Joseph Morse House, State Route 26 & Mill Street, Eaton, Madison County, NY

Significance: In 1796 Joseph Morse and his wife, Eunice Bigelow Morse, came from Sherburne, Massachusetts, and settled on approximately two hundred acres near the Indian trail that extended from the Susquehanna River at its headwaters in Cooperstown to nearby Stockbridge. In 1802 they completed "Stone House" in the settlement called Log City, now Eaton, Joseph and his eldest son, Ellis, who inherited the property an "modernized" it in 1816, were responsible for a grist and saw mill, woolen mill, fire house, "brick office, raising cattle, and flax. This practically self-supporting manor was the nucleus of Eaton Village. Wood, Taber and Morse (Walter Morse, son of Ellis and grandfather of the present owner) made the first steam traction engine. The house remains in the possession of the Morse family in 1974.
Survey number: HABS NY-5603
Building/structure dates: 1802 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1846 Subsequent Work