Side A: Colonel William Henry Morgan was born in Pittston, Pennsylvania, to parents Thomas Rees Morgan and Elizabeth Nicholas Morgan. The family relocated to Alliance in 1871. Educated in the Alliance Public Schools, Morgan completed his grade 12 exams and began working for his father’s engineering firm. Possessed of an inventive electrical and engineering mind, Morgan and his father patented the overhead traveling crane that revolutionized the steel industry. Upon his father’s death in 1897, Morgan became president of Morgan Engineering Company. He was appointed an honorary “Colonel” when Ohio Governor George K. Nash (1900-1904) made him an aide-de-camp on his staff.
Side B: In 1897, Morgan married his second wife, Annette Sharer, and purchased a 50-acre tract on which he built Glamorgan (1903-1908). The residence was named for his father’s birthplace in Glamorganshire, Wales, and designed by Willard Hirsh. When Morgan died in 1928, his family considered razing the property. In 1939, Elks Lodge 467 purchased the property for $25,000. Developer’s plans to replace Glamorgan with a shopping center in 1964 were thwarted when Alliance Machine stepped in to save it. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, Glamorgan received a grant that gave Alliance City School District possession in 1973.
Sponsors: William G. Pomeroy Foundation, Alliance Historical Society, Castle Crusaders, Visit Canton/Arts in Stark, Ohio History Connection
