The Inventor's Early Life

Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. was born in Paris, Kentucky on March 4. 1877. His parents were former slaves.

Morgan spent his early childhood attending school and working with his brothers and sisters on the family farm. He left Kentucky while still a teenager, moving north to Cincinnati, Ohio in search of employment.

An industrious youth, Morgan spent most of his adolescence working as a handyman for a wealthy Cincinnati landowner. Similar to many African Americans of his generation, whose circumstances compelled them to begin working at an early age, Morgan's formal education ended after elementary school. Eager to expand his knowledge, however, the precocious teenager hired a tutor and continued his studies in English grammar while living in Cincinnati.

In 1895, Morgan moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked as a sewing machine repair man for a clothing manufacturer. Experimenting with gadgets and materials to discover better ways of performing his trade became Morgan’s passion. News of his proficiency for fixing things traveled fast and led to numerous job opportunities with various manufacturing firms throughout the Cleveland area.

Morgan opened his own sewing equipment and repairs shop in 1907. It was the first of several businesses he would start. In 1909, he expanded the enterprises to include a tailoring shop, which retained 32 employees. The new company made coats, suits, and dresses, all sewn with equipment the budding inventor had made himself.

In 1920 Morgan started the Cleveland Call newspaper. As the years progressed, he became a prosperous and widely respected businessman. His prosperity enabled him to purchase a home and an automobile. Morgan's experiences driving through the streets of Cleveland are what led him to invent the nation's first patented three-position traffic signal.