Morgan, John Paul

1841-1879

Talented organist and composer; was born in Oberlin, Ohio. In 1858 he was organist at the Congregational Church in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, but later went to New York, where he studied for three years under J. Huss, meanwhile acting as organist and director of music at the South Fifth Street M. E. Church in East Brooklyn. He went to Cleveland in 1862 and there became organist at the Second Presbyterian Church and also taught music. The following spring he went to Germany to study theory and composition and worked with Hauptmann, Richter, Reinecke and Papperitz, studying piano with Wenzel, Plaidy and Moscheles and organ with Richter. He graduated from the Conservatory in 1865 and after spending some months with A. G. Ritter at Madgeburg he returned to America. At Oberlin, Ohio, he conducted a series of oratorio concerts and founded the Oberlin Conservatory. In 1866 he went to New York, becoming organist of the Church of the Messiah in Brooklyn, and in 1867 receiving an appointment to Trinity Church, New York; he also led several musical societies and taught organ in the schools of Mason and Thomas and Carl Anschutz. He became conductor for the Handel and Haydn Society of San Francisco and of the Oakland Harmonic Society, besides playing organ in the First Presbyterian Church at Oakland, where he died.