Stephen Warren Morehouse (ca. 1840-1882) was a wilderness guide, cook, and hotel worker in the Adirondack region of northern New York...[1] [2] [3] who served in the well-known 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first Black regiments organized during the American Civil War.[4] The Morehouse family also participated in a historic land-distribution project supported by the abolitionist John Brown and funded by the wealthy abolitionist and philanthropist Gerrit Smith. Smith granted 120,000 acres of his Adirondack property to 3000 free Black residents of New York State to help empower them through land ownership and also to help qualify them to vote.[5] [6] [7]
Census records for Franklin County, NY, indicate that Warren Morehouse was born in or near Waterford, NY, around 1840 to Stephen B. Morehouse and Helen Morehouse (ca. 1810-1890). In 1847, Stephen B. Morehouse was given 40 acres of land in Franklin County by Gerrit Smith.[8] The property was located in a remote wooded area near Plumadore Pond (Township 9, Lot 280 SW) and was apparently never occupied by the Morehouses. In 1850, the Town of Franklin census listed the Morehouse family as residing near Loon Lake. In addition to Warren the household included Stephen B. and Helen Morehouse, their daughter Jane (ca. 1832-1911), and the abolitionist editor Willis Augustus Hodges who had recently established a small, short-lived settlement of African American pioneers called “Blacksville” near the lake.[9] [10] [11] A map of Franklin County published in 1858 placed the Morehouse residence on the northeast side of the main road ca. one half mile east of Loon Lake and a similar distance west of Hunter's Home, a rustic inn operated by the family of Apollos (“Paul”) Smith. However, Town of Franklin tax assessments from the 1850s show that Stephen B. Morehouse owned 11 acres in Lot 183 NW a short distance to the west of the road. No records of Stephen B. Morehouse’s presence in the area after ca. 1860 have yet been found, but Helen, Warren, and Jane were residents of Franklin County for the rest of their lives.
Morehouse guided hunting trips with Apollos Smith in 1859.[12] In 1860, the Brighton census recorded Warren “Morchouse” living with his mother Helen at Paul Smith’s Hotel which had recently opened at Lower Saint Regis Lake, 12 miles southwest of Loon Lake. Both were listed as servants. A memoir from a client of the hotel described a camping trip with Paul Smith for which Warren served as cook and hunter.[13] In his own memoir, Rainbow Lake hotelier James Manchester Wardner [14] reported that “Wash” Morehouse was also employed as a cook for summer camping trips from his own hotel.
In September of 1863 Warren Morehouse was in Boston, MA, where he enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment Volunteer Infantry soon after its historic assault on Fort Wagner.[4] Military documents described Warren as 20–21 years old, 5 feet 2 inches tall, and employed as waiter or laborer.[15] [16] [17]
Warren mustered in at Morris Island, SC, on October 22, 1863, and served in the siege of Charleston and bombardment of Fort Sumter. Luis Fenellosa Emilio mentions Warren's service as a scout during action near Boykin. In August 1865, the regiment mustered out at Mount Pleasant, SC, and in September marched through the streets of Boston, MA, to cheering crowds.
Upon returning to the Adirondacks, Warren married Charlotte Ann Thomas (1849-1934) in Brighton, NY, on October 21, 1866, and settled in Vermontville, NY. The 1870 Franklin census noted that he worked as a “waitingman” at Sarah Hill’s inn on the south end of the hamlet, and a map of Vermontville published in 1876 indicated a “W. Morehouse” residence on Swinyer Road. The 1880 Franklin census listed him as a laborer. According to Franklin County census documents, Charlotte and Warren had four children; Mary Elizabeth (ca. 1870-1948), Henry A. (ca. 1873-1900), John W. (1877-1959), and James (1880-?).Warren died of dropsy on June 1, 1882, and was buried in Union Cemetery in Vermontville.[18] Local census and tax assessment documents indicate that Charlotte continued to live at the Swinyer Road property until ca. 1930, when she moved to Corona, Queens, NY, and lived with their son, James, until her death on April 4, 1934. Descendants of Warren and Charlotte Morehouse have continued to live in the Adirondack region through the present day [19]
The grave of Stephen Warren Morehouse at Union Cemetery, Vermontville, is honored with a Grand Army of the Republic marker.In 2007, a reunion of descendants of Warren and Charlotte Morehouse and other Black settlers of the Adirondacks took place in the Vermontville area.Warren Morehouse’s biography was summarized in “Dreaming of Timbuctoo,” a historical exhibit based at the John Brown Farm in North Elba, NY.
In 2024, the dining hall at Paul Smith’s College was named in honor of Warren and Helen Morehouse.