This old house

Gershom Morse, mentioned in the last post as the grandfather of Gershom Morse Barber, was born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and somehow managed to find his way to what is now Moravia, New York. 

Morse built this house in about 

1830. It is listed on the National

Register of Historic Places and 

is now a bed and breakfast.

(This gives me entirely too many relatives from New York, I suppose, but you can't choose your heritage.)

The land around there originally belonged to the Algonquin tribe until the 1300s when the Iroquois nations forced the Algonquins, and by the time of the events I'll relate in here was dominated by the Seneca and Cayuga tribes. I'm contemplating a later post discussing these tribes, probably in two weeks. Stay tuned.

As an inducement to gain recruits for the Revolutionary War, the state of New York set aside almost two million acres to be awarded to veterans. Many took the offer and settled there, but quite a number decided to sell the land to speculators, one of whom sold land to Gershom in 1794. 

He built a cabin there and proceeded to become a prominent member of the community as a farmer, landowner and justice of the peace. The cabin he built is believed to have been incorporated into a house he built in about 1830. This house is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and a marker near the house states that its kitchen incorporates that original cabin. 

I'm beginning to believe we're going to have to make a tour of the northeastern states just to see some of the sites I've mentioned in these posts. We'll see how that goes. 

I found an online copy of a book called Historical Sketches of Moravia by James A. Wright, published in 1874, about 30 years after Gershom's death. He has his own chapter. I'll be lucky if I have a footnote somewhere. I know that one of my columns was cited in an article by some atheist group, but that was online, so it may not survive. 

According to a mini-bio posted on a free Wiki genealogy site, by one of Gershom's descendants, Loren Fay, he performed most of his judging from his house, where he also kept his records. At some point one of his other descendants burned the records to avoid embarrassment to the families of those who came before him, again according to Fay.

 

But the Historical Sketches lists a few. One reads:

"March 6, 1807

In open court:

Elisha Smith was fined before me, Gershom Morse, Esq., for swearing four profane oaths, one dollar and fifty cents, and refused to pay the sum before mentioned, therefore by warrant, was put publicly in the stocks for two hours, and the warrant returned on March 7, executed by M. Meach, Constable."

I'm going to use a couple of the others for next week's post. 

Today I wanted to close with a story about his wife, Rachel Little Morse. 

A main road used to run by the Morse cabin, which only had one door. This road was replaced by a newer road, which brought about an unusual encounter. James Wright tells the story:

One day after this change had been made, Mrs. Morse, being the only occupant of the log house, was weaving, the door standing open, when a shadow fell across the threshold, and upon looking for the cause, she beheld and Indian in full Indian costume, with tomahawk and scalping knife.

She was terribly frightened, but the door was the only way of escape, and in this stood the Indian with either hand upon the door posts. She, however, retained the presence of mid enough to remain weaving, with apparent composure; keeping an eye, however, without seeming to do so, upon her visitor, who remained motionless and speechless for several minutes, and [who] then beckoned for her to come to the door, which she did with great show of courage.

There was really no cause for fear, for the Indian had lost his way, and merely stopped to inquire the directions ... He pointed to the West Hill, where the road formerly led, and said, "No see road. No find." Mrs. Morse pointed in the direction of the new road and to a mark on an adjoining tree (the roads were marked out in that way) and endeavored by various signs to give him the proper directions, which he seemed to comprehend, and left, ...