At 10 o'clock in the morning on July the 4th, 1929 Frederick Chapman Morgan died at his home on Ohio Street. He was eighty-one years, one month, and nine days old. Just down the street and around the corner next to the Vermilion Township Hall on Division Street was the First Congregational Church. Mr. Morgan had played the organ in that church, and the old church building which stood on the same lot before it, for over 60 years. Before him his mother, Emma, and his father, F.W. Morgan had played a lap organ - the first church organ - in this place. She balancing both melodeon and babe on her lap while holding a hymnal in one hand and playing the soprano chords with the other. Mr. Morgan had an easier task. He played the bass chords while simultaneously pumping air into the instrument. It was a team effort.

According to church records music in the church, which was officially organized on Major Eli Barnum's farm in Florence Township in 1818, had been strictly vocal until sometime in the early 1840's when Jacob Sherod, who played bass viol, William Martin, violin, and George Sherod on the clarinet brought their musical talents to the small, but growing, congregation. In 1845 Emma and F.W. Morgan arrived with their melodeon which they played until 1858 when a new pipe organ was installed, accompanied by the rich voices of a full choir.

F. C.'s mother and father were among Vermilion's early pioneers.They, along with many other early Vermilionites, had migrated to the west from Connecticut to settle in the Fire-Lands (see P.J. article February 13, 2003). He was the only son and was born in their first Vermilion Township home on May 24, 1848. When he was seven years old he moved with his parents to a farm on Risden Road. A year later a daughter, Lucy, was born to the couple.

In 1860, at the ripe old age of 12, young Frederick began to play the church's new pipe organ on a regular basis. As remarkable as this is it is also a fact that he continued to play nearly every Sunday for the next 60 years with very few exceptions. Only the time he spent away at school (where he played organ elsewhere) or during times of sickness in the family was he prevented from pursuing his passion; playing organ for his church. Through rain, sleet, and snow he traversed the three miles from the Risden Road farm to play at the church. And I would add that none of this was with compensation. Until accident (for he was a farmer by profession) and severe rheumatism made it impossible for him to play any longer he clung to the keys of his instrument.

About the same time F.C. began playing organ in the church he also became a member of the Vermilion G.A.R. band. In a May, 28 1922 (Elyria) Chronicle Telegram article he told a reporter, "At present I am playing the baritone, or, as some folks call it, the Bass horn, in the (G.A.R.) band. But I haven't always played it. Truth is, I've played every instrument we've got with the exception of the bass drum. I guess i could play that too, if I had to."

At the time of the Chronicle interview a national magazine had published a sizable article about a gentleman in Walpole, Massachusetts who had played organ for The First Congregational Church there for 55 years claiming it to be a national record. A local farmer, L.E. Hahn, saw the article and disputed the claim. F.C. had, by that time, been playing for Vermilion's church 62 years.

On Friday July 5, 1929 at 1:30 in the afternoon private funeral services were held at Morgan's home on Ohio Street where he had lived for only three years of his long life. At 2:00 pm public services were held at his church with his wife, Mary A. (nee Burrow), his only child, son Presdee B., and sister Lucy near him. Be assured that the sweet sounds of his beloved pipe organ were sounded with all the passion and clarity he had once so freely afforded his church and his community.

(Ref: The Vermilion News - 9-15-10; 7-4-29; Elyria Chronicle Telegram - 10-16-21; 5-28-22; The History of Vermilion's Congregational Church - 1993 by Betty Trinter; and Ancestry.com)

Appeared in the Vermilion Photojournal 11-20-2003

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© 2006 Rich Tarrant