Family Business

Charles Hosmer Morse came from a humble Vermont farm family. When he died nearly nine decades later he was one of the richest men in America, leaving behind an industrial empire. Elizabeth Morse Covington, his oldest grand-daughter, was born in Chicago in 1901 into a life of almost limitless privilege.Yet her life was not without its own sorrow and pain, not the least of which was the integral role she played in bringing about the demise of Fairbanks Morse & Co. Together the lives of these two Morses span most of the 19th and 20th centuries, reflecting and sometimes even shaping the great events of American history. Through oral history as well as family letters and other memorabilia, the author, a great grand-daughter of Charles Hosmer Morse and daughter of Elizabeth Morse Covington, tells their stories as only an insider could.