George Morgan (merchant)

George Morgan (February 14, 1743 – March 10, 1810) was a merchant, land speculator, and United States Indian agent during the American Revolutionary War, when he was given the rank of colonel in the Continental Army.

Enjoying the patronage of Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, the firm started to trade with Illinois Country ceded to Great Britain by France after the end of the French and Indian War, using Fort Pitt Trading Post in present-day Pittsburgh as a forward base.

[5] Morgan made frequent business trips to the frontier and developed good relations with Native Americans.

[6] George Morgan was made an agent for Indian affairs in the Middle Department in 1776, and commissioned on January 8, 1777, as colonel in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

The expedition left Pittsburgh on January 3, 1789; traveled down the Ohio and Mississippi River, and arrived at Anse a la Graisse, a Lenape settlement in the Spanish Louisiana Territory, on March 13, 1789.

[15] On April 1, 1779, Morgan bought 210 acres of land in Princeton, New Jersey, where he built a stone farmhouse with splendid eastern vista, and named his estate the Prospect Farm.

Along with regular farming, he conducted scientific experiments by growing different varieties of corn from various climate zones; maintained a model aviary; developed methods of pest control, in particular, aimed at the hessian fly.

In the words of Manasseh Cutler, who visited George Morgan in July 1787, "Here I saw the Hessian fly, as it called, which has done immense injury for wheat.

It has enabled the farmers in this part of the country to get rid of an insect that had wholly cut off their crops of grain for several years successfully.

[18] On August 22, 1806, Morgan was visited by Aaron Burr and his chief of staff Colonel Julien de Pestre at Morganza Farm.