03/17/2026
There are 7 members of the MORSE family buried in Oak Ridge's Section A, a section favorited by many early settlers. They came with hope for a new life, but sadly all this family seemed to experience was tragedy.
Lucretia Abigail Morse has the earliest birth date of the group, 1785, which is remarkable as she moved here from Massachusetts at approximately age 74. She was married to Deacon Sylvester Morse in 1815, and they had 3 children; Sylvester Jr., Lucy, and Edward. Sadly at age 34 she became a widow in 1820 and never remarried. She went by her middle name, Abigail.
Her first born, Sylvester Jr., married Lucretia Slocomb in 1846 at age 27 and they had 4 boys and a one girl prior to moving to Faribault; Edward, Charles, William, Henry and Mary. Charles died at age 1.
Massachusetts's records indicate that Sylvester Jr and Lucretia moved their family to Faribault in 1855, becoming one of the earliest families here, and stayed in town. In July 1857, their last child Mary was born. In the same month, Father Sylvester purchased 40 acres east of town just south of the “Kenyon Road,” (Hwy 60) and they settled in.
The 1857 Minnesota Territory census has them all together with 3 older boys and 2 younger girls. Father Sylvester was listed as a painter (see pic). [A brief family tree pic shows all who will be discussed here, as it can get confusing.]
By 1860 the Federal census indicates that Mother Abigail came from Massachusetts and joined them in their home. This must have been a great help for Lucretia as she was raising 5 kids under age 16.
Sadly though, in 1863 typhoid fever crept into their home, as it did many others in the area, and Mother Abigail fell sick. This bacterial disease stems from contaminated food and water, and causes stomach pain, high fever, and severe diarrhea.
Mother Abigail succumbed to its grip in late summer of 1863 and was the first of the family to be buried in the 4 gravesites son Sylvester had purchased at Oak Ridge in 1859. What good foresight he must have had to establish a resting place for his family that would likely be needed down the road.
What's rather remarkable to us is Mother Abigail's marble tablet marker has stood tall this whole time, we're talking 160 years or so, and it only took a minor cleaning from us to fully restore it and make it shine once again (see pic).
Typhoid fever affected almost every family in the area during this time, early 1860s. The following year it struck Sylvester's wife, Lucretia, causing her to die just 7 months after his mother. Lucretia lived to just 42 years of age. Her marker did fall over and break at some point, and was nearly swallowed up by nature, but we were able to save it as best we could (see pic).
A few months later tragedy struck the family once again, with eldest son Edward falling to this evil disease too, after being sick less than a week. Edward was just 19 years of age, and in the old papers they spoke of his death as "A sudden rush from life's meridian joys." He rests alongside his Grandmother Abigail and his marker also still stands tall.
Father Sylvester had had enough pain, losing his Mother, his wife, and his eldest son, so in 1865 he headed back to Massachusetts. He took with him his youngest boy Henry(15) and his 2 young daughters. Son William (17) stayed back in Faribault to work.
Sylvester soon remarried, finding a single lady in his old home town of Sutton Massachusetts, Ms. Mary Terry (47), who helped raise the girls to adulthood.
By the early 1870s, son Henry was in his 20s and on his own. He made his way back to Minnesota and in 1879 he married 23 year-old Eva Fuller of Albert Lea. It took some lengthy searching to uncover what happened to him, but we found an article from an old newspaper, the Freeborn County standard, discussing the awful accident that killed him soon after being married (see clip).
It's interesting that he died the same day back in 1881 that we're now writing this article for you, March 16th. Like his Mother's marker, it had also fallen over many years ago but we were able to clean and repair it sufficiently, adding a new base and mending back the main pieces. He was just 29 years old.
But the deep grief for Sylvester was not at all over that Spring of 1881.
Both of his daughters were now married, with the oldest, Mary, raising a 1 year-old boy, and daughter Alice giving birth to her first, son Frank. Frank was born on March 14th but the birth was difficult, and Alice died a week later.
The birth was also hard on little Frank, and he sadly died too on April 5th. Oddly, 3 weeks later Mary's 1-year old also died, and just a few month's later Sylvester lost his dear 2nd wife Mary, she being 62 years of age. I can't imagine the shock and feeling of helplessness he must had suffered.
Thankfully daughter Mary was still there for him as she lived to age 92. He passed on in 1892.
This leaves us to discuss the 2nd eldest son of Sylvester and Lucretia, William Sylvester Morse, the one who stayed behind in Faribault as Father Sylvester headed back east with William's siblings in 1865.
William was very well liked in Faribault and ended up working as a banker for many years at Citizen's National Bank. He married Belinda Judd in 1873 and proceeded to have with her daughter Alice in 1875, Bessie in 1880, Charles in 1882, and Franklin in March 1884 --- but then again, tragedy stuck.
Just 3 weeks after their little Franklin was born, brother Charles (age 2) died on April 9th, then sister Bessie (age 4) on April 16th, and then sister Alice (9) on April 22nd. Yes, you guessed it --- all from Typhoid fever. Luckily infant Franklin survived, but his parents must have been besides themselves.
This disease was rampant at the time. A vaccine was not developed until 1893, and you'll find that most old settler cemeteries are filled with similar stories resulting from these childhood diseases.
Their 3 children were buried in the adjacent lot at Oak Ridge to those mentioned above. They share a wonderful 4-sided upright marble monument with a side dedicated to each child. It has survived well and only needed a good cleaning by us in recent times (see pic).
As you can imagine, this was all too much for William and Belinda. They headed to California with their only remaining child, Franklin, and lived out the rest of their lives there. Sadly again, Franklin only lived to age 23, passing on in 1907, followed by Father William in 1917 and Mother Belinda in 1921. The Morse legacy faded out.
Unlike most families who came here and thrived, many did not. Some continued west, and some went back east. Early deaths of children and spouses caused many to remarry numerous times in order to persist.
We certainly didn't expect to discover what we did about this Oak Ridge family when we started doing this research, but now we know their story. We hope you'll join us in honoring them with your thoughts and prayers, and perhaps visit them too this Spring in Section A. Flowers too would be welcome.
Everyone deserves to be remembered.
