Eleanor Ecob Morse
(1837-1921) was my great-great grandmother and an artist. This page
includes reproductions of some of her art and excerpts from the one
surviving volume of her diary that I know of, written in 1890, as well
as a few poems I've written for her. She writes of her husband, the
minister and artist Jonathan Bradley Morse, and of her children, Florence,
Grace, and Jamie, of their and their neighbors' lives at #1 Clark
Place, Utica, New York. She also mentions their summer visits to Cape
Ann, Glouscester, Massachusetts.
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I
wrote "Because of the Lilacs" tonight, as Bill was building this web
page for me. But the image has been working in my mind for some years,
ever since I found the picture above, a page from the 1889 book Flower Fancies,
of poems by Alice Ward Bailey, with illustrations by Eleanor and
several other artists. In the book, the artists are not credited with
specific plates, but my mother told me this page was one that Eleanor
painted, and she certainly writes enough about painting lilacs in her
diary. (Bill kindly edited Ms. Bailey's poem out of the box above and
put in the haiku from the end of "Because of the Lilacs". The font is
called "Poor Richard".)
The "seven generations" mentioned in my poem are represented in my life
today particularly by Eleanor Ecob Morse, Florence Morse Kingsley,
Donald Morse Kingsley, Barbara Kingsley Harter, myself, Nancy Bihler
Flaherty, and Courtney Denise Flaherty, my granddaughter, now almost
3½. You'll see more about Courtney on the "My Children" web
page, coming soon!
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More to come . . .
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Jonathan Bradley Morse
(), Eleanor's husband, was a Presbyterian minister and an artist. He
was distantly related to Samuel F. B. Morse. I'll be adding some more
information about J.B. as I'm able.
Florence Morse Kingsley
(1859-1937), one of Eleanor and Jonathan's daughters and my great grandmother,
wrote fiction, both popular and religious, and a history of Wellesley
College. She rates her own web page in my family section.
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