calsfoundation@cals.org
July 7, 1928
Nationally known writer Tom Perkins Morgan died in Rogers (Benton County). Morgan, whose work appeared in major publications such as Life and the Saturday Evening Post, joined a traveling dramatic company and signed on with a circus. These varied life experiences were the basis of much of his writing. Among his famous characters were J. Fuller Gloom; Gap Johnson and his fourteen children of Rumpus Ridge; Constable Slackputter; and Jig Fiddlin’ of Clapboard Springs. To many in Rogers, he was best known as a successful businessman who operated a newsstand and bookstore downtown. Morgan’s gravestone in the Rogers Cemetery says simply, “Writer, Humorist, Philosopher.”