William McKendree Morgan

Who is William McKendree Morgan?

William McKendree Morgan, was an Idaho lawyer and politician who served for two separate periods on the Idaho Supreme Court.

Born in Adams County, Illinois to John Milton Morgan and Mary Morgan, Morgan was educated in the country schools of Bourbon County, Kansas, later attending the Kansas Normal College at Fort Scott. In 1890, when twenty years of age, he set out to win a fortune in the far west. Making his way to Idaho, he located at Moscow and secured employment on ranches in that vicinity. During the winter of 1890-91 he took up the study of law, and was admitted to the bar on October 9, 1894.

In the interim, he became a deputy sheriff of Latah County, Idaho, serving in that position from the 1st of January, 1893, until 1895, when he began practice. He served as a Democrat in the Idaho House of Representatives from 1897 to 1899, and in 1897 was also appointed private secretary to Henry Heitfeld, United States senator, and continued in that position for five years or until 1902, spending most of the period in Washington, D.C. While there, he pursued a course in the law department of Georgetown University of the District of Columbia, receiving an LL.M. in 1899.