Charles Waln Morgan (September 14, 1796 – April 7, 1861) was a whaling industry executive, banker and businessman.

They were the ancestors of many notable families of Philadelphia, including the Whartons, Rotchs, Churchmans, and Morgans.

Traveling for pleasure and for work, he documented his journey, the people he met, and places he visited in detail.

A known employee was Polly Johnson, who with her husband Nathan took in Frederick Douglass when they had their own house.

Peter Emanuel postulates that this was to give former slaves a "foothold" to establishing a successful life in New Bedford.

Morgan wrote in 1841, "Sooner or later the minds of all good men must come to his conclusions & act upon them, be the consequences what they may.

[9] He read classic authors, like the Brontë family, Daniel Defoe, and William Makepeace Thackeray.

He gave natural history lectures on the whale at the New Bedford Lyceum, which he helped establish.

[9] In a tribute following his death, his family and community were said to have lost a "kind and indulgent father, his wife an affectionate husband, and the community in which he resided a benevolent, enterprising, honest, christian man..."[12] He began working for the William Rotch and Samuel Rodman whaling firm in his late teens and became a partner.

[8] Morgan invested in real estate in New Bedford, as well as Illinois, New York, Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana.

[3] As the whaling industry started to shut down, he began investing in steel and iron works in Pennsylvania.

[14] Investing in the firm with his wife's brother-in-law, William Logan Fisher,[7] he was a senior partner of Duncannon Iron Company.