Morgan served as Archon Councilor of his fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta.^[5]

Letters Morgan wrote while travelling were compiled into four books: A Journey of a Jayhawker (1905), A Jayhawker in Europe (1911), The Near East (1913), and "Yurrup" As Is (1926).

Morgan Elementary School in Hutchinson is named in his honor.

References