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Birth:          30 Dec 1862 Pa.
Death:          21 Sep 1931 Philadelphia, Pa.
Burial:         24 Sep 1931 West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pa.

Notes
1981 book:
Mordecai was in "real estate" (per directories).  He was a renowned chess player, 
known to beat the national champions.  
    Lizzie's father made good his threat to disinherit her if she married Mordecai.
    On their marriage license, Mordecai's address was listed as 643 N. 15th St., Phila., 
Pa.  In 1907 he lived at 13th & Fishers Lane in Germantown, Pa.  In 1920 he lived at 
13th & Lindley, Phila., Pa.  In 1926, he lived at 233 W. Tulpehocken St., Phila., Pa.
Source: Morgan Heister (1E53751)
1870 in Philadelphia, Pa.
1880 in Philadelphia, Pa. machinist apprentice
1900 in Philadelphia, Pa., living in mother's household, age 37, says single. But he 
also is listed under his own entry in Ward 22 (whereas his mother and siblings are in 
Ward 15). he is living on Queen St.

1910 census, living in 42nd Ward in Philadelphia, in household of Margaret Ridpath, 
his mother in law. his wife, two children, and two servants and a coachman. Living on 
Lindley Avenue near Fishers Lane? has his own real estate office

1920 census he is on Lindley Ave, in Margaret Ridpath's home, he is a widower, also 
living there are his daughter, her husband and two children and three servants No occ 
listed
per 1985 research at Philadelphia City Hall Archives, a salesman in 1890
 
1930 census he is living with his daughter and her husband on Tulpehocken Street in 
Philadelphia.  Two grandchildren also live there.
29 Jan 1890 Phila Inq, md by Rev A H Boyle at 743 Spruce St, on 27 Jan 1890

email 29 Feb 2004 from Lynne Raughley

renowned chess player

from http://www.correspondencechess.com/campbell/articles/a991205.htm

Mordecai Morgan: Mystery Man
Of Correspondence Chess 
By John S. Hilbert 
Those who have read my previous articles published here have seen the name before. 
Mordecai Morgan, one of the more melodious sounding birth names given to a future 
correspondence chess player, has had his play noted, at least in passing. His win 
against J.S. Hale in the final round of the Continental Correspondence Chess 
tournament appeared in my "On the Square" article entitled Chess Columns: Now and 
Then, while his loss in the preliminaries to Charles W. Phillips, the eventual winner of 
the Continental Correspondence Tourney, appeared in another piece: Oh Brother: The 
Duffer’s Guide to Handicapping Correspondence Chess Siblings. 


Yet Mordecai Morgan remains an enigma, even after the spotlight falls upon his name 
and play. Jeremy Gaige, whose Chess Personalia: A Biobibliography (McFarland 1987) 
remains the standard for locating information on approximately 14,000 chess players 
worldwide, mentions only that Morgan was born on December 30, 1862, and that he 
remained alive as late as 1932, seventy years later, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania.


Though next to nothing is known of his personal life, Mordecai Morgan certainly made 
his presence felt in chess circles not only in Philadelphia, but around the country, 
largely thanks to correspondence chess. In Chess in Philadelphia by Gustavus C. 
Reichhelm, compiled with the assistance of Walter Penn Shipley (Billstein & Son Co. 
1898), we learn something of Morgan’s associations with the local Philadelphia chess 
scene. As early as 1884, when Morgan was only twenty-two, he won a simultaneous 
game off Zukertort when the European master faced twelve players at the 
Germantown Chess Club (a young Walter Penn Shipley also defeated the simultaneous 
performer). In 1887, Morgan tied for first place with S.W. Bampton and W.H. Schultz 
at 12-6 for the over-the-board championship of the "Juniors" chess club (the name is 
in fact not really descriptive, as there was nothing "junior" concerning the playing 
strength of many of the club’s members. Play was usually conducted at the Franklin 
Chess Club, the most prestigious club in Philadelphia, and the members of the Juniors 
were invariably also Franklin Chess Club players, many considered of the highest 
ability and accomplishment.). In October 1888 Morgan was elected as one of the 
directors of the Franklin. The following year Morgan won the Juniors championship 
tournament outright, scoring a remarkable 18½-4½ in doing so. He repeated his victory 
in the Juniors in 1891, and also had the honor then of being reelected as a Franklin 
director. In 1894 he again won the Juniors and yet again retained his Franklin 
directorship.


In 1894 Mordecai Morgan also finished play in the double round robin, ninth 
championship of the Franklin Chess Club with a remarkable 20-4 score, only to find 
himself relegated to second place by an amazing three points to Emil Kemeny, the 
Hungarian master who in 1893 had moved from New York to Philadelphia. Kemeny’s 
23-1 tally, giving up draws only to Walter Penn Shipley and Mordecai Morgan himself, 
would never be equaled in Franklin championship play. Yet in the Eleventh Franklin 
championship, then a single round affair, played during 1895-1896, Morgan won first 
prize with the exceptional score of 12½-½, his single draw given up to fourth place 
finisher Charles John Newman. 


As mentioned at the start of this article, Morgan played in the Continental 
Correspondence Chess Tournament, an affair organized out of Philadelphia in late 
1893 by Walter Penn Shipley, Arthur Hale, and John Welsh Young, three talented and 
successful local chessplayers. The tournament eventually included seventy entries, 
divided into five preliminary groups, and as Shipley would write, "the tournament … 
including many of the best-known players of this country, was the largest and 
strongest Correspondence Tournament ever inaugurated up to this date this side of 
the water." Mordecai Morgan won Preliminary Section 2 of the event despite losing a 
game to Charles W. Phillips, the Chicago correspondence player who eventually won 
the tournament. Indeed, Morgan’s eighty-eight percent victory rate in his section gave 
him the best overall results of the preliminary round. 


The Finals for the Continental Correspondence Chess Tournament began on January 
1, 1896. Nineteen players began play, although only eighteen would finish the huge 
round robin finale. Morgan completed the finals with twelve wins, four losses, and 
three draws, to finish the event 13½-4½. His loss to Phillips, carried over from the 
preliminaries to the finals, cost him dearly, though, as Phillips’ 14 points just nosed out 
the Philadelphia player for first place.


Several of Morgan’s efforts in the Continental have been preserved. In the following 
effort, annotated by Emil Kemeny for the February 26, 1897, issue of the Philadelphia 
Public Ledger, Morgan defeated the over-the-board champion of Canada, the thirty-
nine year old James Ephraim Narraway.

[snip]
Philadelphia Public Ledger, February 26, 1897


In truth Mordecai Morgan managed 14½ points total in the Finals of the Continental 
Tournament. The trouble was that one of his wins came against Hollis Webster, the 
Boston player who retired from the tournament before completion of his schedule. As 
Webster’s games were all cancelled from the final scoring for the tournament, 
Morgan’s total was reduced by a full point. Morgan’s effort against Webster, counted 
or not, was one of the more interesting games played.

[snip]

Philadelphia Public Ledger, May 24, 1897 


For all Morgan’s fine correspondence play during the tournament, which including the 
preliminary round stretched from January 1, 1894 into 1898, and as recounted above, 
he was hardly a slouch when it came to other forms of play. While playing 
correspondence chess of the likes given above, Morgan also participated in the 1897 
telegraphic match the Franklin Chess Club held against a team from the Manhattan 
Chess Club. The fourteen board match, involving the strongest talent both clubs had 
to offer—the Manhattan Club, for instance, fielded three ex-United States champions 
against its Philadelphia counterparts—was one of the most significant match ups that 
year. Steinitz himself acted as referee, and had his hands full during and after play. 
Despite the opposition brought against them, the Franklin men prevailed, winning the 
match 8-6. Morgan did his part, defeating Simonson in what Emil Kemeny would 
describe as "one of the most interesting" games from the interclub rivalry. The game 
was in fact the first finished in the match (those interested in the full story of the 
Franklin – Manhattan Telegraphic Match of 1897 are invited to visit Nick Pope’s Chess 
Archaeology website, where my article on that match appears as the November 1999 
selection. See http://www.chessarch.com/arch.shtml). The notes below from the 
American Chess Magazine were written by Edward Hymes. 

[snip]
Morgan’s play over the board certainly did not end with the 1890s. He continued to 
compete in local and regional events for a number of years, as the following game, 
played eleven years after the game above, testifies. According to Shipley, in whose 
column in the Philadelphia Inquirer the game appeared, "the following fine game was 
played in the ticket handicap tournament now being contested in the Franklin Chess 
Club, and in which there are some twenty-five entries. It is unnecessary to state to 
Philadelphians that both the players in this game are in Class A. The present game, 
therefore, is played upon even terms." According to Shipley, most of the notes that 
follow were conceived by Morgan himself.

[snip]

Philadelphia Inquirer, February 2, 1908 


But it is for his correspondence chess play that Mordecai Morgan should best be 
remembered. Long after the Continental Correspondence Chess Tournament ended 
along with the nineteenth century, Morgan was playing, and winning, correspondence 
games. One notable event he entered, and played extremely well in, was the 
Pennsylvania State Chess Association’s Correspondence Tournament, begun in 1911. 


Not only did Morgan participate in this event, but a good friend of his, and in fact the 
man most responsible for the Continental Correspondence Chess Tournament, Walter 
Penn Shipley, was on hand to record Mordecai Morgan’s play in the Pennsylvania 
tournament, seventeen years after the Continental tournament had begun. 


Shipley ran a number of Morgan’s correspondence games in his column in the 
Philadelphia Inquirer, which he inherited from Harry Nelson Pillsbury shortly before the 
famous internationalist died. (In fact, Shipley’s scrapbooks, some of which have 
survived at the Cleveland Public Library’s John G. White Collection, show that Shipley 
in fact ghosted a number of Pillsbury’s last columns, at the request of the dying young 
master.) Shipley kept his column going for the better part of forty years, covering not 
only chess play of international and national import, but also paying close attention to 
games such as the following Morgan victory over G. Flores. Shipley wrote that "it is a 
pleasure to again present to our readers correspondence games by Mordecai Morgan, 
of this city, who for many years has ranked as one of the leading correspondence 
players of this country. He may have his equal, but we doubt if he has any superior in 
this style of play on the American Continent. His openings are models for the student 
and a collection of his games will be found of the greatest value to every 
correspondence chess player."

[snip]
Morgan’s expertise in handling openings would hardly have come as a surprise to 
many of his opponents. After all, Mordecai Morgan was the man who had single-
handedly written the four volume work entitled Chess Digest (Philadelphia 1901-1905), 
presenting, as one reviewer said, the "most comprehensive encyclopedia of the 
openings in tabular form, with notes on over nineteen-thousand games." Nor was 
Shipley finished giving Morgan’s games space in his column, as in the very same 
number he included a second Morgan correspondence victory. Shipley added that 
"the following game, also played in the present correspondence tournament of the 
Pennsylvania State Chess Association, will be found of great interest on account of 
Morgan playing against the ...f5 defense in the Ruy Lopez, a dangerous line of play 
and one frequently adopted with success by Marshall."

[snip]
As a quick glance at the positioning of the notes in the game above shows, it should 
be obvious that Shipley, much like Morgan himself, was fascinated with opening 
analysis. Indeed, most of Shipley’s voluminous scrapbooks are organized by opening, 
and show a fine concern for the development of opening theory. In the following game 
Morgan introduced a new move in an old opening line of the Evans’ Gambit, and 
Shipley was not one to avoid publishing the effort. A curious fact about this game is 
that Shipley published it in his Philadelphia Inquirer column on March 31, 1912, when 
it had recently been finished, but then published it again nearly three years later, on 
February 21, 1915, with some significantly different notes, and no explanation as to 
why the game received such double treatment. The latter publication of the game 
includes notes designated here as coming from "1915." Shipley found Morgan’s game 
of significant interest not only because it offered new insight into the Evans’ Gambit, 
an opening even in 1912 rarely seen, but also because the game would "give 
enjoyment to all who play over the score. It is one of the most brilliant games that we 
have published for some time." In addition to the game showing Morgan introducing a 
new move (13…Nf5), just when his Queen is threatened, the play is short, sharp, and, 
for Morgan at least, sweet.

[snip]

A few months later Shipley published an even shorter victory by the indefatigable 
Morgan. The columnist believed the game would "be found of value to the student." 
Though Morgan to a degree exposes his own King by throwing a pawn storm at his 
opponent, the resulting position shows that it is only Morgan whose pieces can quickly 
benefit from the new terrain on the board.

[snip]

Shipley in his May 25, 1913, Inquirer column had only the highest praise for another of 
Morgan’s efforts in the Pennsylvania tournament: "the following game is one of the 
finest games, whether played by correspondence or over the board, that we have 
played over for a long while. The Queen sacrifice in the middle game by Morgan is a 
remarkable piece of chess strategy. The opening also will be found of value to the 
student, the game following the defense of Dr. Tarrasch up to the sixteenth move. 
Rev. E. Griffiths, of London, in a correspondence game, was the first player to 
discover the weakness of the continuation, playing the correct move 16...Qc5." An 
added benefit for reader’s of Shipley’s column was that Morgan, the game’s winner, 
annotated his own effort

[snip]

Lest the reader think Mordecai Morgan was invincible at the board, the following game 
is included to show he was, after all, a mere mortal when it came to the game of 
Kings, though often enough he could play in princely fashion. Morgan annotated this 
effort, too, bluntly stating where he felt his errors were, and refreshingly enough, 
unlike many others given such an opportunity, not making any excuses for his failing. 
By now Morgan, along with J.E. Narraway of Canada, whom Shipley noted as "for 
many years … recognized as the strongest correspondence player" in Canada, were the 
only two players who had a reasonable chance of winning first place in the 
Pennsylvania correspondence tourney. No doubt this loss did not help Morgan’s 
chances.

[snip]

The same December 27, 1914, Shipley column included a second Morgan effort. 
Shipley wrote, too, that "in the following game Morgan adopts an unusual line of 
defense to the Centre Gambit." As with the game above, Morgan annotated his play 
for Shipley.

[snip]

And so Mordecai Morgan, the correspondence chess mystery man of Philadelphia, 
steps off the stage of chess history, blending into the background fabric of silence, 
the curtain eventually falling on all our lives. Did he win the Pennsylvania State Chess 
Association correspondence tourney, after years of toil and frequent victory? Did the 
Canadian, Narraway, capture that honor, relegating Morgan to second place, the same 
fate that befell him in the great Continental Correspondence Chess Tournament of 
1894-1898? 


Only further research might be able to cast light on these questions, but whatever the 
answers to such particular questions might be, they will tell us very little of what larger 
fate befell Mordecai Morgan as the years passed by. Of the many thousands of 
biographical entries that appear in Jeremy Gaige’s Chess Personalia, very, very few 
end in such enigmatic words as does Morgan’s: "alive in 1932" in the vicinity of 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. What the future might bring in terms of research, and what 
his own future brought Morgan, for the moment, must remain part of the mystery. 

from http://users.bigpond.net.au/fischerbooks/RareBook.htm

Morgan, Mordecai 

THE CHESS DIGEST: Containing the Opening Moves of Over Fifteen Thousand 
Games. Systematically Arranged Under the Various Openings, Practically Including All 
Games Played in the Leading Tournaments, Volumes One - Four.
First edition. Philadelphia: Patterson and White 1901-1905. Large 8vo (7.5" x 11"); 
pp. 472 (vol 1) to 696 (vol 4). Red cloth with gilt title on spine and gilt title and 
chessboard design on front cover. Volume 4 has a portrait of Mordecai Morgan as 
frontispiece. Fine condition.

This mammoth undertaking is like a 19th Century forerunner of ECO. The four volumes 
contain not only columns of openings, but illustrative games now hard to find. The first 
volume, for example, covers the Ruy Lopez, Four Knights, Three Knights, Two 
Knights, Giuoco Piano, and Scotch Gambit. 
$800AUD (US$ 600 - EUR 484)
findagrave
Oliver H Bair Funeral Records Idx on ancestry, invoice for funeral sent 24 Sept 1931, 
c/o Joshua R Morgan
per "The Record of the Class of 1917" of Haverford College on archive.org, he was in 
that class, and was from Logan, Pa. (Logan area of Phila?) int the sophomore class.
death cert (in files) 223 W Tulpenhocken St., inquest pending, informant Joshua R 
Morgan 1201 Chestnut St.




Parents
MORGAN James (1816 - 11 Dec 1866)
REEVES Charlotte K. (28 Jul 1824 - 7 Aug 1911)

Siblings
MORGAN Elizabeth (1849 - BEF 1900)
MORGAN James W. (10 Sep 1857 - 13 Apr 1922)
MORGAN Mary Reeves (18 Feb 1859 - 21 Oct 1906)
MORGAN Joshua Reeves (Feb 1860 - 20 Mar 1949)
MORGAN Mordecai Reeves (30 Dec 1862 - 21 Sep 1931)
MORGAN Joseph (2 Apr 1865 - 12 Apr 1866)

Marriage To RIDPATH Elizabeth Lord ("Lizzie") (5 Sep 1862 - 13 Jul 1918)
    m. 27 Jan 1890 Philadelphia, Pa.

Notes

Parents
RIDPATH Samuel C. ()
LORD Margaret W. ()

Children by RIDPATH Elizabeth Lord ("Lizzie") 5 Sep 1862 - 13 Jul 1918
MORGAN Margaret Ridpath (14 Jan 1893 - Oct 1966)
MORGAN Mordecai Reeves (12 Jul 1896 - 28 Nov 1946)

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