San Diego County Biographies
 
EPHRAIM W. MORSE

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


a prominent pioneer and able business man of San Diego, was born in West 
Amesbury, Massachusetts, October 16, 1823, in the house in which his father and 
great-grandfather had been born before him. The building is still standing, over 
200 years old. John S. Morse, the father of Ephraim, held many of the offices of 
public trust in his native town. The family originally were from England. 
Ephraim's mother, Hannah Weed, was also a native of Amesbury, as was her father, 
Ephraim Weed, who was town clerk there for many years, as well as his son after 
him.
        In 1849 Mr. Morse joined a company of 100 persons, mostly his neighbors, 
to come to California. Purchasing the ship Leonore, they sailed from Boston 
February 4, and landed at San Francisco July 5. After disposing of the ship, Mr. 
Morse went up on Feather river and mined for gold until March, 1850, when he was 
taken sick and returned to San Francisco. After recovery he came to San Diego on 
a sailing vessel, in company with Levi Slack, bringing with them a general 
assortment of merchandise. They opened a store in what was then called New San 
Diego, in a building which, as well as the stock, was shipped from Boston. This 
building when set up measured 20 x 30 feet, and they slept in the loft thereof. 
In the fall of 1851 Mr. Morse went East by the way of Central America, and 
married Miss Lydia A. Gray, and returned with her to San Diego; and while he was 
absent East, his partner, Mr. Slack, was killed by the Indians. He was visiting 
the hot springs at Warner's ranch, in company with other white men, when the 
Indians engaged in a revolt, and killed all of them. The Government troops 
thereupon went out from San Diego, subdued the Indians, brought back the guilty 
ones, and they were hung.
        Mr. Morse formed a partnership with Thomas Whaley, whose sketch appears 
elsewhere, and they kept a general supply store in one of the old adobe houses 
in Old Town. Three years afterward they divided their stock, and Mr. Morse took 
his share across the street and carried on business there alone until 1859. He 
then engaged in the sheep business at Palomar, in partnership with Joseph Smith; 
they cultivated about 100 acres of land, and kept about 3,000 sheep and 100 head 
of cattle. In 1861 he returned to San Diego and resumed mercantile business, and 
also acted as agent for Wells, Fargo & Co., on the northwest side of the Plaza. 
In 1869 he sold out to Whaley Crosthwaite, and moved down to Horton's addition, 
and operated in real estate, mostly on his own account, and fortune smiled upon 
him most kindly. In 1870 he assisted in establishing the first bank in San Diego 
County, which was finally merged into the Consolidated Bank. When first started, 
Mr. Morse was elected its treasurer and one of the directors, and is now 
vice-president of the Consolidated National Bank, and president of the Savings 
Bank of San Diego County. In company with Mr. Pierce he built the Pierce-Morse 
block, and in connection with Messrs. Whaley and Dalton, the Morse, Whaley & 
Dalton block, two of the largest and most substantial business blocks in the 
city. He has built a residence on the corner of Tenth and G streets, which is a 
cozy and delightful place. On the premises there is a palm tree, planted in 
1872, and now measuring nine feet in circumference around the trunk.
        Mr. Morse has been prominently connected with nearly all the public 
enterprises inaugurated in San Diego; among others may be mentioned the San 
Diego & Gila Railroad Company, which in 1856 made the first survey from San 
Diego to the Colorado river; the San Diego & Los Angeles Railroad Company, which 
made the first railroad survey between San Diego and Los Angeles; the Fort Yuma 
wagon road, built over the Jacumba mountains at a heavy cost: the inauguration 
of the enterprise which culminated in the building of the California Southern 
Railroad, now a portion of the Santa Fe system; and the San Diego Flume Company, 
which, at a cost of over $1,000,000, has brought water from the Cuyamaca 
mountains, fifty miles distant, to supply the city of San Diego, and for 
irrigation.
        Mr. Morse has been elected City Treasurer several times; has been 
Justice of the Peace, Associate Judge, City Trustee for many years, and County 
Treasurer. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and has been treasurer of 
the lodge here for twenty-one years; is a member of the Unitarian Church, a 
liberal citizen and a useful business man.
        Mr. Morse's first wife, a daughter of William Gray, was a native of 
Amesbury. By that marriage there was one child, Edward W., born in San Diego. 
Mrs. Morse died, and Mr. Morse afterward, in 1867, married Miss Mary C. Walker, 
from Manchester, New Hampshire. She is a member of the Unitarian Church, and of 
the Woman's Exchange and Ladies' Annex to the Chamber of Commerce.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  272-273