Biographies

(Source: History of Bath and environs, Sagadahoc Co., Maine, 1607 - 1894
Ortland, Me.: Lakeside Press, printers, 1894 - 556 pgs.

CHARLES HENRY MORSE was born in Somerville, Mass., June 17, 1830, and came to Bath when a child, with his parents, where he has sine resided.  He commenced life by learning the trade of shipjoiner, at which he worked six years.  He then began running on steamboats on the Kennebec, soon taking command.  In 1862 he was placed in command of the government steamer, built at Wiscasset, and took her to service in Southern waters, where she was employed during the war as a transport of men and supplies.  On one occasion this boat did invaluable service in saving Washington from a raid of General Early, when its defenses were weak, by being the only boat on the Potomac, of sufficient light draft, to bring to the city a detachment set to head off the enemy, the Union army being then (1864) before Richmond.   Returning from the war, Captain Morse commanded steamboats on the Kenebec until 1885, when he became superintendent of the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company, holding the position to the present time.

JAMES TODD MORSE, a retired ship-master, was born in Phipsburg, April 17, 1822. His father was Francis Morse, and his mother, Nancy (Todd) Morse. His grandfather was Jonathan Morse, of Small Point. The boyhood of Captain Morse was spent on his father's farm, on the old Lithgow place, and his education was in the district schools. On October 29, 1849, he married Miss Margaret W. Lowell, daughter of Capt. Abner Lowell, of Small Point. She was born August 26, 1827, and they have had six children, of whom four are living.
     Mr. Morse commenced going to sea in 1840, when he was eighteen years old, sailing in Bath ships, and rose to be master of a ship, in regular course of promotion, in eight years, and commanded some of the best ships of Bath build, for many years. In 1867 he was in command of the ocean steamer, Tiogo, running between New York and New Orleans, via Havana; she was consumed by spontaneous combustion. Ending his sea-faring life, in 1871, he settled in Philadelphia, being employed as Marine Superintendent of the steamer line between Philadelphia and Antwerp, in which he continued until 1884, when he retired from active business life to the old family homestead in Phipsburg.

GEORGE H. NICHOLS was born in Plaistow, N. H., March 16, 1832; came to Bath and was in the dry goods business from 1861 to 1885; was mayor in 1884; was postmaster from 1885 to 1889; kept the Tontine Hotel, in Brunswick, from 1890 to 1892; returned to Bath to become manager of the Atkinson Furnishing Company.  He married Miss Susan E. Colby, of Lowell, Mass.

READ NICHOLS was born in Bowdoin, March 11, 1822, and came to Bath in 1839 to learn the masons' trade, which business he has followed to the present time, and to which he has added dealing in baled hay, drain tile, cement, lime and brick.  He has served in the Common Council three terms and as an overseer of the poor five years; was chief engineer of the fire department two years, having worked his way up to that position in a twenty years' service having worked his way up to that position in the twenty years' service.  He helped work the historical Kennebuc engine when its tub had to be filled by the use of buckets.  In 1890 he extended his business by establishing a brick-yard at the western end of Western Avenue at Round Meadow.  January 26, 1846, he married Rachel Ann Little, daughter of Capt. Charles Little of Bath, and their children living are:  Charles L., Clara A., and Emma A. (Mrs. Daniel Pierce).