The Red Raider

An article was written about Grandpa Morgan and his amazing work done in Park City, Utah as a young District Attorney. (There isn't a name for the writer or a date that I know of...it was written after he died, so most likely 1985 or later). He was only 25 years old when he became the DA. I'm about to turn 25, and I'm just amazed to think that a young man my age could take on bad guys and make such a change! The more I learn about him, the more I decide that he is my hero. Here's some excerpts from the article:

"Park City, by most standards, is an attractive place to live...People, and many of them, have indeed flocked to Park City since its discovery as a ski resort. It was anything but inviting years ago, however...The unenviable task to clean it up eventually fell to Morgan W. Lewis, Jr., the newly elected Summit County Attorney."

(Note: Park City was mostly a mining town at the time, and it was full of illegal businesses that offered prostitution, gambling, and more trouble).

"Morgan was left with no recourse but to raid the illegal businesses and shut them down. To accomplish this task, several county men were called in and deputized to assist...The shock came to the raiders, however, when they discovered that all the targets had been tipped off long before. The lawmen didn't find a shred of evidence, not even the huge slot machine...he knew the informant had to be someone on the inside, and he suspected the tough old County Sheriff..."

"Costs of the aborted raids...were beginning to mount up. The County Commissioners lost faith that Morgan would ever succeed and flatly refused to appropriate additional funds for a third raid. Lewis was determined that he wouldn't fail again, with or without their help. His reputation was at stake. He went to the bank, personally borrowed the equivalent of two months salary and continued the fight."

"This time Morgan set the date without informing the County Sheriff, and assembled the men first, then called in the sheriff to deputize them before he knew what was happening. Accompanied by the sheriff, the raiders fanned out and hit the violating businesses before word could reach them. With cameras clicking, they arrested the proprietors, patrons and prostitutes, and confiscated the liquor and gambling devices."

"Park City would never be the same after that, but neither would Morgan Lewis and his family. His life became a nightmare with death threats, cars mysteriously parked across the street from his small Hoytsville home and strangers tailing his car with his family aboard. All this had a very unsettling effect on him and his young wife. Finally, Morgan secured a permit to carry a gun but couldn't draw it from the holster easily and jokingly said 'I hope the bulge under my coat is enough to scare them because I could never get the damn thing out in time!' Fortunately, he never had to use it."

"Morgan Lewis, at the age of twenty-five was forced to take on corruption in what was an insignificant corner of the world then. What he did brought him no glory and little satisfaction because of the acrimony of his foes and the retreat of his friends. He wanted to forget it, and like the soldiers in the trenches of the battlefield, he didn't want to talk about it much, either."

"Park City, once of questionable repute, now enjoys a cosmopolitan climate where people from all over come and enjoy its varied attractions...most people wouldn't know the Red Raider. In fact, few have heard of him outside of his family, friends and a handful of old Park City natives. But in a time when basic honor and decency is being impugned, the moral courage of Morgan Lewis is a legacy that will outlast the life of any city."

Isn't that amazing?!