Arthur Morgan

Arthur Morgan was born circa 1863 to Beatrice and Lyle Morgan in the northern United States. As a child, his mother died of unknown causes, while his father was a petty criminal and outlaw. In 1874, when Arthur was 11 years old, his father was arrested for larceny. Morgan later witnessed his death and, despite a strained relationship with him, still donned his hat and kept a picture of him. Around 1877, a 14-year-old Arthur was found as a "wild delinquent" and picked up off the streets by outlaws Dutch van der Linde and Hosea Matthews. Viewing the pair as surrogate father figures, Arthur came to share Dutch's vision of a life lived free from the constraints of civilization and the rule of law. The pair taught him how to read, write, hunt, fight, shoot, and ride, becoming their first protégé as well as one of the founding members of the Van der Linde gang. A little later, Arthur met Susan Grimshaw, who became romantically involved with Dutch and joined the gang, acting as a tough mother figure. In 1885, Arthur met a 12 year-old boy named John Marston who had been saved by Dutch from being lynched by a group of Illinois homesteaders. John was inducted into the gang and raised alongside Arthur with the pair growing as close as brothers. Dutch instilled the boys with his anarchist worldviews against a corrupt government and preached that revenge was a fool's game. Over the years, Arthur and John became regarded as Dutch's favorite 'sons'. After the botched ferry heist, Dutch and the gang are forced to flee Blackwater and attempt to cross the mountains west to evade law enforcement. Dutch sends Arthur scouting ahead for a place they can camp at and he discovers an abandoned mining town named Colter, returning shortly after to direct the gang to the place. After the thaw comes in, the gang leaves the mountains for a new location in The Heartlands, near the town of Valentine.