Descendant of Monessen founder visits city
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
In this file photo from July 2018, George Orlando Morgan IV, a descendant of one of the founders of Monessen, and his wife, Martine, are shown with an old ship wheel belonging to Greater Monessen Historical Society.
George Orlando Morgan I
MONESSEN – The Greater Monessen Historical Society had reached a dead end two years ago while researching one of the city’s founders, George Orlando Morgan I, who had been a mystery to its members.
The society’s president, Dan Zyglowicz, eventually found a clue on the Find A Grave website in the form of a comment from Martin’s great-grandson, who lives in Spain.
“We’ve become enthralled with Monessen,” George Orlando Morgan IV said Tuesday, when he and his wife, Martine, visited the struggling Westmoreland County city for the first time.
His great-grandfather was a land agent for Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad and president of East Side Land Co. of Pittsburgh when he negotiated the purchase 120 years ago of a Rostraver Township farm to develop the city around a tin mill.
He partnered with Civil War veteran Col. James M. Schoonmaker and Philander C. Knox, a former U.S. attorney general and secretary of state, and others to form the land company.
“He was very shy,” said Morgan, who is his family’s historian.
His great-grandfather never lived in Monessen, having taken up residence in Shields. Morgan also said he’s given the historical society copies of photos of his great-grandfather.
George Orlando Morgan I also negotiated the purchase of land for a right of way to expand the railroad from Pittsburgh to the coalfields of West Virginia. He was a descendant of one of the oldest families in the United States, having graduated from Harvard University and operated three newspapers in the Greenville area.
Morgan said he was disappointed in the blighted condition of downtown Monessen.
He said he felt a “personal challenge” to do something to help Monessen, that he planned to return again to the city.
“I feel because of my great-grandfather we have a family obligation to try to do something,” said Morgan, who had a career in banking and is now a professor in Madrid.
He said he would spread information about Monessen to his contacts.
“There are lots of entrepreneurs looking for opportunities,” he said.