If you have ever looked into the history of the state of West Virginia you probably recall the name Morgan Morgan, but might not remember why.<\/b><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>That\u2019s understandable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>His name is hard to forget.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>His first and last name are the same.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Morgan Morgan\u2019s name is an example of a tautonym.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>A tautonym is a name or a proper noun where the same word is used for both parts of the name. A tautonym is most commonly used in biology, it can also refer to people or places, too.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Today is the anniversary in 1735 of Morgan Morgan being commissioned as a Captain of Militia for the region that would become West Virginia.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Morgan\u2019s company evolved into the 201st Field Artillery, which is recognized as the oldest continuously active military unit in America.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Morgan is best known as West Virginia\u2019s first permanent settler, but that\u2019s only part of the story.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Morgan was born in Wales and had already been educated at Cambridge when he arrived in America at the age of 24 in 1712.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Within a year of living in Delaware, Morgan had a wife and the first of eight kids, a son named James, was born a year later.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Morgan set up shop as a merchant and as a tailor.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>The West Virginia portion of Morgan\u2019s story begins in the early 1730\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>At that time, the land that would become West Virginia was a rugged, isolated frontier on the western edge of the British Colony of Virginia.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Most people who settled here were not English aristocrats but of German, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh descent, moving south from Pennsylvania rather than west from the Virginia coast. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>The Colonial Government encouraged settlement in the Shenandoah Valley, including the Eastern Panhandle to create a buffer zone between the established plantations and the potential threats from French expansion and, of course, the Indians.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Bunker Hill in Berkeley County was one of the few spots with permanent cabins by 1735.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>The claim that Morgan was the actual first white settler is debatable, but he was clearly among the first and certainly the most memorable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Morgan was a magistrate.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>He was also the state\u2019s first licensed tavern keeper and a key figure in building the area\u2019s first public road.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>In 1740, he helped establish Christ Episcopal Church, we know it today as Morgan\u2019s Chapel in Bunker Hill, the first church in what is now West Virginia.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Morgan was described as a pious man who integrating his spiritual life with his leadership roles.<\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Morgan died in 1766, but his influence on West Virginia remains to this day. His sons and grandsons fought in the Revolutionary War.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>His son Zackquill helped establish the city of Morgantown and had a homestead set up on what is now University Avenue in 1772.<\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Morgan Morgan,\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>more than just an odd name, a significant figure in West Virginia history.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A key figure in the history of West Virginia <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,823,825],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-658680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-metronews-commentary","category-metronews-commentary-metronews-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\n