History of Morse
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Louis Norburg, a German citizen, located in Okfuskee County in 1885, at a place about 5 1/2 miles north of the present Okfuskee County Court House.  He had a sawmill west of [what would later be] Herbert Sowder's place, with which he sawed out gunstock lengths of walnut to export by rail to New Orleans and by steamship to Germany.  When all the choice walnut on Buckeye Creek was exhausted, he moved his operation to near the Court House and a stand of walnut on Greenleaf Creek.  He constructed a two-story store building and hotel in 1894 which was operated by Mrs. Sarah A. Lovelin and her daughters, Blanche and Bertha, both before and after statehood.  Information about this store comes from Tom Simpkins, a negro pioneer who was born near Shreveport, LA in 1874, and located in 1891 at Ninnekah in the Chickasaw Indian Nation where he worked in a brick plant for three years before coming to the Creek Nation.  In 1894 he was employed by Norburg, who sold the property to the Patterson Mercantile Company in 1894.

George D. Harvison, George H. Ralston, Benton Callahan, Cash C. Eskridge and John H. Phillips were employees of the Patterson Mercantile company.  On August 5, 1895, Rufus Buck, Naomi July, Sam Sampson, Lucky Davis and Louis Davis robbed the Mercantile at Morse.  They were pursued and captured near Muskogee by Bill Tighlman, Heck Thomas, Paden Tolbert, Bud Ledbetter, Martin Rutherford, the Light Horsemen, and some other ranchers and cowboys.  They were later hanged.

Early Day Morse Teacher Recalls

Mrs. Carolyn C. Henry taught a school at Norberg in 1896.  She recalls about her family, "I came with my father and mother, two brothers, and two sisters to the Indian Territory in 1889.  My father and mother were teachers in the National School in the Creek Nation, and when I was 18 years old, I began teaching.  I taught near Morse, or, as it was known then as Norbert, in 1896.  I boarded for awhile at Felix Hopwoods, they were old friends of ours, then I boarded at the hotel at Norberg and Mrs. Sarah Loveland was manager of the hotel. . . My family lived at Barnett's store near where Bryant is now.  I spent weekends at home riding back and forth by horseback and a side saddle.  I did not pass a single house on my trip, but I could see several in the distance - the old Bean ranch about two miles to the north and some negro houses to the south. . . .We lived in Weleetka in 1903.  My husband and brother, W. A. Harper, were deputy United States Marshals under Paden Tolbert.  There was a dispute over Castle townsite and the boys were stationed there for awhile and I camped with them for several months.  I lived here in Okemah in 1912 when my father, W. T. Harper, was county clerk. . . ."

This page was last updated on 08/11/11

 

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