The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-02-23
c. v. M0RSE'S
REMARKABLE
THRIFT
Canal Boat Boy Now Controls;
Atlantic Coast Steam.
ship Lines.
SOON TO ORGANIZE A
;1oo,ooo,ooo SHIP CO.

Also" Holds Large Interests in Eastern
Ice Trade-Is an Enigma to. New
York Financiers - Marital Life
Somewhat Varied as Well as. Border.
ing on the Sensational.
Associated Press to The BveninG Timss.
New York, Feb. 23.-From tha. rural
community of Bath, Me-, a quarter of
a century ago to a Captain of in
dustry" controlling practically every
coast steamship line from New Bruns-
wick to, the Gulf epitomizes the. amaz-
ing career of Charles Wyman Morse,
whose recent ventures have. again
caused New York financiers to sit up
and take notice. The methods and
successes of Morse-ice king. owner
of a chain Of banks and steamship
magnate-can be compared only to the
amazing celebrity secrecy and force
with which E. H. Hartman has con-
Quoted his unparalleled campaign in
the railroad world.
Mr.. Morse has been balked for the
time being in his efforts to buy from
the New Haven railroad their line of
Sound steamers. But it is believed
that he will ultimately attain his OBJ
ject, for he usually gets what he goes
after. He now owns all the lines of
steamships plying the Hudson river.
In 1901 he picked up the Boston &
Portland steamship company, then the
Boston & Kennebec steamship COM
pany; then the Boston & Bangor
steamship company, and then the In
ternational steamship company, which
put him in control of all the lines
running out of Boston to the Maine
coast His next acquisition was the
splendid Metropolitan steamship COM
pany, operating between. Boston and
New York. Next he gubbled up the
Clyde lines, operating from Boston and
New York to the south. This made
his steamship holdings greater than
those of any other man in the coun-
try.
Should his negotiations with the
New Haven company terminate sue
cessfully Mr.. Morse will probably
bring all of his various corporations
under the control of one parent COM
pany, which may possibly be the Hud-
son River Steamboat company. That
would probably mean capitalization
somewhat in excess of $100,000O00.
With all his big deals and all his
successes Morse still remains some
thing of an enigma to New York f.
nanciers. They have never been able
to exactly size him up. They are
ever yet in doubt as to whether he is
to be a real and permanent force
in the financial world of the metropo-
lis, or whether, simply through
combination of shrewdness and luck,
he has broken into the multi-million-
aire class with his dollars as Jimmy
but lacking the personal force and
character necessary to place a man on
that financial plane now occupied by
less than dozen New Workers.
While he had been measurably we'll
known here for some years, and we'll
thought of, Mr.. Morse flashed into the
game rather spectacularly back in
1899 when he took over most of the
ice companies and got himself and his
business talked about not little The
revelations at that time were Of the
sort to induce hand-shakes among the
older and more conservative finan-
ciers.
While Morse wasn't "born with
gold spoon in his mouth" there were
in his family financial independence,
thrift, business ability and business
reputation. So he had everything
necessary to give him good start
in the world. He first saw the light
in Bath, Maine, in 1856. For a time
he was engaged with his father, who
was engaged in the tow-boat business
on the Kennebec. But this was too
slow for Charlie" and he came to
New York in the early eighties to
seek wider field for his energies.
During the early years of his resi-
dence in this city he speculated in ice
by the cargo, in hard-pine cargoes, in
pieces of schooners and steamers
and tugs, and meanwhile took his
father and other relatives along Easy
street with him. They came to own
big fleet of ocean carrier and ocean
tugs, and their ice interests were
vastly expanded.
When he married, shortly after
coming to New York, he was already
a rich man, and not eight years out
of college either. His wife was a
Miss Hussey of BROOKLYN. They made
their home in Brooklyn and lived in
good style. But Morse was bound up
in business, cared nothing for the
social side of life, and could not by
any stretch of the imagination be
called zone of the boys"
Later he came over to Manhattan
and bought a pretentious house in
West Seventeen street, near Central
Park. There were three boys and
baby girl In the family when the first
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