MORSE, TEXAS. Morse is fourteen miles southwest of Gruver in southwestern Hansford County in an area settled in the 1870s by cattlemen Robert and James H. Cator, who later located their headquarters on Palo Duro Creek. The community was established in 1929, when the North Texas and Santa Fe Railway reached the area. The new settlement was named for Charles A. Morse, chief engineer of the railroad. In the late 1930s the Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf intersected the Santa Fe at Morse. A post office opened in 1929, with Ruth Etta Powers as postmistress, and a newspaper, the Morse Monitor, was first issued on March 27, 1929. In 1930 the town had its first school. Five stores and a population of ninety-five were reported at Morse in 1939 and three stores and a population of 200 in 1948. In 1977 the Morse and Pringle schools were consolidated, and in the early 1980s the Pringle-Morse school was located in Morse. By 1980 Morse had a population of 150, the post office, and six businesses. In 1990 its population was still reported as 150. By 2000 the population grew to 172.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hansford County Historical Commission, Hansford County, Texas (2 vols., Dallas: Taylor, 1980?). Dotty Jones, A Search for Opportunity: A History of Hansford County (Gruver, Texas: Jones, 1965).
