Early Life and Career
Morgan was born in Athens, Tennessee into a family of Welsh origin whose ancestor James B. Morgan (1607–1704) settled in the Connecticut Colony. John T. Morgan was initially educated by his mother. In 1833, he moved with his parents to Calhoun County, Alabama, where he attended frontier schools and then studied law in Tuskegee with justice William Parish Chilton, his brother-in-law. After admission to the bar he established a practice in Talledega. Ten years later, Morgan moved to Dallas County and resumed the practice of law in Selma and Cahaba.
Turning to politics, Morgan became a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1860, and supported John C. Breckinridge. He was delegate from Dallas County to the State Convention of 1861, which passed the ordinance of secession.
Read more about this topic: John Tyler Morgan
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