Bert Morse

BERT MORSE has built up such a solid bulwark of public esteem and confidence in Logan County that irrespective of the causes that bring about division in political sentiment he is the one man preferred by all for his present office as clerk of the district court. He has held that office several terms, with no opposition to reelection, formerly served as sheriff, and is a man of wide experience in the west and southwest, having been in his earlier years a cowboy and coming in contact with all the frontier conditions of Western Kansas.

He was born in Macon County, Missouri, March 5, 1872. His grandfather, Asa Morse, was a native of New York State and was one of the early pioneer farmers in Macon County, Missouri. He died at Kansas City, Missouri. Foster B. Morse, father of the district clerk of Russell Springs, was born in New York State but grew up in Macon County, Missouri. He was in the lumber and sawmill business there and during the early seventies went to Texas.

Bert Morse was the only child of his father. His mother, whose maiden name was Alice McMillan, was born in Darke County, Ohio, in 1849. The McMillans came from Scotland to the United States, headed by George McMillan, who located in Pennsylvania, and soon enlisted for service in the Revolutionary war. He was a quartermaster in General Washington's army and served in that capacity until the winning of independence. The father of Alice McMillan was Capt. S. P. McMillan, who was born in Pennsylvania and died at Callao, Missouri, having located in Macon County of that state just after the war. He earned his rank and title by two years of service with the One Hundred and First Ohio Infantry in the Civil war, and was honorably discharged because of wounds.

Mr. Morse's mother married for her second husband Alexander Petrie. He was born at Quebec, Canada, in 1846, was a painter by trade and died at Springfield, Missouri, in April, 1916. Mrs. Petrie is now living with her son in Russell Springs. By her second marriage she had three children. Roy and Don are both painters by trade, the former a resident of Wichita and the latter of Kansas City, Missouri. The daughter, June, lives in Kansas City, Missouri.

Bert Morse attended public schools in Illinois and Iowa to the age of fourteen. He came to Kansas with his mother and stepfather in 1886. They located three miles south of Winona on a homestead, which quarter of land is now owned by Bert Morse. The latter helped clear and develop the claim and later pursued an independent career on cattle ranges in Colorado, Texas and Kansas, having a wide and somewhat eventful experience in that line until he was thirty-five years of age.

In the fall of 1906 Mr. Morse was elected sheriff of Logan County. He entered upon his official duties in January, 1907, was reelected in 1908, and proved a faithful, conscientious and reliable public servant for four years. His term as sheriff was followed by his entering upon the duties of clerk of the district court. He has been a candidate for reelection every two years since then, and has had no opposition either at the primaries or in the elections, a fact which is significant and which demonstrates beyond cavil his complete popularity over Logan County.

Mr. Morse is a republican in politics, and is affiliated with Oakley Lodge of Masons and Russell Springs Lodge of Knights of Pythias. June 9, 1907, at Russell Springs, he married Miss Dorothy Schumacher, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Schumacher, now residents of Julietta, Idaho, where her father conducts a fruit ranch. Mr. and Mrs. Morse have two daughters: Clara, born March 28, 1908, and Dorothy, born September 2, 1910.

Pages 2132-2133.