Arthur Morgan

Morgan (1899)

### Family

Lyle Morgan (Father), Beatrice Morgan (Mother), Mary Linton (Ex-Fiance), Isaac Morgan (Son), Elizah Daniels(Wife)

## Career Information

### Affiliations

Van Der Linde Gang

**Arthur Morgan** (1863-1899) was an American outlaw during the days of the wild west in America from the 1870's until his death in 1899. He is best known for being the second in command in the Dutch Van Der Linde Gang, which terrorized the wild west in the 1800's.

## Biography

Arthur Morgan was born in 1863 in Enon, Ohio to outlaw Lyle Morgan and his wife Beatrice. During his childhood, Morgan never received any formal education. When he was young his mother died and in 1874 his father was arrested for larceny. After four years on his own, Morgan was taken in by Dutch Van Der Linde, leader of the Van Der Linde Gang and his second in command, Hosea Matthews. Van Der Linde and Matthews raised Arthur to be one of the very first members of the Van Der Linde Gang, with Arthur's political and worldwide views being heavily influenced by Dutch and Hosea. As he got older, Morgan found love in a woman named Mary Gillis though her family disliked Morgan and the relationship fell apart shortly after. Some time later, Morgan met another woman named Eliza and the two had a son together named Isaac, both of whom were murdered in a robbery at their home and after their deaths, Morgan steered away from romantic relationships for the rest of his life.

By 1899, Morgan was a well respected member of the Van Der Linde Gang which had grow in numbers in the recent years. Morgan was good friends with most of the gang such as Dutch, Hosea, Susan Grimshaw, Javier Escuella, Sadie Adler, Lenny Summers, Sean MacGuire, Tilly Jackson, Charles Smith, Bill Williamson, John Marston, Uncle, Orville Swanson, along with many others. Also in 1899, Morgan lost several other friends in the Blackwater Massacre. Following the Blackwater Massacre, the gang was forced to flee into the mountains as the Pinkertons were closely following them. Van Der Linde during this time was showing signs of change in his personality, becoming more violent and insisting that the gang still execute heists. As the gang headed farther east, Morgan realized that the days of the Wild West were numbered. While traveling east the gang became involved in a town wide conflict between the Gray and Braithwait families in Louisiana and had a small encounter with the Italian mafia in New Orleans. The gang also carried out a bank heist that resulted in the deaths of Hosea and Lenny Summers and escaped where Morgan, Bill, Dutch, John and Micah Bell assisted in the revolution in Guarma. Following the revolution in Guarma the pair returned to the United States where Morgan then contracted tuberculosis while collecting a debt from a sick farmer named Thomas Downes.

#### The End of the Van Der Linde Gang and Death

As Dutch became more and more paranoid, members began leaving as Dutch went more and more insane as well as members began taking sides, with several members turning on John and Arthur and leaving with Dutch. It was also revealed that Micah had been a government informant for the Pinkerton Agency which further tore the gang further apart. Morgan confronted Dutch and Micah and while Dutch escaped, Micah and Arthur had a large scale fist fight, Dutch and Micah left Morgan where he died watching the sunrise in Oklahoma.