I'm always SO happy to find photos of ancestors. Please meet Reese Morgan. Born 25 October 1808 in Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania to William M. Morgan and Nancy (Rees) Morgan--both from Pennsylvania, his family moved to Illinois in the late 1820s. They were among the first settlers of La Salle County.
Reese served in the Black Hawk War in 1831, enlisting as a private under J. Adams' Company, 5th Regiment, Whiteside Brigade. He enrolled at Pekin, (then Livingston County), Illinois. One family historian writes that he was "in Stillman's defeat and remained in the service until hostilities ceased," being discharged in 1832.
An account of Stillman's Run: https://fromthehistoryroom.wordpress.com/2015/07/25/eyewitness-accounts-of-stillmans-defeat/
He married Rebecca Reeder and operated a sawmill business in La Salle County, Illinois. He served as county treasurer and assessor from 1848 to 1852. Rebecca and Reese had nine children.
In 1852 he and 16 year old son Philander "crossed the plains to California with ox teams and spent three years prospecting and mining, returning to Illinois in 1855." Oh, what stories they might have told! Young Philander also returned and later fought for the Union Army, 76th Regiment, Illinois Infantry. One record I found indicates he served as a "teamster" in the Civil War against the rebels.
Reese continued to farm, and died in Strawn, Illinois in 1878. FYI to family: Our Aunt Helen was Reese's great-grand niece. She descended through her mom's McCormick line.
Source: I'm grateful to "harveyg2" who originally shared Reese's photo to Ancestry in 2014.