From Goodspeeds History of NW Arkansas which was taken from a newspaper article titled 'An In terresting and Accurate History of Early Pioneer Days in Yell County' by Dr. W.D. Jacoway. Re printed from the Dardanelle Post Dispatch 20 Feb 1930. This was a reprint from the Independen t Arkansain 4 July 1876 In the spring of this year, (1828) the Cherokees, by treaty, exchanged the land above describ ed on the north side of the Arkansas, for the greater portion of Lovely's Purchase, which a t the time, was thickly inhabited by whites, who were thus summarily ejected therefrom, and s cattered to various parts, most of whom stopped in Washington county, and soon made that th e most densely populated county in the Territory (Arkansas). Many came down as low as Crawford county, which at that date...from the Choctaw...the Pulaski county line on the east; among whom were the Morse families, John J. and his sons, Neriah and Tom Isaiah, who squatted round about Dardanelle Rock until land surveys, which were then going on, could be completed so thatt they could locate.

(A note from me: The Lovely Purchase was located from the Eastern one hundred miles, give or take, of what is now Oklahoma. The location from where John Julion and his sons moved from was then called Miller County, Arkansas Territory. Now the present location of Red River County, Texas)

Also taken from Goodspeed's History of NW Arkansas:
Some early settlers: N. Mars (Nerior Morse) 1830
John J. Morse 1830
Neriah Morse 1839
Thomas Morse 1838

The present county seat, Danville, is situated on the south bank of the Petit Jean, near the north base of the Fourche Mountains, and was located and laid off on the property of John Howell, by three commissioners named James Briggs, James Williams, and Neriah Morse.

The persons named below have served Yell County in its various official positions at the date named...1840-42 J.J. Morse, Judge. (Another Note... A Judge under Arkansas law is not just one who presides at court hearings but is also the chief executive for the county)

Pope County civil list is as follows: 1830-32 Sheriff J.J. Morse... 1832-33 Sheriff J.J. Morse...1835-36 Judge J.J. Morse (Yet another note: Pope County was the parent county of Yell county. Yell became a county in 1840)

In the Territorial and State Legislatures this county has been represented thus: ...Lower House (1st) Statehood... J.J. Morse.

No other records can be found for JJ Morse past 1842 except a civil court action taken against his estate in the late 1840's by a man who had bought a good deal of acreage from JJ Morse and did not have it surveyed. Appearantly the man was on someone elses property by mistake. JJ's sons Nerior and Matthew went to court for him.

He was born about 1780. I have a single paper somewhere in one of five boxes of notes that says he was born in South Carolina. The note is unconfirmed. The confirmed info I have is: He was married to a woman named Deborah who was born about 1785. He had eight children. Nerior born about 1810 in South Carolina, Thomas Isaiah born about 1812 in South Carolina, Matthew, Nathan, Emily born about 1815, Pimella or Donella, Eady, and Levica. These are confirmed by seeing the marriage records of the children named and from later census reports that gave names of all persons in the household as well as age and relationships.

Petition To The President of the United States, 1824
(For the Return of Lands Ceded to the Choctaw Nation of Indians)
From the Territorial Papers of the United States, Vol. 20, pp. 135-136

The petition of the undersigned Inhabitants of that Part of Miller County, in the Territory of Arkansas, ceded and confirmed to the Choctaw Nation of Indians, by Treaty made with them at Washington City. In the present year (1825) Respectfully Sheweth,

That the tract of Country upon which Your Petitioners reside, was acquired by the United Stat es from the Quapaw Nation of Indians by Treaty made with them about the year 1818. By which s aid Treaty, the said tract of Country became a part of the public Lands of the United States. And that the Legislature of the Territory of Missouri (within which said tract of countr y was then situated) included the said tract of Country upon which Your Petitioners now reside, within the Civil Jurisdiction of Hempstead County of that Territory, by an Act of the Leg islature thereof (which has since been divided and Miller County erected out of the Western part of said County of Hempstead). That about the year 1819, a part of the same public Land s upon which Your Petitioners now reside, were under the authority of the United States surveyed into Townships, and subdivided into sections, as far as Ranges 38 or 39 West and within a bout eight Miles of the present western boundary of Arkansas Territory, on the 5th January, 1919 [document was presented] by Authority of an order from the Secretary of War, a few Settlers that were on Red River above Kia-Miche, and on the Arkansas above the Poto were removed below, and East of those Rivers, to where no prohibition to settling them, or since, existed and within a few Miles of which point (Kia-Miche on Red River) the public lands were about that time, or soon afterwards, surveyed into sections, as if to facilitate Settlers in acquiring titles to the Lands they choose to settle, in the usual way provided by law. That under these encouragements by the Authorities of the Government, there was an immediate and considerable increase of the settlements at and below Mia-Miche, on Red River upon and near the lands surveyed into sections as aforesaid, most of which settlements were made with a view to being permanent, and improvements large and valuable. That your Petitioners became greatly alarmed by a Treaty made with said Choctaw Nation of Indians at Dokes Stand, about the year 1820, by which the country upon which Your Petitioners reside (together with other large extent s of adjoining Territory) was then ceded to said Indians. But were soon afterwards reconciled by assurances from the President of the United States, received by James Miller, Governor of Arkansas, that it was not the view or intention of the General Government, to remove any of the Settlers from the lands then ceded to said Indians and that the then settled parts of s aid country so ceded to said Indians would be re-purchased from them, which assurances have been by the Delegate in Congress from said Territory, frequently since that time renewed. And under which assurances, Your Petitioners became satisfied and have continued enlarging their farms and improvements.

Your Petitioners further respectfully represent that from the time of their first settlement where they now reside, Civil Government and Civil Jurisdiction has been extended to them, a nd Courts of Law established and held, within the tract of Country lately ceded and confirme d to said Choctaw Indians by the aforesaid Treaty of the present year (1825) and that under t he authority of Congress (passed in 1824) granting rights of pre-emption for lands on which t o establish permanent seats of Justice of New Counties, a quarter section of land had been se lected by the proper commissioners of said County of Miller, and part of the pubilc buildings contracted for. Under which assurances of protection and Civil Government a large number of Settlers [document submitted with petition] have continued to enlarge their Improvements, p lant Orchards, and increase their Stocks &c. up to the present time, and that now to abandon their plantations and remove their families and property is to them ruinous and impossible.

Your Petitioners are aware, that the General Government has heretofore remove from Indian lan ds, Citizens of the United States, who settled upon lands owned at the time such settlement b y Indians, Where the settlement at the beginning were upon Indian lands, but Your present Pet itioners respectfuify deny having settled upon Indian lands. They settled upon the public la nds of the United States, where settlements were not prohibited by any order of the Governmen t, where part of the public lands were surveyed into sections (a thing Never done for Indian purposes) and where, after the same country was first ceded the Choctaws, the people have had assurances from the Highest Authority, that the settled parts of said Country should be re purchased, and Your Petitioners afforded an opportunity of acquiring titles to their possessions, in the way that the Settlers upon the public lands have usually done, in Ohio, Indiana , Illinois, Missouri. Alabama. &c. Yet, notwithstanding all the foregoing circumstances and assurances, Your Petitioners are now informed that the lands they now occupy, are ceded and confirmed to said Choctaw Indians, and that Your Petitioners are shortly, to be removed from their farms, without payment or recompense for their improvements, to give Place to Indians!! An Act that would have no example in any civilized Government, under the same circumstances, which these settlements were made An improved Country of Citizens where they have had the protection of Civil Laws and Civil Government for more than six successive Years, to be ceded by their Government to a Nation of Indians, has, it is believed. No examples.

These settlements, not having been commenced upon the lands of the Choctaw Indians, but upon the public lands of the United States, then surveying for market, still claim the same prot ection of the same laws and Government, under the faith of which they commenced their settlements. To be forced and driven by our own Government from the farms and Improvements we hav e laboured for years to make, for the support of our families, in order to give a place to Indians. would under all the circumstances and assurances before mentioned, appear so unjust and unprecidented, and to the Settlers so ruinous, that its enforcement would produce the greatest possible excitement. Your Petitioners therefore respectfully ask of your Excellency to suspend the survey of the eastern boundary of the Territory, lately Ceded to said Choctaw Indians and to suspend the time of giving said Indians possession of said Terriitory, and cause to be re-purchased from them, the parts of said Territory settled and Improved by Citizens of the United States, as aforesaid East of the Kia-Miche on Red River, and of the Poto on Arkansas, where settlements by Citizens has never been prohibited, but approbated and encouraged as before mentioned.

All Your Petitioners in duty bound will ever pray.
[oriqinal spellings retained]

                       Petitioners Names

                       Aaron Coe
                       Bailey English
                       Jesse Cheek
                       Micajah (?) Reder
                       Solomon Moffitt
                       John Swagerty
                       Allen Rains
                       Thomas Gatalhile
                       Thomas Wafer, Jun
                       Thomas Wafer, Sr(?)
                       Mabry Wafer
                       Josiah Trent
                       John Trent
                       Rucker Tanner
                       Joseph Porter
                       John J. Mors
                       Lewis Porter
                       Zacariah Thompson
                       Wesley Tallbett
                       Elijah Tallbett
                       Daniel Conner
                       Thos. Sail
                       Ralph Shelton
                       Benjamin Greaver (Graves)
                       Casa Blankinship
                       Roubit Slaven
                       Joseph Graves
                       Stephen Wingate
                       Thomas Swagerty
                       Isaac Sanders (Lenders)
                       Abr. M. Landers
                       John Lackey
                       Mark Lewis
                       Jane Brown
                       Margaret Tollett
                       Pharoah Kitchen
                       Preston Kitchen
                       Cleyborn Wright
                       William Vaughan
                       A, M. Carnalt
                       James Watt
                       Water Hagan
                       Henry Tollett
                       Henry K. Brown
                       Asa Hartfield
                       James R. Brown
                       Travis G. Wright
                       John Hinds
                       John Adams
                       J. D. Clark
                       Johnston Bowers
                       Jonathan Poole
                       Franklin Greenwood
                       John Greenwood

John J. Morse was a lawyer, Sheriff, Judge for Yell Co. (which is the highest ranking county official for Ark Counties. They are responsible for maintaining roads, taxes, etc) and he was an elected representative for the statehood convention in 1836 for Yell Co.

Land records:
MORSE JOHN J Yell 1 6N 21W 40 1844/07/10
1836 MORSE JOHN J. Pope County AR 002 Arkansas Territory Tax list AR 1830-1839 Tax Lists Index AR559387027
1837 MORSE JOHN J. Pope County AR 025 No Township Listed Tax list AR 1830-1839 Tax Lists Index AR559387029
1838 MORSE JOHN J. Pope County AR 007 No Township Listed Tax list AR 1830-1839 Tax Lists Index AR559387026
1838 MORSE JOHN J. Pope County AR 015 No Township Listed Tax list AR 1830-1839 Tax Lists Index AR559387030

1840 MORSE J. J. Pope County AR 136 Dardanelle Township Federal Population Schedule AR 1840 F ederal Census Index ARS4a1872465
1841 MORSE J. J. Pope County AR Dardanelle Township Federal Population Schedule AR 1840 Federal Census Index ARS4a1872464
1835 MORSE J.J. Pope County AR 021 Arkansas Territory Tax list AR 1830-1839 Tax Lists Index A R559386805
1837 MORSE J.J. Pope County AR 014 No Township Listed Tax list AR 1830-1839 Tax Lists Index A R559386804
1839 MORSE J.J. Pope County AR 015 No Township Listed Tax list AR 1830-1839 Tax Lists Index A R559386803
1836 MORSE JOHN J. Pope County AR 001 Arkansas Territory Tax list AR 1830-1839 Tax Lists Index AR559387028

Annette Yvonne Foster Ditto
A brief line of how I am kin:
John Julon Morse and Deborah Unknown
Neriah Morse and Jane Anderson
James Anderson Morse and Adeline McHaley Walker
Martha Jane Morse and William Riley Molten
Grace Molten and Anthony Young Foster
A. Y. Foster (initial only for first name) and Vilma Lee Chambless
Annette Yvonne Foster and Stephen Wayne Ditto