Moses C. Morgan was born around 1835 in Massachusetts to William and Gratia Morgan. His father was a fisherman who owned $300 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and he married Mary Ann Smith on December 31, 1859. They had at least two children: Edward, born around 1861; and Marian, born around 1863. By 1860, he was working as a cordwainer in Lynn, Massachusetts. Two decades later, he was working as a “fish dealer” in Melrose, Massachusetts. He died in Truro, Massachusetts, on October 26, 1895.