Faulk-Bon Homme County, SD Biographies.....Morse, George A. 1827 - 1905
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Author: C. H. Ellis



    GEORGE A. MORSE was born October 4th, 1827, at Weston, near Boston,

Massachusetts. The Morse family came to this country from London, England, in

1635, settling in Middlesex county, Massachusetts.



    Mr. Morse was born in one of the old-family farm houses erected near the

beginning of the last century, and lived upon the old farm until he was

seventeen, when he was employed four years as a clerk in a store in Boston

situated near the Old State House and Old South Church. On June 17, 1842, the

completion of Bunker Hill monument was celebrated, and Mr. Morse, then a fifteen

year old boy, stood near the platform and heard Daniel Webster deliver his

famous speech, and saw the one hundred and thirty-two aged soldiers of the

revolution, occupying seats of honor on the platform. He heard speeches

delivered in Old Faneuil Hall by Charles Sumner, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell

Phillips, Daniel Webster, Robert C. Winthrop, Rufus Choate, Father Matthew and

other prominent men of that time.



    He was married September 12, 1850, to Caroline Merrill, a teacher in the

Dwight school in Boston, and they immediately left for their new home in

Illinois, making the trip from Buffalo to Detroit on the old steamer Mayflower,

crossing the state of Michigan by the Michigan Central, and thence by boat to

Chicago, there being no railway into Chicago from the east at that time.



    For three years the family lived at Peoria and Galesburg, Illinois, and in

March, 1853, Mr. Morse went ahead of the new line of railway, and became the

first settler, and erected the first building in the city of Kewaunee, Henry

county, Illinois, now a city .of 12,000 inhabitants. He was engaged in the farm

machine^ and grain business at Kewaunee until 1864, when he removed to Chicago

and went into business with his brother Albert. He was in the Chicago convention

that nominated Abraham Lincoln for president in 1860.



    In August, 1869, he again took up pioneer life, settling in the new town of

Corning, Iowa, where he lived until 1883. In the fall of 1876 he was elected to

the Iowa legislature and reelected in 1878. On March 14, 1883, he came to

Faulkton, South Dakota, when it contained only four buildings.



   With his two sons, Albert and Charles, he took up government land five miles

south of town. His first wife, Caroline Morse, died July 11, 1887, and on

January 14, 1891, he was married to Marietta Talcott, who survives him. He

served two terms as mayor and was clerk of the school board from 1892, until his

death, in 1905, and was also for several years president of the Faulk County Old

Settlers Association. He was loved and esteemed by a large number of friends,

who will mourn with his wife and children their sad loss. His four surviving

children are: Albert W., president of the Security State Bank; Charles A., in

the real estate business, at Knoxville, Tennessee; Mrs. P. M. Conklin, of Omaha,

and Mrs. C. C. Norton, of Faulkton.





Additional Comments:
From:



HISTORY OF

FAULK COUNTY

SOUTH DAKOTA

CAPTAIN C. H. ELLIS



TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PIONEERS AND PROMINENT CITIZENS



ILLUSTRATED

19O9

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