1. "Whose Kids Lived on Weybosset?"
Posted by augusta on Jun-30th-02 at 12:04 PM

When asked about his activities on the morning of the murders, John Morse testifies that he visited No. 4 Weybosset Street to Daniel Emery's.  This is from page 243 of the Preliminary Hearing:

Q:  You have some friends up there that you went to visit?
A:  Yes Sir.
Q:  Who are they?
A:  A neice and a nephew from the West; my brother's children.

Who is his brother?  Wouldn't that be Sarah Borden's brother too?  So wouldn't Daniel Emery be Lizzie's cousin?  (Didn't Morse mean his nephew and his nephew's wife?)

This was discussed on the old LBMB, as I recall.  The people Morse went to visit weren't actually residents on Weybosset Street.  They were visiting there from the west.  They were supposedly brother and sister, not husband and wife.  When Dr. Hoffman was working on "Yesterday in Old Fall River," he and I emailed back and forth about the identity of these people.  Morse said his niece's name was "Morse."  He didn't mention her given name.  Hoffman says her name was Anna E. ("Annie") Morse and that she was the daughter of Joseph L. Morse, Sr., and his wife, Mary Louisa Morrison.  Annie's parents were first cousins.  According to Hoffman, Annie had been living with another uncle, William Bradford Morse, in Excelsior, Minnesota.  Hoffman believes she was accompanied to Fall River by her brother, Joseph L. Morse, Jr., who wasn't at the Emery house when J. V. Morse called on August 4, 1892.  I remember that my opinion on these relationships differed from Hoffman's, but I don't recall the details. (Rebello at least agrees with the name "Annie Morse.")

That was very informative, Thanks Edisto.

Do I recall something about there originally being like 11 Morse children?

Does anyone know?  I've never been able to verify this.

In Rebello, pg. 73 +:
List of John V. Morse's Legatees and Heirs

William B. Morse, brother of John Morse, Excelsior, Minnesota.

Arabella Davidson, half -sister of John Morse, Hastings, Iowa

Emma Borden, niece, Providence, R.I.>
Lisbeth Borden, niece, Fall River, Massachusetts> children of Sarah Morse Borden, deceased, was married to Andrew J. Borden.
* * * * *

Annie M. Lancaster, niece, Girard, Illinois>
Edith M.  Landcaster, niece, Girad, Ill.>  children of Fernando W. Morse, deceased, was married to Margaret Lucinda (Louisa) Graves.
* * * * * *

Anna E. Morse, niece, Minneapolis, Minnesota>
Ora E. Morse, niece, Fall River, Mass.>
Joseph L. Morse, nephew, Fall River, Mass>  children of Mary Louisa Morrison Morse, deceased.  Mary married her first cousin, Joseph L. Morse, Sr.
* * * * *

Mrs. Amy Andrews, niece, Scotts Bluff, Nebraska>
Mrs. Selecta M. Bee, niece, Wellington, Colorado>
Mrs. Sarah England, niece, Girard,Ill.>
Mrs. Bird Fairchild, niece, Garnett, Kansas>
Mrs. Eva M. Roe, niece, Arlington, Ill.>
Henry L. Shaw, nephew, Pittsburg, Kansas>
John W. Shaw, nephew, Fairfield, Iowa>  children of Selecta Morse Shaw, married Philip Shaw, Jr.
* * * * *

John Morse, nephew>
Bert Morse, nephew>
George Morse, nephew>
William Morse, nephew>
Andrew Morse, nephew, deceased, left children>
Susie Morse Booth, niece, deceased, left one son>  children of William B. Morse
* * * * * * * * * * * *

--Edit Here:  Lest there be any confusion as to who lived Where, When, let me ammend this transcription to include the Testaments last signature DATE:  20 Feb. 1912.
--Thaks for bringing this up, you two.  Good stuff!  (Meaning, "I like it, I like it!") 



(Message last edited Jul-1st-02  2:57 AM.)

Thanks for the most interesting post, Edisto.  I'd never heard any of that before.  And thanks, Kat, for the geneology list. 

I had always thought that Uncle John's nephew was Daniel Emery, and that morning Daniel was not home so John visited with Daniel's wife.  As far as I can remember, no writer prior to Rebello and Hoffman I've read has said anything different - or at least I didn't take it any differently than what I had previously believed.

So were Anna and her brother related to Lizzie?  (Sorry.  My Charlie Brown kite always gets tangled in family trees.) 

This is where it gets aggravating to read Hoffman's book, "Yesterday in Old Fall River."  On page 251, under John V. Morse's name, Hoffman says Morse left the Borden house (at 7:00 A. M.!) on the morning of August 4 to "visit a niece and nephew from Minnesota who were visiting the nephew's mother and father, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Emery." (This implies that Morse's niece was married to an Emery, perhaps Daniel Emery, Jr.) Under the entry for Mrs. Daniel Emery (p. 123), Hoffman says Daniel Emery was JVM's cousin.  If that was true, Daniel Emery, Jr., wouldn't have been Morse's nephew, and his wife certainly wouldn't have been Morse's niece, even by marriage.  Then Hoffman says (p. 251), "Annie (Morse) Emery, whom Morse had gone to see, was the daughter of Morse's brother William."  (Well, THAT would make Annie JVM's niece and married to a cousin of his.) However, on page 249 of the same book, under the entry for Anna E. ("Annie") Morse, Hoffman says Annie's father was Joseph L. Morse, Sr., and that William Bradford Morse was her uncle.  Here he gives her surname as Morse and states that "Accompanying Anna to Fall River was a nephew of John Vinnicum Morse, probably Anna's brother, Joseph, Jr.".  I think Hoffman too might have gotten tangled up in the Morse family tree!
Since Morse stated during one of his testimonies that Anna/Annie was named "Morse," and since Anna E. Morse and her brother, Joseph L. Morse, are listed with their sister, Ora E., among John V. Morse's heirs and legatees (p. 73, Rebello), I tend to think Annie's entry is closer to correct.  However, it's interesting to note that Morse himself, in his will, said Anna/Annie was the daughter of his brother, William B. Morse, and that Joseph and Ora were the offspring of his sister, Louisa M. Morse.  Hoffman (p. 249) says Mary (Louisa) Morse was dead by 1892 and that her husband may also have died.  I have wondered if Anna/Annie had been unofficially adopted by Wm. Bradford Morse, with whom she apparently lived.  Confusing, ain't it?

I shows that the movement of families around the country is not something new. My grandparents lived in the Upper Midwest, then in Western NY, finally in Southern NJ. Following jobs, then and now.

Thanks for all that research, Edisto.  I feel like Charlie Brown right now:  "Aaugggh!"  I think I'll just let that tree have my kite.

Rebello, pg. 230:

"Lizzie has always been a peculiar woman and...her entire life had been characterized by the calm and cool demeanor which is considered evidence of guilt by the police." Henrietta and Elizabeth Morse, cousins of John V. Morse, Fall River Daily Herald, August 11, 1892.

One of the girls mentions in testimony that they have close relatives in Fall River and can't even name the street they live on...

That sounds like our Lizzie!