Morse family

In 1875 Robert Irvine Morse, using money his mother saved for him in a sugar bowl, moved from Waterville, Maine to San Francisco, California in order to seek gainful employment. Robert was the son of Comfort Taylor Morse and Rhoda Ann (Balentine) Morse. In California Robert worked as a salesman, a streetcar conductor, and a milk delivery person. He drove a team of horses through the streets of San Francisco sixteen hours a day, making two hundred delivery stops.

In 1894, after visiting the Bellingham Bay area, Robert used three thousand dollars he made on a real estate investment to found a hardware store which became known as the Morse Hardware Company in the town of Sehome (now Bellingham), Washington. In 1984, the Morse family celebrated the company's one hundredth anniversary in business.

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