MORGAN HIGH SCHOOL
Afterward, Morgan and 67 of his officers captured during the raid were incarcerated in the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus. They tunneled for weeks with improvised tools, and on November 27, Morgan and six of his men escaped. Morgan and Capt. Thomas Hines took the night train to Cincinnati. Early the next morning, they jumped off north of Cincinnati, walked to the river, and hired a boy with a skiff to take them to the first stop on the Southern underground railroad, the home of Helen Ludlow (the wife of Israel Ludlow) in Ludlow, Ky. She gave them breakfast and supplied them with horses and $60 in gold. From Ludlow, Morgan and Hines cut across northern Kenton Co., stopping at the Thomas and Cleveland homes before meeting up with Benjamin F. McGlasson at the home of Francis S. Tupman, located along Dry Creek south of the Anderson Ferry. At Tupman’s house, they were given fresh horses and led into northern Boone Co., where they followed Zig Zag Rd. down Gunpowder Creek to Pleasant Valley Rd. (Ky. Rt. 237). They went to Dr. John Dulaney’s house on Pleasant Valley Rd., and Dulaney led them through Sugartit (see Gunpowder [Sugartit]) and then south on the Florence Turnpike (U.S. 42) to the home of Daniel Piatt. The Piatt-Fowler house is one of the best-known stone houses in the county. It still commands a sweeping view of the land along U.S. 42 in Union. From the Piatt house, Morgan and Hines were conducted along Clarkston Ln. and Hathaway Rd. (Ky. Rt. 536) to the home of Henry Corbin on Big Bone Rd. They reached Corbin’s house at 10:00 p.m. and rested for the night. The news of Morgan’s trip through Boone Co. spread quickly, and the following morning many members of the Big Bone Baptist Church came to pay their respects. Morgan and Hines accepted fresh horses and visited with the congregation for a time before continuing their journey south along Gum Branch Rd. past the church. Although this road is now closed, the Civil War–era roadbed is clearly visible next to the parking area at the Adair Wildlife Management Area. With Henry Corbin’s son Perry as a guide, the men passed Big Bone Lick and continued south along Bender Rd. They crossed Mud Lick Creek and followed Big Bone Creek to Big South Fork, making their final Boone Co. stop at the Richardson house on South Fork Church Rd. Morgan and Hines passed into Gallatin Co. late on Sunday, November 28, less than 40 hours after their daring escape from the penitentiary in Columbus. With the aid of a network of Confederate sympathizers, Morgan and Hines traveled all the way through Kentucky to Tennessee. The Great Raid served to boost Southern morale and delayed Burnside’s advance for one month. The Last Kentucky Raid Assigned to southwestern Virginia and with 2,000 men, Morgan led the Last Kentucky Raid in June 1864. He captured Lexington on June 10, and on that day a false alarm in Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati reported that the raiders were fifteen miles from Covington and riding hard for the city.
Union soldiers and home guards manned the defenses, but the alarm was nothing compared to two years before. Morgan captured Cynthiana and returned south. He was killed on September 4, 1864, in Greeneville, Tenn., and ultimately was buried at the Lexington Cemetery. CC, July 14, 17, 18, 1862. CDG, July 16, 1862. Duke, Basil W. A History of Morgan’s Cavalry. 1867. Reprint, West Jefferson, Ohio: Genesis, 1997. Ferguson, Bruce. “The Story of John Hunt Morgan Presented by Bruce Ferguson,” presented to the Boone Co. Historical Society, March 21, 2002. Videotape available at the Boone Co. Public Library, Burlington, Ky. Holland, Cecil F. Morgan and His Raiders: A Biography of the Confederate General. New York: Macmillan, 1943. Horwitz, Lester V. The Longest Raid of the Civil War: Little-Known Stories of Morgan’s Raid into Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. Cincinnati: Farmcourt, 1999. Houchens, Mariam Sidebottom. History of Owen County: “Sweet Owen.” Louisville, Ky.: Standard, 1976. Louisville Journal, October 22, 1862. Ramage, James A. Rebel Raider: The Life of General John Hunt Morgan. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1986; 2nd ed., 1995.
James A. Ramage and Matthew E. Becher
MORGAN ACADEMY. The Morgan Academy in Burlington was a private school established in 1814 by the sale of seminary lands set aside by the government of Kentucky. It opened as Boone Academy and operated under that name from 1814 to 1832, then as Burlington Academy (1833–1841), and finally as Morgan Academy (1842–1897). Instructors Thomas Campbell, Dr. B. W. Chamblin, Willie Gaines, and Lovette Whitehead were among the school’s leaders. By 1842 the new name, Morgan Academy, had been cut in stone and etched in gold leaf on the front of the academy’s building. Boone Co. resident Allen Morgan had died without a will or heirs, and Kentucky law said that such estates were to be donated for educational purposes; therefore, Boone Academy inherited Morgan’s estate and adopted his name. A partial honor roll list dated October 29, 1886, named Annie Cowen, Harry Fisk, and Katie Huey as high achievers, having marks in the 90th percentile. Tuition was $1.50 per month for primary students, $2.50 for intermediate students, and $4.00 for those attending high school. Students who boarded at the school were charged an additional $2.50 to $3.50 per week. A few of the Boone Co. leaders of the 19th and 20th centuries who attended Morgan Academy were J. W. Calvert, Dr. Otto Crisler, J. W. and Fountain Riddell, and Dr. Elijah Ryle. In the final years of the academy, Professor Henry Newton was both teacher and principal. Newton was said to resemble John Wilkes Booth, was very closed-mouth as to his personal life, and limped on his disabled foot. Morgan Academy closed its doors in 1897. The school building was demolished many years ago.
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Boone County Recorder, August 27, 1878, 3; August 18, 1886, 3. Conrad, William. Yesterdays. A project of the Kentucky 200th Anniversary, Judy Clabes, ed. Fort Mitchell, Ky.: Picture This! Books, 1992. County history fi les, Boone Co. Public Library, Burlington, Ky. Kentucky Death Certificate No. 18053, for the year 1924. “Old Burlington Cemetery Contains Remains of Many Prominent People,” Boone County Recorder, July 7, 1955, 7. Russ, Gina. “Morgan Academy—Burlington’s Earliest,” NKH 16, no. 1 (Fall–Winter 2008): 39–45.
Jannes W. Garbett
MORGAN HIGH SCHOOL. By 1909, Pendleton Co. had three independent high schools, one of which was the Morgan Graded and High School. This institution’s first schoolhouse was a multistory brick structure located near the banks of the Licking River. In 1920, Morgan High School’s first graduating class consisted of Kate Hand Douglas and Minerva Rigg. Between 1920 and 1928, the 12th grade was not offered at the school; to finish high school, students completed their senior year elsewhere, typically at Falmouth High School or Butler High School. When Charles S. Brown began serving as principal at Morgan High School, in 1928 or 1929, he reinstated the final year of the high school curriculum. As a result, in spring 1929 diplomas were awarded to four students. During this same year, the school added a gymnasium. Morgan High School joined the Pendleton Co. Public Schools and began using buses for transportation in 1930. In 1939, a new brick building was added for the high school, providing additional classrooms for the lower grades in the original structure. Also in 1939, the school added a lunchroom, a very modern convenience for a rural school at the time. An old church building near the campus was secured in 1947 and converted into a home economics facility. In 1941 Morgan High School graduated its largest class, totaling 31 students. By the time its last class graduated in 1959, an estimated 600 students claimed the Morgan High School as their alma mater. The school’s colors were royal blue and gold, its mascot was the Raiders (a pirate head was the symbol), and the school newspaper was The Sky Rocket (printed from 1940 to 1959). The freshman basketball team was known as the Morgan Midgets. The Morgan High School yearbook, The Morganeer, was published for the last 10 years the high school operated and included information on all grades, 1 through 12. Morgan High School ceased to exist at the close of the 1958–1959 school year, and the Pendleton Co. Board of Education consolidated the upper grades from Butler and Morgan high schools into the newly constructed Pendleton Co. Memorial High School in fall 1959. At least 11 principals served Morgan High school. The high school’s alumni reside in 18 states and a few live in foreign nations. Seventy-five or more of the high school’s graduates served in the