The Patriotic Morses of Belmont, Waldo County, Maine

By Isabel Morse Maresh

31 May 2008

 

Lucius lay in a sick-bed at the home of his son, prominent Belfast attorney, Ralph I. Morse. The surroundings were not at all familiar as Lucius opened his eyes, after a long illness. So many winters had passed, and he knew that as another winter approached, he would not live to see the snow.

He recalled his early life on the farm in the town of Belmont, Me. where he was born in 1845, on the sixty-acre farm settled by his father. He was the son of Barnard and Mary Ann (Fales) Morse.

Barnard had settled in the fledgling town of Belmont shortly after the Town incorporation in 1820, coming from Union, Me. Soon after coming to Belmont, Barnard moved to Lincolnville, where he was in the lime business.

 

Barnard returned to the farm in the lower section of Belmont. He and Mary Ann had six sons and two daughters. Barnard and his sons built a stone sawmill near the outlet of Tilden Pond.

 

Life on the farm in Belmont was busy. The boys worked hard on the farm, as well as in the saw-mill. They farmed with an ox team, tilling the soil, picking rocks, building stone walls, planting and harvesting gardens in season, ‘slopping’ the hogs, milking cows, getting in the hay in the heat of summer, logs for the sawmill and firewood for the winter.

 

 

 

The farm was pretty much self-sufficient, even producing a field of wheat, milling it into flour for daily bread. Mother ‘set’ the milk, skimmed the cream, and made butter for use and to trade at the store. She kept her butter and food cold in the spring that furnished water for the house and barn. She had a flock of hens for eggs. She worked hard keeping the family clean, fed and clothed.

 

 

 

 

 

Barnard and his sons were avid trappers and hunters. They hunted game birds, rabbits, bear, moose and deer. By the 1850’s, besides using the meat for their own larders, they sold wild meat in the Boston markets, taking the train from Belfast, with a large dressed moose, deer or fowl. They would ride the train with the meat, finding the best prices at markets when they arrived in Boston.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barnard and the boys sawed out lumber for the red schoolhouse that the children attended. The school mistress boarded in their home.

Lucius recalled that he went to sea at the age of fourteen, working the coastal trade in the summer. He worked lumbering with his father and brothers during the winter months.

In April of 1862, when he was sixteen years of age, Lucius was in Havana, Cuba on a coastal ship where he saw blockade runner ships arriving daily, loaded with cotton and defiantly flying the Confederate flag. The sight aroused in him a spirit of loyalty to the Union. When he arrived home in Belmont, he told his brothers what he had seen.

Lucius enlisted in the Army as soon as he got home. His older brothers had enlisted. Because Lucius was only sixteen, he needed his parents’ permission to join. His mother was reluctant to allow him to go to War, saying he was too young.

In Sept. 1862, a special Town Meeting was held in Belmont after a call to raise a quota of men for enlistment. Lucius had implored his parents to let him go. He and his friend, David P. Ordway were the first to step forward for enlistment. His grieving father and mother allowed him to leave with his brothers in Company B of the Twenty-Sixth Regiment of Maine Volunteers.

In March 1863, General Birge at a dress parade at Baton Rouge, La. gave a compliment that Corporal Lucius Morse was the best drilled man in the manual of arms in the Regiment. It was thought that the boys were well-known as brothers in the same Regiment.

In April 1863, after the battle of Irish Bend, Lucius came down with malarial fever. He was left at Jackson’s Barracks Hospital at Baton Rouge, La. He suffered from chronic diarrhea, which was fatal in some soldiers with fever. He was unconscious for some days, and was at the Hospital for six weeks. Also at the Hospital, Samuel had recovered from the fever and Lewis had been wounded. They kept their promise to their mother, tending their youngest brother Lucius with love and care. At times they doubted that their brother would survive, and he might well not have without their care.

They rejoined their Company in July 1862 at Port Hudson. The Regiment was mustered out August 17 of that year.

George W. Morse was one of the men who enlisted while Belmont was filling its quota. He served a year, and was known as a crack sharpshooter. He received an honorable discharge. After returning home, when a draftee ran away, George was sent back into the service by a second draft. This time he served in the Eighth Maine Regiment where he served until the end of the War.

George W. married Hester McLain. He was a farmer, and held a Commission as a Justice of the Peace, marrying many local couples. He was a quiet man, firm in his opinions when he knew he was right. He was active at Mystic Grange in his home town, and at the Temple Heights Spiritual Campground in Northport, Me., and the Thomas H. Marshall Post, Grand Army of the Republic.

About 1877, George W. went to California in the lumbering business, leaving his four sons, sixteen years of age and younger, to carry on the farm. He was an active worker wherever he was needed, and a lifetime citizen of Belmont, Me.

Lewis Bradford Morse was a farmer, residing in Searsmont with his wife, Mary. He was thirty-seven years old at the time of his enlistment in the Army. He was married when he enlisted and had three children at the time. He was sick with fever at Baton Rouge before Lucius’ sickness. He had been wounded on his face near his eye. Lewis’ three daughters died of diphtheria. Two sons, Henry and Lewis Leroy, grew to adulthood and had families.

Samuel was aged twenty-seven years when he enlisted. He was a Sergeant in Co. B. of the Twenty-Sixth Regiment Infantry. He was sick at Baton Rouge and had been wounded in the right elbow. He had married Lovina Harding before his enlistment. They had one daughter, Emma. Samuel and Lovina divorced in 1886. He married in 1889 to Isabella Poor of Belmont. In 1895 he built a new house in Belmont, getting out lumber from his property for the house.

In 1896, Morse Brothers of Belmont purchased a rotary saw for their steam mill to saw all kinds of long and short lumber, shingles, barrel staves and heading.

Leander was born in 1826, while his father was in the lime business. Leander’s siblings had been born in Belmont, but he was born in Lincolnville. He sailed from Gloucester, Mass. in the fishing fleets for many years. After living in Belmont for most of his life, he and his wife, Sarah Jane (Swift) resided on Congress Street in Belfast, Me.

William Bradford served in the First Cavalry during the Civil War. As William and Leander had not served in the same company as the four brothers, their service was not so much publicized. William married Abbie hart. He and Abbie were well-known as being active in the Spiritualist circles at Temple Heights Campground in Northport, Me. Abbie was a medium as well as being a speaker. They had one son. William “was a good citizen and respected by all who knew him.”

Lucius recalled his life after the War. He had married Delia Neal of Morrill. They had two daughters who died young and his son, Ralph. He and Delia had moved to Liberty, Me. where he was a well-known businessman. He owned and operated a wood-turning and planing mill in Liberty. His company built caskets. He was an undertaker, having establishments in three towns. He became a U. S. Pension Examiner, helping many local veterans obtain a Pension for their service in the Civil War. He was on the Board of the Maine State Reform School. In 1889, he was a member of the Maine House of Representatives, and served as a State Senator for Waldo County, known for his good judgment. He was a life-long Republican, President of the Waldo County Agricultural Society, Master of Georges River Grange, on County and Town Republican committees and a President of the Twenty-Sixth Maine Regimental Association, as well as being a Town of Liberty selectman and assessor.

Lucius mused over his life as the last surviving member of his immediate family. The brothers had always been thankful, as was their mother, that they had all returned from the War. His sister, Mary Ann died in 1872; Father died in 1877, Mother in 1888, William in 1897, George W. in 1904, Lewis in 1907, Leander in 1911 and Samuel in 1915, making him the sole survivor of the family.

Lucius Chandler Morse went to be with his family on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 1924 in Belfast, Me. after suffering for some years, aged seventy-nine years, at the home of his son, Ralph, the last of a hard-working, industrious, patriotic family of Belmont, Me. The Morses of Belmont leave many descendants across the State and Country.