Sacramento
County
Biographies
STEPHEN
TURNER MORSE
Stephen Turner Morse, deceased, was born in
Cananadigua, Ontario County, New York, May 15, 1820, his parents being Stephen
and Sarah (Turner) Morse. Stephen Morse was born in Connecticut, went to
Florida, at the age of twenty-one, as one to form a colony, and was compelled
to leave on account of the Indians.
From there he went to Canada; cleared a farm and was prosperous; but was
compelled to either lose his farm or enter the king’s service; he chose the
former, and went to New York State, where, for a long time, he drove a stage
between Buffalo and Albany. There, when
he was forty years of age, he married Sarah Turner. To them were born ten children, seven sons and three
daughters. Of these, one son and one
daughter died there. In 1847, with his
family, he removed to Lockport, Illinois, where, a few months later, he died of
dropsy of the heart, at the age of sixty-seven. Sarah Morse, his wife, was a native of Erie County, New York; was
married at the age of twenty, and died at Plainsfield, Illinois, aged seventy-six
years. The subject of this sketch was
brought up to work on a farm, but afterward learned the trade of blacksmith at
Warsaw, Wyoming County, New York, and in his early manhood worked at it at
various points in Missouri, Mississippi and Alabama. In 1844 he went to Lockport, Illinois, working at his trade there
until 1849, when he came to California and engaged in mining, off and on, for
three years or more. About 1853 he came
down to the Sacramento River and worked at his trade for some years at Onisbo,
two miles below Courtland. About 1853
he bought a ranch on Miner Slough in Solano County, and afterward a second one
in that neighborhood. In October, 1858,
he bought the 156 acres at the head of Sutter Island, on which his family still
reside. For many years he devoted his
attention chiefly to alfalfa, but in later years he turned towards
fruit-growing. There are now over
thirty-five acres in orchard along the river, and alfalfa is still grown in
large quantities in the rear. They also
own 200 acres of the old purchase on Miner Slough, a part having been sold by
Mr. Morse some years ago. Mr. Morse was
married in October, 1859, to Miss Martha A. Burson, born in Ohio, November 12,
1839, daughter of John and Eliza (Massy) Burson, both American and both now
deceased, the father reaching the age of seventy. Grandfather Thomas Massy was a native of Virginia and a soldier
of the Revolution. His wife, Elizabeth,
lived to be eighty-eight. Mr. And Mrs.
Morse are the parents of four living children:
Sarah Eliza, born April 30, 1861; Annie Leona, October 18, 1867; Henry
Hare, November 27, 1872; Edith Martha, July 18, 1877; William Turner, born June
9, 1863, died August 17, 1865. Sarah
Eliza was married, December 21, 1881, to John C. Smith, a rancher of Yolo
County, about Nineteen miles below Sacramento, on the river. They are the parents of three children. Early in 1889 a great calamity befell this
happy family by the sudden death of the husband and father. While loading hay from his barn, on January
10, he slipped and fell upon his head, breaking his neck and dislocating both
wrists. Death was instantaneous and in
that respect a merciful dispensation to him.
To the children, and especially to the wife, the shock was something
awful, the recollection of which is still almost as painful as the actual
experience. Mr. Morse had been a Mason
for over thirty years and was buried with the honors of the order, January 13,
in their cemetery at Sacramento. By his
neighbors he was regarded as an honest, reliable man, whose word was as good as
his bond, and his death was universally regretted.
Transcribed
by Karen Pratt.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Page 501-502. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
©
2005 Karen Pratt.