Judge John L. MORSE

MORSE, COWLES, MAY, POTTER, COOK, DANIELS, CUTLER, HUBBARD, VAN ALLEN, TOWNSEND, DAVIS, JASPER, YATES, BABCOCK

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 4/21/2009 at 05:01:04

Hon. Allen Benton Morse, formerly judge of the supreme court of the state of Michigan, for many years a leading member of the bar at Ionia, an honored veteran of the Civil War, former state senator from this district, one-time United States consul at Glasgow, Scotland, and former mayor of Ionia, to whom the people of that city very properly may apply the loving appellation of "the grand old man of Ionia" is a native son of this county, born on a pioneer farm in Otisco township, January 7, 1839, the third white child, and the first male white child born in the county, son of Judge John L. and Susan Ann (Cowles) Morse, natives of New York state, and pioneers and long prominent residents of this county, and both of whom died in Iowa.

John L. Morse was born at Cortlandville, New York, May 13, 1815, son of Minor and Sally (May) Morse, both of English descent, the former a native of Guilford, Connecticut, and the latter of Monson, Massachusetts, who were the parents of four children, John L., Perry, Charles and Sarah. John L. Morse was reared as a farmer boy in New York, his elementary schooling being followed by a course of two years at an academy. In 1822 his parents moved from Courtland county to Niagara county, New York, where the mother died in 1828, the eldest son being then thirteen years of age, after which the father and the children returned to Courtland county, where they remained three or four years, when they came to Michigan, settling in Oakland county. At the time of his coming to this state, John L. Morse was seventeen years of age, and for some years after coming here he supported himself by teaching school during the winter months and farming during the summers. On November 3, 1834, he married Susan Ann Cowles, a daughter of Alvin and Roxanna (Potter) Cowles, of Irish and English lineage, respectively, pioneers of Michigan, and the parents of two children, both daughters, Susan Ann having a sister, Cadelia, who married Rufus R. Cook. In March, 1838, John L. Morse and his wife came to Ionia county, settling in Otisco township, thus being among the earliest settlers of that part of the county. John L. Morse was a man of vigorous personality and took a leading part in the work of organizing the township, being elected first supervisor of the township. He was a man of great energy and prospered in his farming operations, at the same time continuing his activities in behalf of the general public, and in 1845 was elected a member of the Michigan state Legislature, representing the district then comprising the counties of Ionia, Kent and Ottawa, in which representative office he rendered a valuable service not only to his district, but to the state at large, becoming a figure of state-wide importance. In 1849 he joined the gold-seekers who went to California, and was away from home for more than three years. In 1856 he was elected judge of the probate court of Ionia county, and was re-elected to that office in 1860, serving in all eight years. In 1866 Judge Morse decided to move on farther west, and emigrated to Iowa, settling in Wright county, that state, where he purchased a partially improved farm in the Belmond neighborhood, and there established his home. His forceful personality made him a public figure there, even as he had been here, and in 1868 he was elected county judge of Wright county. At the close of that term of public service he was elected county auditor, a position he held until January 1, 1876. In the meantime, 1875, he was elected a member of the sixteenth General Assembly of the state of Iowa and represented the district comprised in the counties of Wright, Hamilton and Humboldt during the sessions of the Legislature in 1876-77. In 1869 Judge Morse was admitted to the practice of the law in the courts of Iowa, and he spent the rest of his life in practice at Belmond. Judge and Mrs. John L. Morse were the parents of ten children, namely: Allen Benton, the subject of this review; Cadelia, widow of Orsene Daniels, of Durango, Colorado; Joseph D., deceased, who was a member of the Michigan State Legislature in 1890-94; Martha, wife of G. L. Cutler, of Clarion, Iowa; Perry L., deceased; Rhoda, wife of Shaler Hubbard, of Durango, Colorado; Rufus C, of Belmond, Iowa; Willard J., also a resident of Belmond, Iowa; Addie, who became the wife of John Whiting, and died in Iowa, and one who died in infancy.

Allen B. Morse was reared on the pioneer farm in Otisco township, this County, receiving his elementary education in the crude local school of that period, and later took a course at the State Agricultural College at Lansing. During the more than three years that his father was absent in California, in addition to carrying on the farm work, he taught school and in other useful ways earned money to add to the family treasury, a heavy task for a lad so young. He early became attracted to the law as a profession and was engaged as a law student when the Civil War broke out. On July 10, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company B, Sixteenth Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, for service-during the Civil War, and for meritorious service presently was commissioned first lieutenant of the Twenty-first Michigan, later became adjutant of that regiment, and served as adjutant on the staff of Colonel Frank T. Sherman, commanding a brigade in Sherman's division. During the battle of Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, November 25, 1863, he lost his left arm, and on September 16, 1864, received his honorable discharge. At the close of his military service, Mr. Morse returned to Ionia and resumed the study of law in the office of W. B. Wells, a prominent attorney of that day, and was admitted to the bar on February 28, 1865, by Judge Lewis S. Lovell, after which he formed a partnership with Mr. Wells, which continued until 1880, in which year the firm became Morse, Wilson & Trow- bridge, and so continued until Judge Morse assumed his seat on the bench of the supreme court of the state of Michigan, to which high office he had been chosen during the election just previous. Judge Morse served as justice of of the supreme court of Michigan from October 1885, to 1892, resigning in the latter year to accept the nomination of the Democratic party as their candidate for governor. Shortly after his defeat in the memorable campaign, Judge Morse was appointed by President Cleveland to the position of United States consul at Glasgow, Scotland, in which honorable position he rendered distinguished service for four years, at the end of which time he returned to Ionia and resumed his law practice, and was thus busily and successfully engaged until his retirement. In addition to the public services above referred to, Judge Morse has served the public as state senator from this district, as mayor of Ionia, and as prosecuting attorney for Ionia county, in all of which service he was faithful to every obligation as a citizen and as an officer, during* all those years acquiring a reputation for probity and for efficiency of service second to none in central Michigan, and in the "evening" of his life is held in the very highest regard, enjoying the fullest confidence and esteem of all hereabout.

In 1874 Allen B. Morse was married to Frances Marion Van Allen, who was born in New York state, her parents also having been natives of that state, of whose children two are still living, Herman VanAllen and Mrs. L. B. Townsend, both of Ionia. Judge Morse and his first wife were the parents of the following children: Marion, who married Elvert M. Davis, a prominent attorney of Grand Rapids, Michigan; Van Allen, of Ionia, who married Marguerite Jasper and has two children, Allen Henry and Dan Jasper; Lucy C, who married Gilbert Lee Yates, of Ionia, and has two sons, Gilbert Benton and Lee Van Allen, and Dan R., who died at the age of twenty years. The mother of these children died in 1884, and on December 12, 1888, Judge Morse was married to Anna Babcock, who was born on a pioneer farm four miles from Ionia, in this county, October It, 1855, the daughter of Lucius and Matilda (May) Babcock, natives of New York state, and early settlers of this county, for many years prominent in all good works hereabout, the latter of whom died in 1893, at the age of eighty years, and the former in 1895, at the age of eighty-five.

History of Ionia County, Michigan, volume II, 1916
Pages 447-450