Ashton E. Morgan, who had been steadily climbing to success as a lawyer at Newton, is junior member of the law firm of Von der Heiden & Morgan, his partner being W. H. Von der Heiden, one of the oldest members of the Newton bar.
Mr. Morgan was born in Harvey County, Kansas, February 4, 1878, and belongs to a family of Kansas pioneers. His ancestors were from Wales and were frontiersmen and Indian fighters on the western line of Old Virginia, settling in what is now the state of West Virginia, where the City of Morgantown was named for the family.
Jesse C. Morgan, father of Ashton E., was born in Wayne County, Indiana, in February, 1847, and is now living retired at Newton. He was seven years of age when he accompanied his parents to Kansas, and the family lived for some years in Johnson County, Grandfather Morgan was a miller by trade. Jesse C. Morgan grew up in Johnson County and for many years had been a business man of Harvey County, where he located in 1873. For a time he was a farmer, later agent for the Singer Sewing Machine Company, then entered business as a merchant, and is now retired. He married at Olathe, Kansas, Miss Clara Duffield, who was born in Illinois in 1855 and died at Newton, Kansas, in 1888.
Ashton E. Morgan grew up at Newton, attended the public schools, including high school, and began the study of law in the office of Judge Cyrus S. Bowman. He was admitted to the bar in 1903, and had since given his time and abilities to the handling of a general practice.
Mr. Morgan is a republican in politics, a member of the Harvey County Bar Association, and is affiliated with Newton Lodge No. 74, Ancient Order of United Workmen, and Newton Lodge No. 706, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Morgan owned a comfortable home at 307 East Eighth Street. He married at Newton in 1904 Miss Effie Smith, daughter of Samuel and Mary (Morgan) Smith, the latter now deceased. Her father is a farmer at Cleo Springs, Oklahoma. Mr. and Mrs. Morgan have three children: Clifford, born November 29, 1905; Richard, born July 18, 1908; and Helen, born September 20, 1912.