Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/507

 MORSE.

MORSE

for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1792, and its secretary in 1802; a member of the Massachusetts Emigrant society; and founded the Charlestown Association for the Reformation of Morals in 1813. He aided in the estaVjIishment of the navy yard at Charlestown; was appointed chaplain and visitor of the state prison in Charlestown in 1805, was elected a member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1811, and formed a society for the benefit of the Indian tribes within the United States at Washington, D.C., in 1823, but failing health prevented his personal attendance at the meetings of the society, and after two or three years it ceased to exist. The honorary degree of D.D. was con- ferred on him by the University of Edinburgh in 1794. He devoted much of his time to literary work, especially in the publication of geographies. He established the Panopolist in 1805, and was its sole editor for five years; and is the author of: Geography Made Easy (1784); American Geo- graphy (1789); Elements of Geography (1797); American Universal Geography (2 vols., 1814; 2nd ed., 1819); Report on Indian Affairs (1822); Annals of the American Revolution (1824); and, in con- nection with the Rev. Elijah Harris, wrote His- tory of New England {^S08), and with Richard Gary Morse a Universal Gazetteer (1823) . He died in New Haven, Conn., June 9, 1826.

MORSE, John Torrey, author, was born in Boston, Mass., Jan. 9, 1840; son of John Torrey and Lucy Cabot (Jackson) Morse; grandson of Charles Jackson, associate justice of supreme judicial court of Massachusetts, and a descendant of Samuel Morse, who came over in 1829, and soon afterward settled near Ipswich, Mass., and of Edward Jackson, captain in the Colonial forces, and Jonathan Jackson, first U.S. marshal in Massachusetts district. He was graduated at Harvard, A.B., 1860; studied law under John Lowell, was admitted to the bar, Aug. 4, 1862, and practised with Mr. Lowell until the time of Mr. Lowell's elevation to the bench of the U.S. district court. He then entered into partnership with the Hon. Darwin E. Ware, and retired from active practice in 1880. He was married, June 10, 1865, to Fanny P., daughter of George O. Hovey of Boston, Mass. He represented his dis- trict in the Massachusetts legislature in 1875; was an overseer of Harvard, 1879-91, and became a member of the Massachusetts Historical society. He was associate editor with Henry Cabot Lodge of the International Review for four years; con- tributed to English and American periodicals and edited the " American Statesmen " series (32 vols., 1882-99), to which he contributed the volumes John Quincy Adams (1882), Thomas Jefferson (1883), John Adams (1884), Benjamin Franklin (1889), and Abraham Lincoln (2 vols., 1893). He

is also the author of: Treatise on the Law Relat- ing to Banks and Banking (1870); Law of Arbi- tration and Award (1872); Famous Trials (ISli); Life of Alexander Hamilton (2 vols., 1876), and Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes (2 vols., 1896).

MORSE, Leopold, representative, was born in Wachenheim, Rhenish Palatinate, Bavaria, Aug. 15, 1831. He joined an elder brother in New Hampshire in 1848 and settled in Boston, Mass., in 1849, where he was employed as clerk in a cloth- ing store. With his brother he opened a clothing store in New Bedford, Mass. Subsequently they returned to Boston, where they bought out the business of their first employer, which they car- ried on successfully, and after his brother's death Leopold conducted the business alone. He was a Democratic representative from Massachusetts in 45th-48th congresses, 1877-85, and in the 50th congress, 1877-89. He advocated a national bank- ruptcy law, civil service reform and a reduced tariff on foreign goods. He was mentioned as an available Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 1888, and was a delegate to the Democratic national conventions of 1892 and 1896. He founded and endowed the Boston Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews and Orphans. He died at the banquet of the Boston Merchants' association at Boston, Mass., Dec. 15, 1892.

MORSE, Samuel Finley Breese, inventor, was born in Charlestown, Mass., April 27, 1791; son of the Rev. Jedediah and Elizabeth Ann (Breese) Morse; grandson of Dea. Jedediah and Sarah (Child) Morse of Woodstock, Conn., and of Sam- uel and Rebecca (Fin- ley) Breese; great- grandson of John and Sarah Morse, of Benjamin and Pa- tience (Thayer) Child, and of the Rev. Samuel and Sarah (Hill) Finley; great2- grandson of Ben- jamin and Grace (Morris) Child, and a descendant of John Morse, who came from Marlborough, England, in 1635, and settled in Newbury, Mass. He attended the public schools of Char- lestown and was graduated from Yale, A.B., 1810, A.M., 1816. While in college he attended Professor Silliman's lectures on electricity and became especially interested in natural philoso- phy, chemistry and galvanism. He decided to become an artist, and in 1811 accompanied Wash- ington AUston to London, where he studied