Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice Local History Articles Section Fay TILLER Morgan, Armenia Tax Collector Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA

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ARMENIA TOWNSHIP -- Ending a career spanning several decades of service from the top of Armenia Mountain, Fay Morgan resigned as township tax collector -- a post she held for 18 years.

Not entirely through with public service, she remains the township emergency radio coordinator, which normally consists of three daily checks to the Bradford County Communications Center from a CB hanging in her living room.
Morgan's is a story that began in Dumbarton, Va., a small town that is getting swallowed up by nearby Richmond. A quick wit and friendly demeanor seem to be some of her defining characteristics as she plays a joke on you and offers a cup of coffee almost in the same sentence.
"I was born when I was very young," she says with a smile and produces her birth certificate from her purse. Asked why she carries it around draws the reply: "I don't know. Maybe that is why this thing is so full!"
The octogenarian has spent the majority of her life right on top of the mountain, though, having gone back and forth from Virginia in the Great Depression era and finally settling on the east side of the hill in 1947 with her parents.
A mother of eight, she has lived in the same house since 1954 after marrying James Morgan and having seven children on the family farm. James Morgan and his brother Harold both worked on the dairy farm, although James drove school bus and later worked spreading lime for farmers, she said.
Fay Morgan also drove school children for about 30 years and has helped her son, Wayne, drive a school vehicle he owns. Other jobs included 20 years in the food service department of Troy Area School District, with 10 of those as a manager. There was also cleaning houses -- and taking the Troy school census for several municipalities in days when there were such things.
"I don't miss the work," she said. "But I do miss seeing and knowing the kids."
The tax collecting began when James Morgan and she went their own ways and Fay says she took the job because she needed to supplement her income, having taken it over from her sister in-law.
Continually failing eyesight forced her to make the decision to retire in October. Township supervisors appointed Pam Alexander in her place, who worked with Morgan a few times to get the feel of things.
"I enjoyed it a lot," Fay said. She uses a machine that can magnify documents, an "Aladdin Genie Pro," and impose the image directly over a section of computer monitor, where she keeps a spreadsheet to enter data.
That system worked for some time until there began to be an occasional error in her calculations, she admits, which is unacceptable to Morgan. Computer savvy, she interfaces two different computer systems on her work station and wrote her own program using Basic.
Her two favorite pastimes are genealogy research and Bible study, she said. Morgan has boxes and envelopes heaping with paperwork -- and helped log several cemeteries on the mountain into Joyce Tice's extensive collection of Bradford County genealogy research on the Internet.
As far as the Bible is concerned she will go into detail about a section and has strong opinions about what it means. "It is a fascinating book," Morgan said. "I have a passion to learn more about the Bible."
"You can read it over and over and still learn something new. You can apply almost anything in there to modern life too," she said.

Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA

Published On Tri-Counties Site On 11 JAN 2005 By Joyce M. Tice Email: Joyce M. Tice You are the visitor since the counter was installed on 11 JAN 2005