http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt3d5nd2c7 No online items Ephraim W. Morse Family Papers Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Copyright 2005 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla 92093-0175 [email protected] URL: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/collections/sca/index.html Ephraim W. Morse Family Papers MSS 0689 1 Descriptive Summary Languages: English Contributing Institution: Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla 92093-0175 Title: Ephraim W. Morse Family Papers Creator: Morse family Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0689 Physical Description: 4 Linear feet(9 archive boxes and 6 oversize folders) Date (inclusive): 1838 - 1907 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. The papers include family and general correspondence, documenting the concerns of 19th-century life both in New England and California. 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, Ephraim W. Morse Family Papers MSS 0689 2 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. Biography 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