Dr. Asa Morgan was born in Dayton, Ohio, on the 22d day of February, 1826. In the fall of 1833 his father removed to Indiana and settled at Thornton, Boone county, the town at this time being the remains of an old Indian village, with many of the cabins still standing and serving the new-comers for shelter until they could build better ones. He endured the hardships and privations of frontier life, and lived to see the place grow into a flourishing town, with good schools, churches, stores, etc., when his father migrated with his family to Iowa in the fall of 1846, and settled on a farm near Davenport. The coming winter he taught school in Rockingham, Iowa, He was now in his 21st year. He taught three successive winters, reading medicine at intervals, and working on his father's farm during summers.
He read medicine under Dr. Wm. H. White, of Davenport, during the winter of 1849-50, and attended a partial course of lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Upper Mississippi, located there at the time. He took his next course at Rush Medical College, Chicago, at the session of 1850-51. He attended his last course at the Iowa University College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Keokuk, Iowa, session 1851-52, when he graduated at the close, and located in the practice of medicine at De Witt, Iowa, in March, same year.
He married the only daughter of Mr. C. A. Isbel, in November, 1854. In the fall of 1857 he removed with his family, and located in the practice of his profession at Pacific City, Mills county, Iowa, When the discovery of gold in the Rocky Mountains was first made known, he with many others living on the frontier immediately made ready, and started on a trip to the auriferous fields early in 1859. After arriving there and prospecting a few weeks in the mountains, he made up his mind that gold digging there could not be made to pay without the expenditure of large capital, and thereupon he returned to the States the same summer, settled up his business at his new home on the Missouri river, and returned to his old home at De Witt, Iowa, where he pursued the practice of medicine until August, 1861, when he received a commission as Assistant Surgeon of the Seventh Iowa Regiment Infantry Volunteers, and joined his regiment same month at Iron Mountain: was with it on duty — overworked much of the time, and enduring many hard marches and suffering from the privations and disadvantages of soldiering at the commencement of the war — he fell sick, and finally became so debilitated and broken down in health, that soon after the first battle of Corinth he resigned, the last of June, 1862, and returned home with a shattered and broken constitution. After remaining home some two years, and health much improved, through the influence of his tried and true friend of many years, Dr. C. H. Lothrop, then Surgeon of the First Iowa Cavalry Volunteers, the Governor of Iowa commissioned him Assistant Surgeon of that regiment, in December, 1864, with which he remained in that capacity only a few months, when he was promoted, and commissioned by the Governor of Illinois Surgeon of the Twelfth Illinois Regiment Cavalry Volunteers, in June, 1865, and served with that regiment until after the close of the war, and was mustered out at Houston, Texas, in May, 1866, and became a citizen of Texas, buying a farm on Cedar Bayou, near Galveston Bay, where he now resides and still follows the vocation of his calling.
SOURCE: Charles H. Lothrop, A History Of The First Regiment Iowa Cavalry Veteran Volunteers, p. 325-6
He read medicine under Dr. Wm. H. White, of Davenport, during the winter of 1849-50, and attended a partial course of lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Upper Mississippi, located there at the time. He took his next course at Rush Medical College, Chicago, at the session of 1850-51. He attended his last course at the Iowa University College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Keokuk, Iowa, session 1851-52, when he graduated at the close, and located in the practice of medicine at De Witt, Iowa, in March, same year.
He married the only daughter of Mr. C. A. Isbel, in November, 1854. In the fall of 1857 he removed with his family, and located in the practice of his profession at Pacific City, Mills county, Iowa, When the discovery of gold in the Rocky Mountains was first made known, he with many others living on the frontier immediately made ready, and started on a trip to the auriferous fields early in 1859. After arriving there and prospecting a few weeks in the mountains, he made up his mind that gold digging there could not be made to pay without the expenditure of large capital, and thereupon he returned to the States the same summer, settled up his business at his new home on the Missouri river, and returned to his old home at De Witt, Iowa, where he pursued the practice of medicine until August, 1861, when he received a commission as Assistant Surgeon of the Seventh Iowa Regiment Infantry Volunteers, and joined his regiment same month at Iron Mountain: was with it on duty — overworked much of the time, and enduring many hard marches and suffering from the privations and disadvantages of soldiering at the commencement of the war — he fell sick, and finally became so debilitated and broken down in health, that soon after the first battle of Corinth he resigned, the last of June, 1862, and returned home with a shattered and broken constitution. After remaining home some two years, and health much improved, through the influence of his tried and true friend of many years, Dr. C. H. Lothrop, then Surgeon of the First Iowa Cavalry Volunteers, the Governor of Iowa commissioned him Assistant Surgeon of that regiment, in December, 1864, with which he remained in that capacity only a few months, when he was promoted, and commissioned by the Governor of Illinois Surgeon of the Twelfth Illinois Regiment Cavalry Volunteers, in June, 1865, and served with that regiment until after the close of the war, and was mustered out at Houston, Texas, in May, 1866, and became a citizen of Texas, buying a farm on Cedar Bayou, near Galveston Bay, where he now resides and still follows the vocation of his calling.
SOURCE: Charles H. Lothrop, A History Of The First Regiment Iowa Cavalry Veteran Volunteers, p. 325-6
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