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 Morse Family Obelisk - Clementsport, Nova Scotia Posted by:  T0SHEA
N 44° 39.821 W 065° 36.316
20T E 293466 N 4948892
One of the oldest churches in Nova Scotia, construction on Old St. Edward’s was begun in the early 1790s and was completed around 1795. Church and cemetery, begun in 1796, have been designated a Provincial Heritage Property.
Waymark Code: WMPG67
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Date Posted: 08/26/2015
Views: 2
In the Annapolis Valley about midway between Digby and Annapolis Royal, Old St. Edward’s stands on a hill above the community of Clementsport. It is surrounded by a cemetery, begun in 1796 with the burial of Douwe Ditmars, former owner of the land on which church and cemetery stand, who died in 1796. Though 220 years old, the cemetery is still in use by descendants of the area's pioneers. The church is still consecrated, holding a service on the third Sunday of August each year.
In this cemetery, amongst the aged headstones, is a single large obelisk, that of the Morse Family. The first Morse to be buried at this obelisk was Edward Phinley Morse. Born in 1859 in Clementsport Nova Scotia, Edward passed away on August 26, 1930 at Deep Brook, Nova Scotia. His wife Ada Martha Gavil Morse was born in 1860
at Canaan, Nova Scotia, passing away on December 10, 1947 at Clementsport, Nova Scotia.
Their obelisk is of granite, standing at least 12 fee tall, with the family name, MORSE prominently engraved on the base. An industrialist and proprietor of the Morse Dry Dock and Repair Company, Edward Phinley's story can be seen below.
The following information courtesy of Findagrave Member Lois Jenkins:
Annapolis County Probate Will Books, Vol. 8, page 95, Recorded: 16 Mar 1931:
LWT of Edward P. MORSE of the Borough of Brooklyn, New York, dated 19 Nov 1925. (Long will and a wealthy man!) Cemetery of the Highlands, Town of Woodbury, Orange Co., New York.
Wife: Ada M. MORSE.
Children: Jessie Morse BISHOP; Roy B. MORSE and his wife Margaret and daughter Ada.
Sister: Mary F. DITMARS of Bear River. To Kristen JENSEN in my employ.
Grandchildren: Beatrice Morse CANTWELL and Eileen Morse CANTWELL daughters of my daughter Jessie Morse BISHOP; Hallet MORSE, Susan MORSE, Janice MORSE, Gloria MORSE and Thora MORSE daughters of my son Edward P. MORSE Jr.
[Wayne Walker, Annapolis Co. Probate Abstracts]
Edward Phinley Morse
(7 March 1859[1]—26 August 1930) was a Canadian-American industrialist and proprietor of the Morse Dry Dock and Repair Company, a major late 19th/early 20th century ship repair facility located in Brooklyn, New York. He later assisted in the creation of United Dry Docks, Inc., a corporation formed by the merger of six New York-based ship repair companies including his own, and at the time the largest corporation of its type in the world.
At one time, Morse's fortune was estimated at $40,000,000, but after his death in 1930, his taxable estate was appraised at a relatively modest $1.646 million ($22.5 million in 2015 dollars).
Morse was born in Clementsport, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1859. At the age of 20, he arrived in Brooklyn, New York, USA seeking work, which he eventually obtained in a shipsmithing yard. About five years later in 1885, he opened a small shipsmithing yard of his own at the foot of 26th Street, Brooklyn, which he named the Morse Iron Works.
In 1890 a fire destroyed the Morse Works but he re-established it quickly thereafter. Over the next dozen or so years, Morse was forced to place his company into receivership several times but on each occasion was able to recover and continue to expand the business. By 1900 his repair yard, now known as the Morse Iron Works and Dry Dock Company, was not only servicing many of the great steamships of the era, but was also maintaining the yachts of many members of New York's elite business community, including those of J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt III, John Jacob Astor IV and August Belmont, Jr. After a brief period in receivership due to industrial action in 1903, Morse reincorporated his yard in 1904 as the Morse Dry Dock and Repair Company.
Like many other U.S. shipyards, the Morse company made lucrative profits during World War I, estimated at more than $15,000,000. In 1919, the Morse Company built the world's largest floating dry dock, capable of servicing a ship 725 feet (221 m) long and weighing 30,000 tons.
In 1929, Morse masterminded the merger of six New York ship repair yards, including his own, into a new $20,000,000 entity named United Dry Docks, Inc.— the largest company of its type in the world. Morse was named President of the new company before being appointed chairman of the board. After only a short time in this role however, Morse retired from active business and returned to his native Nova Scotia, where he died a few months later at the age of 72.
Read more at Wiki
Date Created/Placed: August, 1930
Address:
34 Old Post Road
Clementsport, NS Canada
B0S 1E0
Height: 12-14 feet
Illuminated: no
Website: Not listed
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