Draft:Stephen Warren Morehouse

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Stephen Warren Morehouse (ca. 1840-1882) was a wilderness guide, cook, and hotel worker in the Adirondack region of northern New York..[1] [2] [3] who served in the well-known 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first Black regiments organized during the American Civil War.[4] The Morehouse family also participated in a historic land-distribution project supported by the abolitionist John Brown and funded by the wealthy abolitionist and philanthropist Gerrit Smith. Smith granted 120,000 acres of his Adirondack property to 3000 free Black residents of New York State to help empower them through land ownership and enabling them to be able to vote[5] [6] [7].

Early Life and family[edit]

Census records for Franklin County, NY, indicate that Warren Morehouse was born in or near Waterford, NY, around 1840 to Stephen B. Morehouse (birth and death dates unknown) and Helen Morehouse (ca. 1810-1890). In 1847, Stephen B. Morehouse was given 40 acres of land in Franklin County by Gerrit Smith [8]. The property was located in a remote wooded area near Plumadore Pond (Township 9, Lot 280 SW) and was apparently never occupied by the Morehouses. In 1850 the Town of Franklin census listed the Morehouse family as residing near Loon Lake. In addition to Warren the household included Stephen B. and Helen Morehouse, their daughter Jane (ca. 1832-1911), and the abolitionist editor Willis Augustus Hodges who had recently established a small, short-lived settlement of African American pioneers called “Blacksville” near the lake [9] [10] [11]. A map of Franklin County published in 1858 placed the Morehouse residence on the northeast side of the main road ca. one half mile east of Loon Lake and a similar distance west of Hunter's Home, a rustic inn operated by the family of Apollos (“Paul”) Smith. However, Town of Franklin tax assessments from the 1850s show that Stephen B. Morehouse owned 11 acres in Lot 183 NW a short distance to the west of the road. No records of Stephen B. Morehouse’s presence in the area after ca. 1860 have yet been found, but Helen, Warren, and Jane were residents of Franklin County for the rest of their lives.

Career[edit]

Paul Smith's Hotel[edit]

In 1860, the Brighton census recorded Warren “Morchouse” living with their mother Helen at Paul Smith’s Hotel which had recently opened at Lower Saint Regis Lake, 12 miles southwest of Loon Lake. Both were listed as servants. A memoir from a client of the hotel described a camping trip with Paul Smith for which Warren served as cook and hunter [12]. In his own memoir, Rainbow Lake hotelier James Manchester Wardner [13] reported that “Wash” Morehouse was also employed as a cook for summer camping trips from his own hotel.

Civil war service[edit]

In September of 1863 Warren Morehouse was in Boston, MA, where he enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment Volunteer Infantry soon after its historic assault on Fort Wagner.[4] Military documents listed Warren’s as 20-21 years old, 5 feet 2 inches tall, and occupied as waiter or laborer [14][15][16].

Warren mustered in at Morris Island, SC, on October 22, 1863, and served in the siege of Charleston and bombardment of Fort Sumter. In February of 1864, the 54th joined a Union army advance from Jacksonville, FL, toward Tallahassee that encountered unexpectedly strong resistance from Confederate forces on the outskirts of Olustee.[17] The Battle of Olustee proved to be one of the bloodiest conflicts of the war in Florida and stopped the Union advance.

According to Luis F. Emilio, one of the regiment’s officers who later became its biographer, the 54th ran to the rescue of troops being defeated as Union soldiers fled past them shouting "you'll all be killed!"[18] They arrived at the battle in late afternoon and held the enemy off with another Black regiment while the White troops retreated. During the intense fighting, Emilio's account noted that "Warren Moorhouse of Company E” crept out ahead of the others as a sharpshooter[19]. When night fell the 54th withdrew under cover of darkness. The following morning, Confederate troops are said to have murdered wounded Black soldiers found on the field.[20]

Soon after reaching the Union base camp, the regiment was ordered back in the direction of Olustee to protect a train carrying wounded soldiers whose locomotive had broken down, leaving the injured men vulnerable to capture or death. In “A Brave Black Regiment”.[21] Emilio described the situation as follows: "It was a hard trial for the footsore and hungry men to retrace their steps; but the thought of the cars laden with wounded nerved them to the task, so they faced about cheerfully" (p. 174). "Nearly one half the regiment was without shoes ; their blankets and knapsacks were sacrificed to get speedily into action; they had no rations or shelter, so with crippled feet and weary limbs they cast themselves on the bare ground for rest after the march of twenty-two miles that day" (p.175).

Upon reaching the train, the 54th tied ropes to the locomotive and cars, then pulled and pushed it several miles to safety. An eyewitness later reported, “They knew their fate if captured; their humanity triumphed. Does history record a nobler deed?"[22]

The 54th was then ordered to go to South Carolina where they saw combat on James Island while exposed to such intense July heat that soldiers on both sides of the battle lost consciousness from it.[4] Between September of 1864, and July of 1865, the regiment stood guard over hundreds of White Confederate officers in a prisoner of war camp, fought in the Battle of Honey Hill, Potter’s Raid, and numerous skirmishes during the Union advance on Charleston led by William Tecumseh Sherman, and helped to liberate thousands of formerly enslaved people. Warren was again mentioned in Emilio’s account for his service as a scout during action near Boykin.[4] In August of 1865, the regiment mustered out at Mount Pleasant, SC, and in September marched through the streets of Boston, MA, to cheering crowds.

Later years and death[edit]

Upon returning to the Adirondacks, Warren married Charlotte Ann Thomas (1849-1934) in Brighton, NY, on October 21, 1866, and settled in Vermontville, NY. The 1870 Franklin census noted that he worked as a “waitingman” at Sarah Hill’s inn on the south end of the hamlet, and a map of Vermontville published in 1876 indicated a “W. Morehouse” residence on Swinyer Road. The 1880 Franklin census listed him as a laborer. According to Franklin County census documents, Charlotte and Warren had four children; Mary Elizabeth (ca. 1870-1948), Henry A. (ca. 1873-1900), John W. (1877-1959), and James (1880-?). Warren died of dropsy on June 1, 1882, and was buried in Union Cemetery in Vermontville [23]. Local census and tax assessment documents indicate that Charlotte continued to live at the Swinyer Road property until ca. 1930, when she moved to Corona, Queens, NY, and lived with their son, James, until her death on April 4, 1934. Descendants of Warren and Charlotte Morehouse have continued to live in the Adirondack region through the present day [24].

Honors and legacy[edit]

The grave of Stephen Warren Morehouse at Union Cemetery, Vermontville, is honored with a Grand Army of the Republic marker. In 2007, a reunion of descendants of Warren and Charlotte Morehouse and other Black settlers of the Adirondacks took place in the Vermontville area. Warren Morehouse’s biography was summarized in “Dreaming of Timbuctoo,” a historical exhibit based at the John Brown Farm in North Elba, NY. In 2024, the Morehouse Dining Hall at Paul Smith’s College (Paul Smiths, NY) was named in honor of Warren and Helen Morehouse.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Godine, A. (2023). The Black Woods: Pursuing Racial Justice on the Adirondack Frontier. Cornell University Press. ISBN-13: 978-1501771682
  2. ^ Svenson, S. (2017). Blacks in the Adirondacks: A History. Syracuse University Press. ISBN-13: 978-0815610939
  3. ^ Stager, C. (2023). For The Record: Uncovering the Stories of Black Pioneers. Adirondack Life. (February issue) https://www.adirondacklife.com/2023/02/13/uncovering-the-true-stories-of-black-pioneers-in-the-adirondacks/
  4. ^ a b c d Emilio, L.F. (1891). A Brave Black Regiment: The History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1863-1865. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 978-1974169382.
  5. ^ "Godine (2023)
  6. ^ Svenson (2017)
  7. ^ Stager (2023)
  8. ^ Godine (2023)
  9. ^ Godine (2023)
  10. ^ Svenson(2017)
  11. ^ Stager (2023)
  12. ^ Forgotten Voices: Shooting In The Adirondack, Published in association with Charles Dickens by an unknown author in the periodical “All The Year Round” Sept 29, 1860
  13. ^ Wardner, C.A. (author), and Allen, J.W. (compiler) (2010). Sunset on Adirondack Trails: The Memoirs of James Manchester Wardner. (Part 2, pp. 67-68). Graphics North. ISBN-13: 978-0982950302
  14. ^ Godine (2023)
  15. ^ Svenson (2017)
  16. ^ Stager (2023)
  17. ^ Emilio (1891)
  18. ^ Emilio (1891)
  19. ^ Emilio (1891)
  20. ^ Letter by J.P. Hatch (1864), available at https://battleofolustee.org/reports/hatch.htm
  21. ^ Emilio (1891)
  22. ^ Emilio (1891)
  23. ^ Godine (2023)
  24. ^ Stager (2023)
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