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Ephraim W. Morse family papers
MSS 0689
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Creator:
Morse, E. W. (Ephraim W.), 1823-1906
Title: Ephraim W. Morse family papers,
Date (inclusive): 1838 - 1907
Extent:
4.00 linear feet
(9 archive boxes and 6 oversize folders)
Abstract: The Ephraim W. Morse family papers (1838 - 1907) document the private and public life of an important San Diego pioneer, businessman,
merchant, and civic leader. In 1849, Morse sailed around Cape Horn with other Gold Rush pioneers. By 1850, disillusioned
with gold mining, he moved to San Diego. He held many civic positions in the new city including city trustee, public administrator,
county treasurer, and secretary of the board of trade. In the 1860s, he voted for the land grant sale to Alonzo Horton that
created modern San Diego, initiated the idea for a large urban park, and was a tireless promoter of a San Diego transcontinental
railroad terminus. In the 1850s-1860s, he owned a series of stores in both the old and new town locations. He speculated
in real estate, was an express and insurance agent, notary public, and a lawyer. The papers include family and general correspondence,
documenting the concerns of 19th-century life both in New England and California. Also documented are the personal, business,
and political lives and intrigues of San Diego's founding families, Californios, and Native Americans, as well as those only
passing through. The collection contains correspondence with Alonzo Horton, Judge James Robinson, Joseph Judson Ames, Thomas
Rylan Darnall, and Thomas Whaley, and son Edward Morse. Included are biographical materials, from Morse's childhood to the
settlement of his San Diego estate. The San Diego civic materials include election materials, subscriptions for various civic
enterprises, county statistics, and newspaper clippings from the period of the 1850s-1860s.
Repository:
University of California, San Diego. Geisel Library. Mandeville Special Collections Library.
La Jolla, California 92093-0175
Collection number: MSS 0689
Language of Material:
Collection materials in English
Collection is open for research.
Not Available
Ephraim W. Morse family papers, MSS 0689. Mandeville Special Collections Library, UCSD.
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Ephraim Weed Morse was born on October 16, 1823, in West Amesbury, Massachusetts, the only son of New England farmers and
apple growers, John and Hannah (nee Weed) Morse. He attended Newburyport High School (1838-1841) where he learned bookkeeping.
Leaving New England and a teaching position, at age twenty-six, Morse joined the Gold Rush to northern California. He quickly
became sick and disenchanted with his prospects so, in April of 1850, he ventured to the tiny settlement of San Diego, population
approximately 800.
Morse, with fellow New Englander, Levi Slack, immediately began keeping a general store, first, in a failed "new town" location
known as "Davis' Folly." In 1853, he moved the store to Old Town and partnered with Thomas Whaley, and later, conducted business
on his own. During the early decades of the city, being an educated and temperate man, he was called upon to hold many important
government positions including city trustee (1854-55, 1867), county supervisor (1860), city treasurer (1878), county treasurer
(1858-59, 1861-1862), associate justice (1852), secretary of the board of trade (1852-1864), school commissioner and trustee
(1853-55), and public administrator (1853, 1875). In 1856, he earned his license to practice law and became a notary public.
In 1860, he experienced financial losses and bankruptcy and for a short time partnered with Joseph Smith on a sheep ranch
on Smith Mountain, now known as Palomar. He soon returned to San Diego (1861) as a merchant, real estate speculator, county
surveyor, and an agent for Wells Fargo and various insurance companies. With Thomas Darnell, he unprofitably invested in
the Jesus María Copper Mine in Baja California.
Morse had returned to Massachusetts in 1851 to marry his first wife, Lydia Gray. Mrs. Morse arrived in San Diego in 1853,
gave birth to their son Edward in 1856, and died shortly thereafter. The boy was then taken to Massachusetts by a Mrs. Stevens,
where he was raised by his maternal grandparents.
In 1866, Morse married Mary C. Walker, a former San Diego schoolteacher. She was removed from that position when some parents
boycotted the school because of comments that she was rumored to have made after negative reactions to her sharing a meal
with an African-American woman. Although Miss Walker denied commenting on the interracial marriages of some of her critics,
she was dismissed due to the boycott. She then was hired by Rufus Porter, a Spring Valley pioneer, to teach his daughter
until her marriage to Morse.
The Morses were happily matched and enjoyed driving their horse and buggy far out into the San Diego county wilderness, visiting
the mountains and local hot springs on camping trips. They both gardened and reveled in growing fruits and flowers year-round
in the excellent climate. Mary wrote articles that were published in the newspaper. Their marriage lasted for thirty-three
years until Mary Morse's death on May 17, 1899.
In 1869, Morse was one of the City trustees who sold Alonzo Horton the land grant that would become "Horton's Addition" or
"New Town," the present site of downtown San Diego. He was also instrumental in getting the City trustees to dedicate a large
plot of land to be reserved for a city park, now Balboa Park. In 1871, he travelled to Washington, D.C., to fight for the
City's title rights to the original "pueblo lands."
Morse was involved in many of the attempts to bring a transcontinental railroad to San Diego. As a real estate speculator,
he wanted to make the City easy and affordable for new settlers to reach. In 1854, he was a founder and director of the San
Diego and Gila, Southern Pacific and Atlantic Railroad Company, which eventually failed. He was also involved in citizen's
committees and in arrangements to reserve private land for railroad right-of-ways. He worked with Col. Thomas A. Scott to
bring the Texas & Pacific Railroad to San Diego, a project that garnered Congressional support. However, all these efforts
were successfully opposed by the powerful influence and money of the Central Pacific Group that included Leland Stanford,
Colis P. Huntington, Charles Crock and Mark Hopkins. San Diego County would not become a terminus for a major transcontinental
line until 1885.
Morse's other business interests included being a founder and officer of the Bank of San Diego. He helped develop downtown
San Diego, building the Pierce-Morse block located at the northwest corner of Sixth and F Street, and the Morse, Whaley, and
Dalton block. With Whaley, Dalton, and Noell, he was involved in various real estate firms, and he invested in both the San
Diego Flume Company and the El Cajon Valley Company.
The failure to bring a transcontinental railroad to San Diego, in addition to national financial panics, such as the panic
of 1873, caused Morse to lose most of his fortune. Like many San Diegans, he was land-rich but cash-poor, and land prices
were not rising. He and Mary retreated to spartan living conditions in a small house in Alpine, a small foothill community
twenty-five miles east of San Diego, while renting out their homestead in San Diego. The Bank of San Diego went into receivership
and Morse was the subject of lawsuits due to his involvement with it for many years to come.
Morse continued to live in San Diego until he was eighty-three years of age. He died on January 17, 1906, having finally
witnessed substantial city growth, just as he had always optimistically predicted it.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Ephraim W. Morse family papers documents the personal, business, and civic life of a San Diego pioneer, businessman, merchant,
and civic leader and provides a glimpse into his political, social, and financial life, as well as his relationships with
family, friends, and colleagues. Largely comprising correspondence from 1849 to 1906, it includes letters from many of San
Diego's earliest and most important pioneers including Alonzo Horton, Joseph Judson Ames, Manuelito Cota, Rufus King Porter,
Judge James Robinson, Jonathan T. Warner, and Thomas Whaley, as well as family members. Because Morse was a storekeeper,
lawyer, and express agent, people wrote to him about a variety of issues of concern to those living in or passing through
San Diego in the 1850s-1860s period. The collection also contains biographical materials such as various civic office notifications,
certificates, and oaths; economic transaction materials regarding the Massachusetts farm and woodlands inherited from his
father; educational materials and juvenilia including his bookkeeping exercise ledgers; high school report cards; diaries
and notebooks; and books he carried to California on his sea voyage around Cape Horn in 1849. The business and legal documents
include memorandum, receipts, notes, correspondence, inventories, appraisals, private notes and account records; California
materials include campaign materials of early San Diego city and county; subscription lists; county statistics; surveys, and
newspaper clippings.
The papers are arranged in seven series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, 2) EDUCATION AND JUVENILIA, 3) DIARIES AND NOTEBOOKS,
4) MISCELLANEOUS MATERIALS, 5) CORRESPONDENCE, 6) BUSINESS AND LEGAL DOCUMENTS, and 7) CALIFORNIA MATERIALS.
SERIES 1: BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS
The BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS series contains appointment and commission notifications and signed oaths for various civic positions
(1852-1878) Morse held, business cards, his certificate to practice law, various personal legal documents, documentation of
his personal and economic interests in the Massachusetts family farm, invitations, reference letters, and spiritualist session
notes. The materials are arranged alphabetically.
SERIES 2: EDUCATION AND JUVENILIA
The EDUCATION AND JUVENILIA series contains Morse's high school instruction book on bookkeeping, as well as numerous practice
exercise ledger books with realistic bookkeeping entries, his cursive handwriting sampler and practice sheets, high school
report cards, and a child's book on astronomy. The materials are arranged alphabetically.
SERIES 3: DIARIES AND NOTEBOOKS
The DIARIES AND NOTEBOOKS series contains leather-bound volumes (1852, 1854-57, 1866-1869, 1871) with handwritten annotations
on a wide variety of subjects including his sea voyage and early experiences in California, mine inspection trips, mileage
estimates, eventful days, meeting reminders, weather notations, recommended books, and his infant son's weight. The materials
are arranged chronologically.
SERIES 4: MISCELLANEOUS MATERIALS
The MISCELLANEOUS MATERIALS series is arranged in two subseries: A) Morse, and B) Family.
A) The Morse subseries contains books that Morse brought to California in 1849, a San Diego restaurant menu (ca. 1904), invitations,
gardening lists, newspaper clippings, a stencil for his name, notes on travel expenses and a borrowed book not returned, as
well as the original wrapping paper Morse used to organize his paperwork. The materials are arranged alphabetically,
B) The Family subseries contains a document regarding an estate sale by Morse's father, John, and Lydia Ann Morse's notebook
recording letters, expenses, and earnings. Also included are miscellaneous notes, receipts, invitations, correspondence,
school compositions, and prose by Morse's son, Edward Wallace Morse. The materials are arrange alphabetically.
SERIES 5: CORRESPONDENCE
The CORRESPONDENCE series is arranged in two subseries: A) Family, and B) General and Business.
A) The Family subseries contains correspondence from Morse's parents, sisters, in-laws, cousins, nieces and nephews, his two
wives and his son. Of note is the correspondence between Morse and his son in which Morse compares and contrasts San Diego
to Massachusetts and explains his San Diego successes and failures. The correspondence between Edward and his step-mother,
Mary C. Morse, contains a wonderfully vivid description of the Morses' camping trips in San Diego County. The 1866 letters
of courtship between Morse and his soon-to-be second wife, Mary, are illustrative of the romantic sensibilities of two transplanted
19th-century New Englanders. The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by last name.
B) The General and Business subseries contains correspondence from customers and creditors, as well as many of San Diego's
first inhabitants, including Joseph Judson Ames, Manuelito Cota, Thomas Rylan Darnall, James Donahue, O.W. Gould, Robert W.
Groom, Alonzo Horton, James Ruler Lassator, John Pond, Charles and Mary Poole, Rufus King Porter, Judge James Robinson, Joseph
Smith, Jonathan T. Warner and Thomas Whaley. Several letters are in Spanish, reflecting Morse's fluency in that language.
The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by last name.
SERIES 6: BUSINESS AND LEGAL DOCUMENTS
Included in the BUSINESS AND LEGAL DOCUMENTS series are business memoranda, ledger entries, notes on real estate transactions,
instructions, account reconciliations and receipts, many from Morse's early period when he ran a general merchandise store
(1850-1860). Included in the legal papers are samples of legal language, administration of estates and guardianships, auctioneering
records and other probate actions. Morse's self-labeled "private notes" reveal secret recordations of political and financial
intrigues and conversations reported to or observed by Morse. The documents are arranged alphabetically.
SERIES 7: CALIFORNIA MATERIALS
The CALIFORNIA MATERIALS series include a merchant's agreement to discourage the use of reals (foreign gold coins) (1864),
notes on legislative acts important to San Diego, county statistics, notes on land issues affecting the new city, newspaper
clippings, lists of persons entitled to do military duty (ca. 1856), and a list of the San Diego Guards. Also included are
subscription lists to raise funds to aid the padre, purchase the town a United States flag for official use, aid citizens
in a Mexican jail, and to fund a railroad expedition with engineers. The series includes campaign materials (1859-1884) consisting
of printed ballot handouts (some with the local candidates' names penciled-in), as well as small "caucus tickets" listing
candidates for city, county, and state offices. Political parties represented include the Union and Democratic Union party
(1867), a local "People's ticket" (ca. 1868), the Regular Democratic ticket (1883), and the Regular Republican ticket (1884).
Of note is an 1859 ballot handout featuring Leland Stanford in his first, unsuccessful bid for governor, printed in Spanish.
The materials are arranged alphabetically.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Morse, E. W. (Ephraim W.), 1823-1906
Morse family
Businessmen -- California -- San Diego -- Correspondence
Railroads -- California, Southern
San Diego (Calif.) -- History
Ames, John Judson -- correspondent
Chase, A. J., -- correspondent
Darnall, Thomas Rylan, -- correspondent
Morse, Edward W., -- correspondent
Whaley, Thomas, 1823-1890, -- correspondent
Horton, Alonzo E., 1813-1909, -- correspondent