Marshall County KS Archives Biographies.....Morse, Arthur D. 1869 - 
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Author: Emma E. Forter (1917)

ARTHUR D. MORSE.

    Arthur D. Morse, a well-known and substantial farmer and stockman of Wells
township, this county, is a native son of that township, born on a pioneer farm
within half a mile of his present home, and has lived in that vicinity all his
life. He was born on June 22, 1869, son of George N. and Louisa (Osborn) Morse,
the former a native of the state of New York and the latter of Illinois, who
became pioneers of Marshall county and active and influential residents of the
settlement in which they made their home in Wells township.

    George N. Morse, an honored veteran of the Civil War, is still living in
this county, of which he has been a resident since 1867. He was born in New York
state in May, 1843, son of John Morse and wife, and when a boy moved with his
parents to Illinois, where he grew to manhood and where he was living when the
Civil War broke out. He enlisted in the service of the Union and served with an
Illinois regiment until the close of the war. Upon the completion of his
military service he returned to Illinois and remained there until 1867, when he
came to Kansas and homesteaded a tract of land in section 24 of Wells township,
this county, where he built a frame house, one of the first frame houses in that
part of the county, and there established his home, remaining there until his
retirement from the farm and removal to Frankfort, where, of late years, he has
maintained a home. He is an active member of the local post of the Grand Army of
the Republic and has ever taken a warm interest in the affairs of that patriotic
organization, though of late years he has been practically an invalid and unable
to attend the meetings of the post. His wife is a native of Illinois, born in
Knox county, that state, a daughter of Robert and Betsy (Rountree) Osborn,
natives, respectively, of Illinois and Kentucky, the former of whom was a son of
Stephen Osborn, an Illinois / pioneer. In 1866 the Osborns moved from Illinois
to Kansas and settled about a mile north of the Barrett settlement in this
county, Robert Osborn homesteading a tract of land in that community, thus
becoming early settlers in Marshall county. To George N. Morse and wife four
children were born, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third in order of
birth, the others being Mrs. Hattie Feldhausen, of Vermillion township, this
county; Fred, of Junction City, Kansas, and Mrs. Ida Leach, deceased.

    Arthur D. Moore was reared on the homestead farm in Wells township and
received his schooling in the district school in that neighborhood, the old
Osborn school. From boyhood he was a valued aid to his father in the labors of
developing and improving the home place and remained at home until he was
twenty-two years of age, when he bought his present home place of eighty acres
in the immediate vicinity of his old home place and after his marriage shortly
afterward established his home there and has ever made that his place of
residence. Mr. Morse formerly owned another tract of eighty acres in Wells
township, but sold that place to invest in cattle for a range of two hundred and
forty acres he bought in Pottawatomie county in 1909. and which latter place he
still owns. He has made extensive and up-to-date improvements on his home place
and he and his family are very comfortably situated there. Mr. Morse is a
Republican and ever since 1896 has served as treasurer of his home township.

    On December 28, 1892, Arthur D. Morse was united in marriage to Emma L.
Lefler, who was born in Brown county, this state, not far from the village of
Severance, March 13, 1872, daughter of Henry and Anne (Evans) Lefler, natives,
respectively, of the state of Ohio and of the principality of Wales, who became
pioneers of Kansas. Henry Lefler, who was born at Toledo, Ohio, in 1840, was
living in the state of Iowa when the Civil War broke out and in 1861 he enlisted
for service in the Union Army as a member of Company H, Thirteenth Regiment,
Iowa Volunteer Infantry, with which command he served for three years, being
mustered out in 1864. In 1866 he came to Kansas and entered a soldier's claim to
a homestead tract in Brown county. While living there he married Anne Evans, who
was born in Wales in 1849 and who was but a small child when her parents came to
this country in 1853 and settled in the vicinity of St. Joseph, Missouri, where
she grew to womanhood. In the spring of 1873 Henry Lefler disposed of his
interests in Brown county, this state, and moved to Smith county, where he
homesteaded another tract and where he made his home until 1882, when he came to
Marshall county and located on a farm in Wells township, where he lived until
his retirement in old age and removed to Frankfort, where he died in 1897. His
widow survived him for fourteen years, her death occurring in 1911. They were
the parents of three children, those besides Mrs. Morse, the second in order of
birth, being Franklin, who died in infancy, and Mrs. Lydia Isabelle Wilson, a
widow, of Frankfort, who makes her home much of the time with her sister, Mrs.
Morse. Mr. and Mrs. Morse are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and take
a proper interest in the general beneficences of the same, as well as in the
general good works of the community in which they live. Mrs. Morse is a member
of Henderson Corps No. 9, Woman's Relief Corps, at Frankfort, and has been
secretary of that patriotic organization since 1907.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

History of Marshall County, Kansas: its people, industries, and institutions
by
Emma E. Forter

Indianapolis, Ind.: B.F. Bowen & Co. (1917)


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