Middy Morgan

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Maria Morgan (November 22, 1828 - June 1, 1892), generally known as Middy Morgan, was an Irish-born agricultural journalist who became one of America's top livestock experts. At one time, she supervised the stables for King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy.

Biography[edit]

Maria "Middy" Morgan was born in Cork, Ireland, the daughter of landowner Anthony Morgan.[1] She became an expert equestrian early in life and studied cattle and horse breeding.[1][2] When her father died in 1865, she went to Rome, Italy, accompanying her sister Jane, who intended to study art.[3] After two years, she moved to Florence, where she was hired to supervise the stables of King Victor Emanuel II and select horses for his Horse Guards.[1][3][4]

In 1869, she emigrated to the United States with letters of introduction to New-York Tribune editor Horace Greeley and New York Times editor Henry Jarvis Raymond.[5][3] Her first published writing was a report for the Tribune on the horse races at Saratoga.[5] Starting in the early 1870s, she was the livestock reporter for the New York Times for two decades.[2] She also reported on livestock for periodicals such as New York Herald, Live-stock Reporter, American Agriculturist, Country Gentleman, Spirit of the Times, and The Turf, Field and Farm.[1][3][6]

Morgan developed a reputation as one of the best judges of cattle in the United States[7][8] After one trip to Europe on a cattle boat, Morgan wrote an exposé of the poor treatment of cattle on transatlantic crossings that led to improved conditions for the animals.[1][4] One contemporary publication termed her "the most successful reporter among women",[8] and Edward Page Mitchell, editor of the New York Sun, considered her the best woman reporter of the day.[9]

Unable to find enough work on the east coast, Morgan went west for a few years in the early 1880s.[10] She spent time in Montana, where a rancher who initially hired her as a ranch hand later took her into partnership,[11] and she served as adviser to the Earl of Dunmore, who was planning to invest in ranching in Montana.[10]

Returning east, Morgan lived for a time in Robinvale, New Jersey, where she was custodian of the Pennsylvania Railroad station, in exchange for which she received free rail transport for her reporting.[1] She later moved to Staten Island to live with her sister Jane.[3] Her death in 1892 was in part a consequence of a stockyard accident the year before.[1][3]

Morgan bequeathed some of her valuables to the Metropolitan Museum of New York, including jewelry given to her by King Victor Emmanuel II.[3][12]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Willard, Frances E., and Mary A. Livermore. "Morgan, Miss Maria". A woman of the century: Fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life. New York: Moulton, 1893, pp. 520-21.
  2. ^ a b Winslow, Helen M. "Some Newspaper Women". The Arena 17 (December 1896 – June 1897), p. 129.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Morgan, Maria". Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events 17, p. 561.
  4. ^ a b Logan, Mrs. John A. The Part Taken by Women in American History, p. 864.
  5. ^ a b Rice, Rosella. "Middy Morgan". Arthur's Home Magazine 49, pp. 47–49.
  6. ^ "Middy Morgan". The Literary World 13 (May 20, 1882), p. 161.
  7. ^ "Middy Morgan". Pacific Rural Press 21:26 (June 25, 1881), p. 452.
  8. ^ a b McBride, Marion A. "Women as Journalists in America". The Pall Mall Budget 34 (May 13, 1886), p. 22.
  9. ^ Harris, Sharon M. Dr. Mary Walker: An American Radical: 1832–1919.
  10. ^ a b Jordan, Teresa. Cowgirls: Women of the American West, pp. 136–37.
  11. ^ Lewis, Jon E. The Mammoth Book of the West. Hachette UK, 2012.
  12. ^ Gere, Charlotte. "European Decorative Arts at the World's Fairs: 1850–1900". The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Winter 1998–99, p. 29.

External links[edit]

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