Hiram D. Morse

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Hiram David Morse (January 29, 1815 – April 21, 1899) was an American farmer, early Racine County pioneer, and Wisconsin politician. He was born in Hamburg, New York, and grew up on his family's farm. At 19, he worked in Upper Canada before heading west toward the Wisconsin Territory. After a difficult journey where his belongings were lost, he walked from Toledo to Chicago and then along the lakeshore to Racine. He started farming near Rochester and later moved to Waterford, where he established the Morse homestead.

Morse served on the Racine County Board of Supervisors for more than thirty years and was chairman in several years: 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861, 1871, and 1878. He also worked as the western district superintendent for the poor and, during the Civil War, as a draft commissioner. He began as a Whig and joined the Republican Party when it formed in 1854. In 1866, he was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly representing Racine County outside the city of Racine, and during that term helped secure a charter for the Rochester Seminary, where he later served as treasurer.

Morse died in Honey Creek, Walworth County, Wisconsin, in 1899 at the age of 84. He was married to Marilla Beardsley in 1843, and they had seven children.