Morgan Morgan Colonel Morgan Morgan ( November 1 , 1688 — November 17 , 1766 ) was an American pioneer . He was thought to have founded the first permanent settlement in present day West Virginia at Cool Spring Farm . Early life . Little direct evidence of Morgan ' s early life and education have survived . His birth date seems to have been November 1 , 1688 because Morgans Chapel at Bunker Hill , which he helped to found , recorded the following upon his death : " Colonel Morgan died November 17 , 1766 aged 78 years November 1st . " No British records have been found of where he was born or when or how he came to America , but according to American records he seems to have been born in Glamorganshire , Wales during the reign of William III . According to tradition , Glamorganshire was the home of King Arthur - and Arthur was of the House of Morgan . Morgan Morgan was probably educated at the University of Cambridge , a Reformed and even Puritan institution at that time . Emigration to America . Morgan Morgan emigrated to the United States as a single man at the age of 24 , probably during the last years of the reign of Queen Anne . Arriving in Delaware in about 1712 or 1713 , he soon afterward got married , but no record of the date has been found . Morgan commenced business as a merchant at the place now known as Christiana . Some Quaker records record that : Col . Morgan Morgan was educated at Cambridge University and went to Delaware as Crown Council . In 1713 , Morgan married Catherine Garretson in what is now New Castle County , Delaware . Their first child , James , was born in the fall of 1715 , and this is recorded in the church register . Morgan evidently arrived with some money and had a very respectable social standing , for the early records list him as a merchant and tailor , and in 1717 he was appointed as executor of the will of the Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania . At that time what we now know as Delaware was a part of Pennsylvania . Since the trade guilds were very strong in England , one wonders if he learned the tailoring trade in London , from his father , or if he bypassed the law in the new country and started a combined mercantile and tailoring business . As well as working there as a merchant , he was also a magistrate . He has been claimed to have been an ordained Church of England clergyman , and one who established a church in Westminster County in 1727 , but there is no evidence to support this . Morgan is often incorrectly cited as having arrived at present - day West Virginia in 1727 , although he was still living in Delaware at that time , acting as the coroner of New Castle County . His first land transaction on record dates from November 20 , 1723 , when he bought for the price of 70 pounds . Almost the whole of this land was cultivable . In 1924 , a committee appointed by the Governor of West Virginia determined that the first crude shelter erected by Morgan Morgan was built on the Morgan Acres property . Claim of first settlement in West Virginia . Morgan Morgan arrived in what is now West Virginia in 1731 . In January 1734 , he , among others , was appointed to the ' Commission of the Peace ' , meaning that he was a magistrate . He probably received a Patent for ' [ i ] n the Forks of the Rappahannock River & Westwood of Sherrando River ' on 12 Dec 1734 . The claim that he was the first permanent resident there is , however , doubtful . In fact , the area now known as Shepherdstown , West Virginia , was probably inhabited by German - speaking immigrants as early as 1727 . Morgan died at Bunker Hill , Berkeley County , now in West Virginia , and was buried in the Morgan Chapel Graveyard . Family . Morgan had eight children by his marriage to Catherine Garretson . One of their sons , David Morgan , became famous as an Indian fighter due to an encounter with Delaware natives at his homestead . Francis Harrison Pierpont , governor of Virginia , was a descendant of Colonel Morgan . Morgan Morgan held military and civil positions in colonial Virginia which entitled his female descendants to membership in the Colonial Dames of America .