Though Elizabeth Morse Genius, the first child and only daughter of Charles Hosmer Morse, grew up in luxury, she inherited not only great wealth but a profound family tradition of industry and philanthrophy.

Her father's life was a 19th-century rags-to-riches tale of American success. Charles Hosmer Morse began his career in his native state of Vermont in 1850 as a $50-a-year apprentice for a manufacturer of the scales so essential to all forms of commerce in the rapidly growing American economy. His rise was rapid: In 1855 he was transferred to New York as a clerk and salesman. Two years later he was sent to Chicago to assist in establishing the firm Fairbanks & Greenleaf, in which he became a partner in 1862. In 1866, he founded Fairbanks, Morse & Company in Cincinnati, and in 1869, Morse returned to Chicago to take over from Mr. Greenleaf, whose health was failing. When the great fire broke out there on a Sunday evening in 1871, the firm's offices were burned to the ground. But by Tuesday, using charred books and papers rescued from the office safe, Fairbanks, Morse & Company was up and running. As Chicago prospered in the decades after the fire, so did Morse's company, which expanded into the manufacture and sale of products from engines to windmills to warehouse trucks and coffee mills -- and, always, scales.

In his later years, Charles Hosmer Morse began to spend his winters in Florida, becoming one of the pillars of Winter Park, where he quietly established a style of philanthropy that would be followed by his daughter and his grandson Richard M. Genius, Jr. He gave Winter Park its first town hall -- on the condition that his gift remain anonymous during his lifetime -- and donated land for its Central Park -- with the stipulation that it remain parkland forever. When he died in 1921, a friend wrote to Elizabeth, "He had a character that will be an inspiration to his children, his grandchildren, and his great-grandchildren for years to come."

Regardless of where he lived, Charles Hosmer Morse remained loyal to Chicago. He retained Edwin M. Ashcraft's Chicago law firm for his business and personal affairs. This relationship has lasted until the present day. Ashcraft's son Raymond represented Elizabeth Morse Genius and her son Richard M. Genius, Jr. Raymond's son-in-law William H. Alexander continued that representation, and became The Elizabeth Morse Genius Charitable Trust's first individual co-trustee. James L. Alexander, William's son, took on that role in 1997, upon his father's death.

Loyalty was a hallmark of the Morse and Genius families. Both had long-standing relationships with two Chicago banks -- Continental Illinois Bank & Trust Company (which became Bank of America, N.A.) and First National Bank of Chicago (which became JPMorgan Chase Bank, N..A.). In fact, as a young man, Richard M. Genius, Jr., worked as a clerk in First National Bank's service unit. Bank of America, N.A. continues to serve as the corporate co-trustee of The Elizabeth Morse Genius Charitable Trust.

Though she spent time in Florida, Elizabeth Morse's life was rooted in Chicago, where she was born in 1872. Her family lived in Kenwood, on Chicago's then-fashionable south side. Their 20-room mansion, built by a prominent architect in cutting-edge Richardsonian Romanesque style, was filled with custom-made arts and crafts furniture, Tiffany glass, and paintings by artists ranging from Albert Bierstadt to American impressionists such as Edward Duffner, Guy Wiggins, and John Carlson.

After graduating from a private girl's school, where she studied music and painting and became a competent amateur painter, Elizabeth spent a year in Europe. She followed this with two years at Wellesley College, from which she received a degree in art. Always close to her father, she continued to live at home, and became his hostess after her mother's death in 1903. When she married Dr. Richard M. Genius in 1905, the Chicago mansion was Charles Hosmer Morse's wedding present to the newlyweds.

The Geniuses had two children, Richard, born in 1908, and Jeannette, born 1909. The children spent summers on a Vermont farm, where their simple pleasures included long walks and horseback rides through the countryside. Winters found them in Florida, but Chicago remained home.

Family was central to Elizabeth Morse Genius, and motherhood was all-important to her. When her daughter was taken ill with influenza in March 1928, Elizabeth became literally sick with worry. It was pneumonia that caused Elizabeth's death, but her obituary suggested that worry about her daughter's health was "one of the factors that prevented Mrs. Genius' recovery."

For Richard, a young man of 20, his mother's death was a devastating blow. Her spirit and memory guided him throughout his life, laying the foundation for his personal commitment to high principle and integrity. When he died in 1992, his legacy was dedicated to the mother he had loved so much and who had had such a strong influence on his life. The Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust is the result of that love and influence.

Top of Page * Researched and written by Nancy Ethiel for The Trust's Decennial Report.