Biographical Sketch of

Uri Morse

Transcribed by Jaimee Hedlund

Source: Memorial and Biographical Record and Illustrated Compendium of Biography of Citizens of Columbia, 
Sauk and Adams Counties, Wisconsin, published 1901 by G. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1901, Pages 570 and 573


Uri Morse, a pioneer settler of Adams County, where he has resided in New Haven Township for over fifty 
years, is a well known figure in the history of this region. He came to the country when it was a 
wilderness, and now is the fortunate possessor of one of the finest farms in Adams County.  His labors 
have not been in vain, and he has gained a competence sufficient to support him in ease during the remainder 
of his earthly career, and has gained for himself an enviable reputation.  Portraits of him and his wife 
are shown elsewhere in this volume.
 
Mr. Morse was born in Guilford Township, Chenango County, New York, September 3, 1823, and was the son of 
Lyman and Rachel (Hazard) Morse.  His father was of New England blood, and records of his ancestors have 
been traced from the seventeenth century in England.  We find that Daniel Morse was married, in Massachusetts, 
in 1669, to Elizabeth Barbour, daughter of Captain George Barbour, one of the first settlers of Dedham and 
Medfield, where he was a leading citizen and a member of the colonial government. The father of our subject, 
Lyman Morse, represented the sixth generation of the descendants of Daniel and Elizabeth Morse.  A Memorial 
of the family, published by Rev. Abner Morse, traces the record to 1846, and further records are in preparation.  
Our subject's father Lyman Morse, went to New York with his parents when a small boy, settling in Chenango 
County.  He engaged in farming there and in Tompkins and Cortland Counties, and in 1846 came to Wisconsin, 
and located in Hampden Township, Columbia County, where his death occurred September 18, 1851, aged forty-eight 
years.  He was a active member of the Christian church and died in that faith.  The mother of our subject was 
a native of New York, and was born January 20, 1801.  Ten children were born to Lyman and Rachel Morse, eight 
of whom grew to maturity, as follows:  Chester died in the United Staes Army during the Civil War;  our subject;  
Henry, ex-mayor of Colorado City, Colorado;  Horace, now residing in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and also in 
Colorado Springs is Polly;  Roxanna;  Jane, widow of John Peterson, of Rio, Wisconsin
 
Uri Morse spent his boyhood in New York, and in June, 1846, came to Wisconsin, which was then a territory.  
His father drove overland, but our subject and his brother went to Milwaukee by water.  He worked one season 
in Round Prairie, Walworth County and came from thence to Columbia County, and made a claim in the present township 
of Hampden.  In the spring of 1849 he came to Adams County and took a squatter's claim to his present farm, which 
was a part of the Winnebago reservation.  A few other "squatters" were his only white neighbors at the time, and 
deer, wolves and bear were numerous, but he had little inclination for hunting, though a number of deer and wolves 
became his prey.  For the first year or two there was not a horse in the county and he drew his grain to market at 
Milwaukee with a ox team, about ten days being required for the trip.  He has walked from Columbia County to Chicago 
in the early days of there settlement on the farm.  He now owns three hundred and sixty acres of land, well watered 
by a living brook, and has plenty of timber and plow land.  The soil is the best to be found in the state, and his 
farm is valuable.  For some years past he has given his chief attention to dairying and stock raising, and his herd 
consists of high-grade Durhams.  He also rears some of the best beeves in the state, and breeds some good horses.  
Aside from his estate in New Haven Township he is interested to some extent in gold mining in Colorado.  He was one 
of the incorporators of the Lake View Creamery Association, a successful enterprise, in which he is still interested.
 
Our Subject was married May 13, 1850, to Miranda A. Morey, daughter of Harry M. and Bathia (Hoyt) Morey, of Fountain 
Prairie,Columbia, County Wisconsin.  Mrs Morse was born in the town of Locke, Cayuga, County, New York, and came to
Wisconsin with her parents in 1848.  Her father was a native of Delavan County, New York, and her mother of Long 
Island.  Their home in Adams County, Wisconsin was destroyed by a tornado about 1851, and they then moved to Minnesota.  
The father died in New Haven Township, Adams County, in September, 1893, aged eighty-five years, and the mother passed 
away at the age of seventy-five years.  Mr. and Mrs. Morse are the parents of five children, as follows:  Lyman N., 
who married Georgia Wells, is engaged in farming at Big Springs;  Andrew H., who married Ida Brooks, is a contractor 
at Chicago;  Estella B., now Mrs. H. A. Atcherson, of Tomahawk, Wisconsin;  Justina R., now Mrs. Rev. B.W. Perry, of 
San Leandro, California.  Mr. Perry was appointed chaplain in the army now in the Philippines.  The other son is 
Chauncey W., who married Nellie Hodge, and now resides on the homestead farm.  Mr. and Mrs. Morse have nine grand-
children.  Our subject has served a number of years as supervisor of New Haven Township, and for several years past 
has been one of the superintendents of the Adams County poor farm.  He has been a Whig or Republican all of his life, 
and voted for Henry Clay for president in 1844, and attended a large mass meeting of over thirty thousand people at 
Ithaca, New York, during that campaign. See Photo.



Transcribed by Jaimee Hedlund






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