J. Willard
Morgan

JOSEPH WILLARD MORGAN, known professionally as J. Willard Morgan, was born in Blackwood NJ on July 6, 1854 to Randal and Mary Morgan. His father was in real estate and construction, and was reputed to be one the wealthiest men in the city in the 1880s and 1890s, and had served as the Sheriff of Camden County. Randal Morgan lived though the 1890s at 432 Linden Street. Randal Morgan's place of business in the late 1880s and early 1890s was 207 Market Street in Camden. Another Morgan son, Ely, served as deputy sheriff in 1880.

J. Willard Morgan was educated in the Camden public schools and at a classical school in Philadelphia. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1877 and qualified as a counselor in February of 1881. Establishing his own law office at 207 Market Street, he acquired a large practice. By the time of the 1880 census he had married, and with wife Lizzie resided at 934 Cooper Street, the corner of North 10th and Cooper Streets. By 1887 the J. Willard and Lizzie Morgan had moved to 432 Linden Street, as Mary Morgan had passed away in August of 1881. They resided there through at least 1891.

J. Willard Morgan was elected to City Counsel as a Republican in 1877, and served until 1881. While he was serving on City Counsel in 18979, the first two telephones in service in Camden were installed on January 14, 1879 by John A. Frankes, a Western Union employee, under the direction of Heber C. Robinson. One was placed in a rear room on the south side of the corridor in the City Hall, Haddon Avenue and Benson Street, then occupied by the Chief of Police, but later the office of the Mayor. The second was placed the same day, January 14, 1879, in Simeon T. Ringel's drug store, at the southwest corner of 2nd and Market Streets. A single iron wire grounded at each end formed this private line. No central office had as yet been established and the cost of the line, nearly a mile long,, and run primarily on city poles, was $40.00 Its use was for the city, and particularly for any of the twenty-four policemen then reporting to Chief Daubman in command of the local police.

At the January 30th, 1879 meeting of Council, J. Willard Morgan, on the special committee on telephone, reported the construction of this line and recommended extensions to other points, including the fire stations.

J. Willard Morgan did not served on City Counsel in 1882. He was elected again in 1883, and served one year. In 1884 he was elected City Counselor, a position identical to what today is called city solicitor, and served in that capacity though at least the fall of 1897.

On March 18, 1893, J. Willard Morgan was appointed Receiver of the Camden Woolen Mill in North Camden, which had been operating since the Civil War. He fulfilled this position until the property was acquired by the Highland Worsted Mills in 1896. 

On January 28, 1897 J. Willard Morgan was one of several dignitaries who were in attendance at the opening of the Catholic Lyceum, attached to the the Church of the Immaculate Conception on Broadway at Market Street. Other attendees included the-New Jersey Governor John W. Griggs, late Attorney-General Samuel H. Grey, , Mayor John L. Westcott, Senator H. W. Johnson, Sheriff David Baird Sr., then-Assemblymen Louis Derousse and Scovel, Postmaster Harry B. Paul, ex-Judge Armstrong, Architect Henry S. Dagit, J. J. Burleigh, George A. Frey, and H. L. Bonsall. The Lyceum would evolve into Camden Catholic High School. 

By June of 1903 J. Willard Morgan was serving in the post of State Comptroller for the State of New Jersey. He had taken on Harrison H. Voorhees as a law partner, Voorhees was then also serving as a judge. His circle of friends included Camden Postmaster Louis DeRousse, Congressman Harry Loudenslager, future Congressman William S. Browning, former Judge D. J. Pancoast and former Receiver of Taxes Frank H. Burdsall. He also appointed Isaac Doughten of Camden to serve as his deputy in 1903.

J. Willard Morgan was an active member of Camden Lodge No. 293 of the Elks. In April of 1906 he, along with Dr. Henry H. Davis, nominated Dr. Francis Bicker for membership in the lodge.

One of J. Willard Morgan's law students, William T. Read, would have a long and distinguished career in public service, culminating in service as a delegate to the 1947 New Jersey State Constitutional Convention.

J. Willard Morgan passed away sometime prior to the 1920 Census.

Biographical Review  - 1897

Camden Lodge No. 293, B. P. O. E.

CAMDEN, N. J., April 13, 1906