October 29, 1992
By Isabel Morse Maresh
Today's mail from a correspondent brought some exciting news to a genealogical nut — evidence of a family tree that we have been searching for for years.
John Lane Morse and his wife lived in Montville, in the early 1800s, having come there from New Gloucester. A number of people are believed to be descended from him, but until now had no way to provide it.
While John was born in New Hampshire, his ancestry is traced back to before the immigrants came to America from England in the 1600s. John was born in 1783 and died in 1830, aged 46 years. He is buried in Halldale Cemetry in Montville with his wife, who was Betsey Raynes. She was born in New Gloucester in 1783 where they married in 1804. John held several offices in town government in the young Montville Plantation. Betsey died in Belfast in 1873 at the age of 91 years. It is believed that she lived there in her last days with her daughter Eunice Cochran.
Eunice, who was the oldest daughter, married John Cochran of the new settlement of Belfast. He was the son of the John Cochran who was a part of the famous Boston Tea Party. This is printed on his gravestone in Grove Cemetery.
Other members of John and Betsey's family were Srah and Edna who were the wives of Alpheus Rowell. Sarah married him after the death of her sister Edna. Patience Elvira married Ephraim C. Davis of Montville. The youngest of the clan was Moses Morse, a horse trader who lived in Belmont.
There were tales of Moses going back to Montville, leaving his family for weeks, and living with the Indians. Moses married Susan Shea, a self-taught nurse from South Thomaston. Susan took her grandchildren with her into the woods to gather herbs for cure-alls for her family and neighbors. She was called out as a midwife, to lay out bodies for burial and to tend the sick in Belmont and neighboring towns.
Moses, who went back to Montville to care for his aged mother, to get her ready for the winter, and do some horse-trading before returning to Belmont, was a bit of an eccentric himself. Family tales have him living and fishing with the Indians, and this may be the possible explanation for his being in South Thomaston where he met Susan Shea.
In the last few years, I have corresponded with others across the country who believed that they, too, were descended from John Lane and Betsey (Raynes) Morse, but had no way to prove it.
Kendrick Morse was in Detroit, Maine, raising a large family. Ezekiel Morse was also in Detroit, but no information is available about him. Gram Susan (Shea) Morse, according to my father, said Moses' family siblings had names taken from the Bible.
Today [October 1992] a correspondent from Arizona sent a probate record from Androscoggin County of a Nathaniel Raynes who left $142.48 to be divided between his brothers' and sisters' children in 1881. The probate listed each heir and relationship. We have been looking for proof such as this for years. The living children of John Lane and Betsy Morse of Detroit; Sarah Rowell of Belfast [Edna Morse had already passed away]; Patience Davis of Montville; Moses Morse of Belmont; Betsy Weymouth of China [a daughter that we knew nothing bout, and didn't know about]; and Lucy Cochran, a spinster school teacher of Belfast, daughter of Eunice (Morse) and John Cochran.
What a gold-mine find for researchers who have looked for years. You never know where the answers will come from. Who would ever have thought to look in Androscoggin County? Cheer up. The answers are out there somewhere.
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