Introduction

Biography

Mr. Morse was born in New­ark, and is a grand ne­phew of Pro­fess­or Morse, of te­le­graph fame. He has un­doubt­ed­ly in­her­it­ed ma­ny of the va­lu­able traits which have char­ac­ter­ized the ear­li­er ge­ne­ra­tions of his fa­mi­ly, and has known how to uti­lize them to the best ad­van­tage.

He ac­quired his ear­ly edu­ca­tion in the pub­lic schools of his na­tive ci­ty, but was obliged to en­ter prac­ti­cal bu­si­ness life when he was still a young lad. His first bu­si­ness po­si­tion was as a clerk in the em­ploy of Will­iam H. Lor­ton, of Or­ange, New Jer­sey, with whom he re­mained two years.

At this time he se­cured a schol­ar­ship at the Bry­ant & Strat­ton Bu­si­ness Col­lege of New­ark, at that time the on­ly bu­si­ness col­lege in the ci­ty, and en­tered up­on his stu­dies there, mak­ing a spe­cial­ty of pen­man­ship, arith­me­tic and com­mer­cial law. The last men­tioned stu­dy pos­sessed a pe­cul­iar fas­ci­na­tion for him, and his com­plete mas­te­ry of it has been of in­es­ti­ma­ble be­ne­fit to him through­out his bu­si­ness ca­reer.

He was se­ven­teen years of age at the time of his gra­du­ation from the bu­si­ness col­lege, and had no dif­fi­cul­ty in find­ing a suit­able po­si­tion.

He en­tered the emp­loy of Will­iam Tur­ner & Com­pa­ny, stamped tin ware ma­nu­fac­tur­ers, as book­keep­er, but at the ex­pi­ra­tion of one year he had a fa­vo­ra­ble of­fer from Charles M. Deck­er, whole­sale and re­tail gro­cer, at Brick Church, New Jer­sey, and re­mained there se­ver­al years.

His next po­sition was with Car­ter, Sloan & Com­pa­ny, at that time the larg­est jew­el­ry ma­nu­fac­tur­ers in the en­tire Unit­ed States, and af­ter five years spent with this firm, Mr. Morse, in 1888, start­ed in bu­si­ness in­de­pen­dent­ly.

He had giv­en the sub­ject due con­si­de­ra­tion for a long pe­ri­od of time, and con­clud­ed that the best field for his op­era­tions was in the out­skirts of the city. He ac­cord­ing­ly op­ened a real es­tate of­fice in the North End, known as the Eighth Ward, and the wis­dom of his choice of a lo­ca­tion has been amp­ly de­mon­strat­ed.

At the pre­sent time (1913) it takes but ten min­utes to get from this lo­ca­li­ty to the bu­si­ness cen­ter of the ci­ty, at Broad and Mark­et streets. Mr. Morse suc­ceed­ed in con­vinc­ing ma­ny pro­mi­nent re­si­dents of the ci­ty of the de­si­ra­bi­li­ty of this sect­ion as a re­si­den­tial quar­ter, and the de­vel­op­ment of the ci­ty in that di­rect­ion is large­ly ow­ing to his per­son­al ef­forts.

He showed his ori­gi­na­li­ty by the adopt­ion of a trade mark, which is to be found on his cards and sta­tio­ne­ry, con­sis­ting of an ob­long field with oblique bars of red, white and blue. This was a no­vel device for this line of bu­si­ness and na­tur­al­ly at­tract­ed con­si­der­able at­ten­tion.

He has iden­ti­fied him­self close­ly with the in­ter­ests of his cli­ents and cus­to­mers, and con­ducts all op­era­tions with as much care as if they were for his in­di­vi­du­al be­ne­fit. This is ful­ly re­cog­nized by those who have had deal­ings with him, and his re­pu­ta­tion as an hon­est and ho­no­ra­ble bu­si­ness man has spread far and wide.

He has re­cent­ly opened a se­cond of­fice on the se­cond floor at No. 740 Broad Street, which lo­ca­tion is op­po­site the Post Of­fice, and in the cen­ter of the bank­ing in­ter­ests. In ad­di­tion to his real es­tate op­era­tions Mr. Morse is a no­ta­ry pub­lic and a com­miss­ion­er of deeds, and the va­ri­ous branch­es are mu­tu­al­ly help­ful to each oth­er.

As an ac­tive mem­ber of the New­ark Board of Trade, Mr. Morse has great in­flu­ence, and is at pre­sent a mem­ber of the mem­ber­ship com­mit­tee of that bo­dy. He is al­so an ac­tive fac­tor as a mem­ber of se­ver­al build­ing and loan as­so­ci­ations, and in cha­ri­ta­ble and re­li­gious work his is a well-known name and fi­gure.

For many years he has been a mem­ber of the Cen­te­na­ry Me­tho­dist Epis­co­pal Church, hav­ing served as sec­re­ta­ry of the Sun­day School for nine and one-half years, al­so as pre­si­dent of the Ep­worth League. Mr. Morse has earned the es­teem and con­fi­dence of the bu­si­ness world as a man whose word is as good as his bond, and in so­cial life his ma­ny ster­ling qua­li­ties have gained for him at least an eq­ual num­ber of si­ncere friends.

Urquhart, pp. 277–78

Morse was well known at the Ocean Grove Camp Meet­ing As­so­cia­tion, and some­times helped lead ser­vic­es there. The 36th An­nu­al Re­port of the as­so­ci­ation (1905) states Morse sang in the Bi­ble Class Quar­tette there, and con­trib­ut­ed to the Ocean Grove Res­cue Mis­sion. In ad­di­tion, Morse was at one time the Flag Cus­to­di­an of New­ark, and gave ra­dio ad­dresses about the Am­eri­can flag in the 1920’s.