David married Jane Lewis on December 24, 1842 in Tabernacle Chapel, Tydfil Minor, Glamorganshire, Wales. David and Jane had five children: Sarah Morgan who was born on October 31, 1827 in Merthyr; Joseph Hyrum Morgan who was born on July 16, 1854 in Kansas while the family was crossing the plains; David Alexamder Morgan who was born on February 15, 1856 in Cedar City, Iron County, Utah; Monroni David Morgan who was born on March 25, 1859 in Beaver City, Beaver County, Utah and Eliza Jane Morgan who was born on April 8, 1861 in Parowan, Iron County, Utah

The family crossed the plains in 1854, settling in Cedar City, Iron County, Utah. The family also lived in Parowan and Beaver City, before settling in Greenville.

Jane Lewis died on December 1, 1863 in Greenville, Beaver County, Utah at the age of 40 while David D. Morgan died in Greenville on May 13, 1870 at the age of 53.

David married Jane Lewis (born: 4 Jun 1823 & christened: 27 Jun 1823) on 24 Dec 1842. The marriage was solemnized in the Tabernacle chapel in the District of Merthyr Tydfil in the Counties of Glamorganshire and Brecknockshire. At the time of their marriage, David is listed as a "bachelor" with the profession of Miner. He lists his residence as George Town, Merthyr Tydfil. No father's name is given. Jane is listed as a "spinster" with no profession and her residency being in Castle Square, Merthyr Tydfil. No father's name is listed for Jane either. Neither David nor Jane was what is termed 'literate' at this time as neither signed their name to their marriage certificate. Both signed by: x mark. David's last name is recorded thus: Morgan with an s on the end. The following witnessed their marriage: William Davies who signed his name and what is assumed to be David's brother, Isaac Morgan: by x mark.

It has been recorded in Morgan family history that David was "one of the working class, while Jane's parents were wealthy and opposed the marriage of this couple" (sketch of the life of Eliza Jane Morgan Barton by her daughter, Eva Barton Easton -- about 1953). One can only speculate that the opposition to the marriage, perhaps due to this economic social class differentiation, may have been one reason David and Jane chose not to include their parent's names on the certificate. It may also be as simple as neglect on the part of the recorder to ask for and record the information

Jane's mother (Mary Loyd/Lloyd) died sometime between Jane's birth and age two. Her Father, Alexander Lewis, remarried a woman by the name of Mary Traherne on 24 Dec 1825. (film # 104886) It appears that Mary Traherne was the mother to whom Jane had association. At the time of their marriage, David was 25 years old with Jane being age 19. (copy: marriage license)

David, Jane and their only child Sarah departed on the sailing Ship Golconda from Liverpool England on 4 February 1854 for the United States of America and the port of New Orleans. This was the second voyage for the Golconda carrying Saints to America and the port of New Orleans. The number of Latter Day Saints sailing on this voyage is listed as 464. The Golconda was 1124 tons, 171 feet X 33 feet X 22 feet. She was one of the three-masters built in Canada and then registered in Liverpool. Her tonnage has been variously listed as 1170, 1087, 1044 and 1224 indicating different basis for calculations. The ship seemed to run in the Tapscott's line. After 1868 she was no longer listed in Lloyd's Register. (Ships, Saints, and Mariners, Sonne, Conway B. U of U Press, 1987, pp. 89-90).

Elder Dorr P. Curtis, assisted by Elders Thomas Squires and W.S. Phillips, presided over the 464 Saints in the company David and his family joined. The emigrants were organized into seven branches, and meetings were held five times a week with many reporting spiritual manifestations. Winds were contrary early in the voyage, but after a few days the weather was favorable which made the crossing pleasant most of the time. After a forty-two-day passage Captain Kerr brought his ship safely to New Orleans on March the 18th, 1854. Two Marriages were solemnized during the voyage, and there was one death.

Records from the Golconda report David "Morgans", 36, Jane 30 and Sarah 6 as passengers (film #s 200177 & 0543424). The Golconda reached port, landing in New Orleans, LA on March the 18th, 1854. They were checked into the United States Custom House, Room 218, 2nd Floor. David, Jane and Sarah's last name is recorded as "Morgans" on the Customhouse records. At New Orleans three emigrants were quarantined, on the Mississippi; ten died between that port and St. Louis, MO. They departed from the Mississippi River at St. Louis (on the paddle wheeler Australia) traveling up the Missouri River to the Kansas, Missouri Westport outfitting post, the outfitting place selected for the saints crossing the plains that year. Then, the Saints would join wagon trains for the 800-mile trek west to the Great Basin and Salt Lake City. (Ships, Saints, and Mariners, Sonne, Conway B. U of U Press, 1987, pp 89-90)

THE PIER HEAD AT LIVERPOOL, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND
The following is a list of "Pioneer Supplies" entitled a "Bill of Particulars" included for emigrants leaving "this government" next spring. Each family consisting of five persons were to obtain:

1 good strong wagon well covered with a light box
2 or 3 good yoke of oxen between the ages of 4 and 10 years (neutered bulls)
2 or more milch (milk) cows
1 or more good beefs
3 sheep if they can be obtained
1000 lbs. of flour or other bread or breadstuffs in good sacks
1 good musket or rifle to each male over the age of 12 years
1 lb. Powder
4 lbs. lead
100 lbs. sugar
1 lb. Cayenne pepper
1 lb. Black pepper
1 lb. Mustard
10 lbs. rice for each family
1 lb. Cinnamon
½ lb. Cloves
1 doz. Nutmegs
25 lbs. salt
5 lbs. saleratus (bicarbonate for raising bread)
10 lbs. dried apples
1 bushel beans
A few lbs. of dried beef or bacon.
5 lbs. dried peaches
20 lbs. dried pumpkin
25 lbs. seed grain
20 lbs. soap for each family
15 lbs. iron and steel
A few lbs. of wrought nails
One or more sets of saw or grist mill irons to company of 100 families
1 good seine (fishing net) and hook for each company for company
2 sets of pulley blocks and ropes to each company for crossing rivers
from 25 to 100 lbs. of farming and mechanical tools
Cooking utensils to consist of bake kettle, frying pan
Tin cups, plates knives, forks spoons and pans as few as will do
A good tent and furniture to each family, not to exceed 500 lbs.
Ten extra teams for each company of 100 families

David and his family, along with many others, purchased the above list of animals and items before being allowed to depart for the Great Basin and Salt Lake City. Brigham Young had established stores managed by the Saints in anticipation of those Saints arriving from Europe and departing for Salt Lake City. The wagon weight with its wagon box, wheels and tongue plus canvas cover weighted about 2,000 pounds. The burden load or amenities listed above for the trip was approximately 1,500 to 1,800 pounds, making the total wagon weight 3,500 to 3,800 pounds or just slightly less than 2 tons. A yoke of four (4) oxen (two teams) could pull on the flat land and over some rolling hills comfortably 4,000 pounds or 2 tons (Following in Their Footsteps, Ensign, July 1997, p. 10). When the wagon trains came to streams and rivers that needed fording or when passing over swampy ground that could not be skirted, the oxen and horse teams from other wagons would be coupled to a single wagon making up four teams to pull the wagons safely to the other side.

As stated previously, it is not clear whether David and his family had sufficient funds to travel with the Independent Company or whether they traveled using the P.E.F. funds. Funds that were put aside by the Church for those with insufficient funds for travel with the understanding the money would be paid back to the church to help other saints emigrate. Again, the "Golconda" roster shows no P.E.F. initials next to David and his family as can been seen next to other passengers on the ship rooster. This leaves one to speculate they may have been with Captain Job Smith's company.

When the family departed Liverpool, England for Salt Lake City, Jane was expecting their second child. It is likely that at the time of their departure from Kansas City Jane, in her delicate condition (close to delivery) and Sarah walked while David drove the oxen team pulling their wagon. Riding in an ox pulled wagon meant one could have a very bumpy and jarring experience. Walking beside the wagon would have given much relief from the constant up and down, side to side jarring. Joseph Hyrum Morgan made his entry into the world on July the 16th, 1854 while the family was in route. The exact location for his birth is unknown. There are no known family history stories giving this information. For those of us having the opportunity to live in the 20th/21st Century, with our sterile, antiseptic hospital experience of childbirth, to think of giving birth in a wagon while the wagon moves slowly along a dusty, bumpy, landscape puts one in awe and admiration for our pioneer mothers and the courage and dedication they exhibited as they went through this "shadow of death" experience in order that their posterity might enjoy the fruits of the gospel as a united group within the protective arms of the rocky mountains. For Jane, giving birth while traveling across the plains was not unique as many of her pioneer sisters shared in this same experience. This shared birth experience no doubt made it easier to bare the burdens of childbirth as sisters in the gospel rallied to help one another, serving in their own unique way.

The number of emigrants traveling west at this time was about equal, those traveling to Oregon and California and Mormon converts coming from Europe. The wagon trains moving west would follow much the same route traveling the Oregon Trail. Latter-Day Saints (1847) actually blazed only the trail route through the western half of Iowa and short segments in eastern and central Nebraska and in parts of Utah. Brigham Young had organized way stations for replenishing the needs of the Mormon wagon trains at specific intervals along the entire route. Additionally, these way stations sold supplies to other travelers moving west. This revenue helped the Saints in their westward migration. In 1854, when David, Jane, Sarah and baby Joseph Hyrum made their trek to the Great Basin the route traveled was much like a highway today with traffic going in both an eastward and a westward direction.

On the 13th of August 1854 the Job Smith Company was encamped at Scotts Bluffs with captains James Brown and Darwin Richardson and their companies. Baby Joseph Hyrum, being born on July the 16th could very likely have been born between Ash Hallow (380.75 miles from Westport), and Chimney Rock, Nebraska (452.5 miles from Westport). Jane and her new baby boy most likely were bedded down in the hot wagon while David walked along beside the wagon with Sarah. The canvas cover would be rolled up allowing air movement through the wagon. Drivers of oxen seldom rode the wagon. Oxen were yoked to the tongue of the wagon and driven with a switch. Family history states that "when Joseph Hyrum was three days old, Jane had to get out of the wagon and help push it along". (Sketch of Life of Eliza Jane Morgan Barton by Eva Barton Easton -- about 1953) This is a good example of how all hands were valuable and necessary regardless of the circumstance one found himself in. Jane, no doubt, was given strength from on high to endure the rigors of this pioneer trek.

After their arrival in Salt Lake City, David being experienced as a miner in Merthyr-Tydfil, even though he is listed as a farmer when entering the United States in New Orleans, probably went to Cedar City to help open the Iron Mountain Mine west of Cedar. This would account for his family being listed in the 1856 Census of Cedar City, Utah. It is not known how long they stayed in Salt Lake City before coming to Cedar City but probably not long as the Saints were sent by Brigham Young or chose for themselves to locate where they felt they could provide for their family. Family history states that "after they reached Salt Lake City they decided to go to Cedar City." (Sketch of the Life of Eliza Jane Morgan Barton by her daughter, Eva Barton Easton -- about 1953). In the 1856 census of Cedar City the following people are listed together as though in one household. Page 636 shows David Morgan with the following: Jane, Sarah, Mary, Joseph H., Isaac, William, Ann, and Eleanor. It is not known whether they are linked together through kinship or friendship. Speculation would say that they are related in some way. For example, did David's brother, Isaac, emigrate with David? Further research is needed to help answer these questions.

Three years after their arrival in the Deseret Territory, their third child and second son, Alexander Morgan, was born on September 15th, 1857 in Cedar City, Utah. Alexander was probably named after Jane's father: Alexander Lewis.

If David came to Cedar City to work in the Iron Mountain Mine, he did not stay in Cedar very long. In 1859 their fourth child and third son Moroni David was born in Beaver, Utah on March the 25th, 1859. And just two years later their fifth child and second daughter, Eliza Jane was born in Paragonah, Utah on April the 8th of 1861. Family history gives the following account of Eliza Jane's birth and shows the ordeals often expected of a pioneer mother to endure as she experienced the rigors of pioneer living. "Mother was born April 8, 1861 in Paragonah, Utah. Her mother was alone at the time Mother was born (in front of the hearth)." (Eliza Jane Morgan Barton as related by her son, Kenneth Asa Barton). Some time after Eliza Jane's birth, the family moved to Greenville, Beaver, Utah, a little farming community situated in what was then considered the "west fields" of Beaver City.

Since the soil at Greenville is of an alkaline nature, it was thought to be unfit for farming, but these people took up the land and built homes and established themselves permanently. At first two families settled in the small settlement. Soon four other families moved to Greenville. They made their camp beneath a clump of trees on the bank of a creek and later secured four log houses at Beaver and moved them down to Greenville to live in. All the houses were placed within a short distance of each other, as a precaution against Indian raids. In 1861-1862 an additional twenty-six families followed from the Cedar City and Parowan areas. The names of each family are noted in the "Monuments to Courage" (Monuments to Courage, 1974, p 155) but the David Morgan family is not mentioned. As a concluding note the author states that there were probably others, but their names at this time do not come to mind.

David and Jane had not settled in Greenville very long before tragedy struck. On December the 1st, 1863, Jane, their stalwart and faithful mother who had given birth on the plains, birth in a cabin, alone, without the help of her pioneer sisters; birth in other unknown circumstances; who had chosen to leave parents, wealth and security to forge the way for her posterity to have the gospel of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints among the Saints in the tops of the mountains where they could listen, see and even touch a living Prophet of God; died. Jane was just 40 years of age. Her children, Sarah, age 16, Joseph Hyrum. Age 9, Alexander, age 6, Moroni David, age 4 and Eliza Jane just 2 years old must have felt a deepening loss within. The kind of loss that can be felt when a "Mother" is no longer able to warm the hearth of the home by her presence. Jane was buried in the Beaver Cemetery.

With the death of his eternal companion, David was left with the responsibility of a young family to raise. Stories passed down through the family state that sometime after Jane's death, "David married Pauline Ellicker and two little girls were born to them." (Sketch of the Life of Eliza Jane Morgan Barton by her daughter, Eva Barton Easton -- about 1953) There is no record to date found of this marriage, however, in the 1870 Census for Greenville there is a Pauline Morgan age 27 with three little girls living next door to David's daughter, Sarah Morgan Griffiths. Sarah's husband David and their two sons: David H. and Joseph H, and Sarah's sister Eliza age 10 and Sarah's brother Alexander age 14 are also living in Sarah's household in this census. Joseph Hyrum age 17 and Moroni David age 12 are not found in the census. It is not known where these two boys were living at this time. Pauline's children are: Pauline G. age 5, Hab... age 4, and Margaret A. age 10 months. Note there are three girls listed instead of two.

David survived his wife, Jane, by only seven years. He passed away on May the 13th, 1870 at Greenville, Utah and was buried next to his wife Jane in the Beaver Cemetery. David's death was reported thusly in The Deseret Evening News later to become the Deseret News.

David D. Morgan died at Greenville, Beaver County, Utah 13 May 1870. He was 53 years, two months and 9 days old at the time of his death. He was a native of Methyr, Tidfyl, Glamorganshire, South Wales. Mill. Star, please copy. (The Evening News, Wednesday June 3, 1879; similarly reported in the Millennial Star, June 28, 1870).