Excerpted from "Charles W. Morgan" by Virginia T. Coope (Log of Mystic Seaport, v. 34, no. 4):

Charles Waln Morgan was born in Philadelphia on September 14, 1796, one of six children of Thomas and Anne Waln Morgan.

At 21, Morgan began a trip west with his cousin, Richard Wells, which was made partly for business, partly for pleasure. In the journal he kept of the trip, Morgan described cities and downs in detail, architecture, prosperity of the people, and cultural activities.

On June 3, 1819, Charles married Sarah Rodman, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Rodman of New Bedford. Soon after arriving in New Bedford, Morgan was made a partner in the town's leading whaling firm, operated by William Rotch Sr. and Charles's father-in-law Samuel Rodman. He began investing in New Bedford whaling ships in 1820, and by 1841 had managed fifteen different whaling vessels. He also owned lesser shares in eighteen whalers between 1821 and 1845. Ashore, Morgan owned a candleworks that produced spermaceti candles. Between 1833 and 1840, he obtained a ready market for his whale oil through a contract to supply the oil that illuminated American lighthouses.

By 1841 Charles and Sarah had four daughters and one son and lived on County Street in New Bedford. Morgan's business affairs were extensive and varied. He had purchased property in New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, as well as a large amount of land in New Bedford. He was part owner of the Pocasset Cotton Mill in Fall River, of which Samuel Rodman had been president and principal stockholder; also invested in the Acushnet Paper Mill; iron works in Duncannon, Pennsylvania; a nail factory in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania; coal fields; and railroads. He was president of the Bedford Commercial Bank, an incorporator of the New Bedford Institution for Savings, and an investor in various insurance companies.

Morgan was involved in such philanthropic pursuits as Friends Academy, which he helped found; the New Bedford Free Public Library; the Lyceum, which he helped found in 1828; the New Bedford Temperance Society; the Port Society to benefit sailors; and the Unitarian First Congregational Society which he joined not long after settling in New Bedford, despite his Quaker upbringing.

Charles W. Morgan died on April 7, 1861 at the age of 64.