"He who works most achieves most," is a good motto in business, and in pursuits of all kinds. This has been the principle on which E. P. Morgan has acted throughout life, and a faithful persistence in carrying it out has resulted in building up a mammoth business and the consequent possession of a handsome fortune.

Mr. Morgan was born in New London, Connecticut, in 1807. His early years were spent at home and in attending school, where a good common education was gained. In his fifteenth year he was taken from school and placed in a store, where he acquired those business habits which have made him a successful and wealthy merchant. At the age of twenty-one, he set up in business for himself, at Middlefield, Massachusetts, carrying on a store, and at the same time engaging in the manufacture of woolen goods. In this store he continued twelve years, doing the whole time a thriving and profitable business.

In 1841, he bade adieu to Massachusetts and came west to Ohio, taking up his future home in Cleveland. He plunged into business immediately on arriving, opening a store on the north side of Superior street, in the place now occupied by the store of Mould & Numsen. In 1857, he saw what he believed to be a more eligible site for business in the corner of Superior and Seneca streets, and to that point he removed in 1858. At the same time the firm of Morgan & Root was formed by admitting to partnership Mr. R. R. Root. To the retail dry goods business was now added a wholesale department, as also a millinery department, and subsequently a grocery. The business was vigorously pushed and every department grew with remarkable rapidity, until store after store was added to the establishment. The "corner store" became known far and wide, and a very large country trade was built up in the jobbing department. During the last three years of the war, the business of the firm reached an amount greater than had ever been anticipated by its members, and the old quarters, capable no longer of extension, became too strait for the expanding operations. A number of lots on the east side of Bank street, between the Herald building and Frankfort street, being purchased by Morgan & Root, were speedily disencumbered of the drinking saloons and petty shops that covered them, and on their site soon arose one of the finest business blocks in the city, estimated to cost sixty thousand dollars in addition to the cost of the land. When the block was finished the wholesale department of the business was removed to the new building, leaving the retail department to be carried on in the old store. In February, 1869, the retail business was sold out to new parties, and thereafter the firm of Morgan & Root confined itself exclusively to the wholesale trade.

That Mr. Morgan is one of the best business men of the city is proved by the fact that he has failed in no one of his undertakings; not that he has always sailed on a smooth current of success, but that when difficulties arose his indomitable perseverance enabled him to overcome them. He engaged in no enterprise without its having been based on good evidence and sound judgment; he never wavered in his adherence to it, nor slackened for a moment his endeavors to prove his faith sound; nor has he once been disappointed as to the result. Few men have shown a like perseverance. His habits of keen investigation and strict attention to his affairs, enabled him to do a very safe, though a very enterprising business, and consequently he had little occasion for professional acquaintance with lawyers.

In addition to his mercantile business, Mr. Morgan has interested himself in insurance matters, being president of the State Fire Insurance Company, of Cleveland, which position he has held since the organization of the company in 1863. Under his presidency the company has done a safe and successful business, and has extended its operations so that it has offices in Connecticut and other parts of New England. He is also connected with the banking affairs of the city. In the earlier years of his business in Cleveland, he became interested in the construction of the canal around the rapids of Saut St. Marie, and during the progress of the work had a store open at the Saut.

In 1864, he built his residence on Euclid street, near the corner of Huntington street, where he has resided since that time. Though sixty-two years of age, he is still as active and vigorous as ever, and bids fair to long be an active member, in fact as well as in title, of the firm of Morgan & Root.

In religious principles Mr. Morgan is a Presbyterian. For a long time he was a member of the Second Presbyterian Church, but of late has been connected with the Euclid street Presbyterian Church.

In 1832, he was married to Miss Laura Nash, of Middleford, Mass., by whom he has had seven children, all but one of whom still live. The oldest son, William Morgan, now thirty-one years old, is engaged in the manufacture and sale of lubricating oils. The second son, Edmund N. Morgan, is an assistant in his father's store. A daughter, Helen, is the wife of Mr. J. B. Merriam, of Cleveland.