Morse (community), Wisconsin
| Morse, Wisconsin | |
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| Unincorporated community | |
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 Morse
Morse
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| Coordinates: 46°13′20″N 90°37′40″W / 46.22222°N 90.62778°WCoordinates: 46°13′20″N 90°37′40″W / 46.22222°N 90.62778°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Wisconsin |
| County | Ashland |
| Town | Gordon |
| Elevation | 1,529 ft (466 m) |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Area code(s) | 715 & 534 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1579920 |
Morse is an unincorporated community located in the town of Gordon, Ashland County, Wisconsin, United States. Morse is located along the Bad River 7.5 miles (12.1 km) south-southeast of Mellen.
In 1881 the newly formed Bad River Lumbering and Improvement Company began building a milltown where the Wisconsin Central Railroad line touched the Bad River. The town would later be named Morse, but it was initially called Jacob's Station, named after William H. Jacobs, the leader of the Bad River Company. At the same time they began improving a stretch of the Bad River for driving logs from their timber lands upstream to the mill. By next spring the company had completed the sawmill, a shingle and lath mill, a boarding house, a store, a blacksmith shop, and lumber sheds.
The mill began sawing in June 1882. That winter the company ran three logging camps out in their forests. In 1884 the mill employed 50 to 75 men and shipped out as many as five railcars of lumber a day. The town had added a hotel named the Bad River House, and in 1887 a schoolhouse.
In 1887 the company town and its holdings were purchased by the Penokee Lumber Company, an enterprise of some New York investors and Augustus W. Morse. Morse, from Saginaw, Michigan, was the local manager. Under his direction machinery was upgraded, the plant was reorganized, and he added electricity and a planing mill. To reduce the hazard of fire, scraps of wood were cleared from the mill's yard daily and large barrels of water stood watch. The mill kept about 70 Clydesdales in its stable. It was held up by the Northwestern Lumberman journal as a model mill. The town's name changed to Morse in 1889. Most of the lumber sawed in this period went west by rail to Omaha or east to Tonawanda, New York via the Wisconsin Central Railroad to Ashland and via ships on the Great Lakes. 275 men worked for the company and it provided twenty employee houses. All buildings, including the homes, were painted "Morse red."
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Wikipedia