Samuel B. Morse was born in Maine on October 26, 1834, and attended Waterville College (now Colby College) in Waterville, Maine. He moved to Glasgow, Kentucky, in 1858 and received a degree from Urania College, where he taught and continued to study until 1861. That year, he left for California, traveling from New York to San Francisco by way of Panama. He arrived in June and became a professor of Greek and Latin at Pacific Methodist College in Vacaville. In 1866, he left to attend Newton Theological Seminary in Newton Centre, Massachusetts; he returned to California in 1869, after receiving his degree. He became pastor of the First Baptist Church in Stockton, a position he held until 1877; he then served as pastor of the Tenth Avenue Baptist Church in Oakland until April 1887. Morse became president of California College in Oakland, and retired from the position shortly before his death on November 15, 1897. He married Mary Isabel Wilson in 1863, and they had three children: Sara Corinna, Maybelle, and Paul.
From the guide to the Samuel B. Morse journal, Morse, Samuel B. journal, 1861-1869, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
