MORGAN, DANIEL EDGAR (7 Aug. 1877-1 May 1949), councilman, state senator, city manager, and judge, was born in Oak Hill, Ohio, to Elias and Elizabeth Jones Morgan. He received his B.A. from Oberlin College (1897) and LL.B. from Harvard Law School (1901). While practicing law in Cleveland, he was elected as a Republican to CLEVELAND CITY COUNCIL (1909-11), supported HOME RULE, and helped write Cleveland's new charter, supporting a large council with small wards, believing people should have neighborhood representation. In 1928 he was elected Ohio state senator, earning a reputation for improving pending legislation to make it more effective.

Cleveland adopted the CITY MANAGER PLAN in 1923; city council elected Morgan city manager in 1930. He negotiated settlements over utility rates; opened all staff positions at City Hospital to Negroes; and persuaded county officials to put a $31 million bond issue on the ballot to pay for public works to provide jobs during the Depression. However, mounting unemployment outstripped the means available to alleviate the problems, and in Nov. 1931 the plan was abolished, the city returned to mayor-ward government, and Morgan ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 1932. Morgan became judge on the Court of Appeals in 1939, serving until his death. Morgan supported Goodrich House, the CONSUMERS LEAGUE OF OHIO, and LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF CLEVELAND, and was also a founder and first president of the CITY CLUB OF CLEVELAND. He married Ella A. Matthews (d. 1923), a women's suffragette, in 1915, and had daughter, Nancy Olwen (Mrs. Armand B. Leavelle). In 1926 he married Wilma Ball.

Campbell, Thomas F. Daniel E. Morgan, 1877-1949, The Good Citizen in Politics (1966).

Daniel Edgar Morgan Papers, WRHS.

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