Editing Samuel Morse (section)

==Personal life==
[[File:MorseHouseCharlestown.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Birthplace of Morse, Charlestown, Massachusetts, {{circa|1898}} photo]]

Samuel F. B. Morse was born in [[Charlestown, Boston]], Massachusetts, the first child of the pastor [[Jedidiah Morse]],<ref>In ''Lightning Man'' (listed below under "References"), Kenneth Silverman spells the name "Jedediah."</ref> who was also a geographer, and his wife Elizabeth Ann Finley Breese.{{sfn|Mabee|2004}} His father was a great preacher of the [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] faith and supporter of the [[Federalist Party]]. He thought it helped preserve [[Puritan]] traditions (strict observance of [[Christian Sabbath|Sabbath]], among other things), and believed in the Federalist support of an alliance with Britain and a strong central government. Morse strongly believed in education within a Federalist framework, alongside the instillation of Calvinist virtues, morals, and prayers for his first son. His first ancestor in America was Anthony Morse, of [[Marlborough, Wiltshire]], who had emigrated to America in 1635, and settled in [[Newbury, Massachusetts]].<ref name="Munro1891">{{cite wikisource |title=Heroes of the Telegraph |wslink=Heroes of the Telegraph/Chapter 3 |last=Munro |first=John |author-link=John Munro (author) |date=1891 |publisher=[[Religious Tract Society]] |location=London |page=45 |pages= |scan=}}</ref>

After attending [[Phillips Academy]] in [[Andover, Massachusetts]], Samuel Morse went on to [[Yale College]] to study [[religious philosophy]], mathematics, and science. While at Yale, he attended lectures on electricity from [[Benjamin Silliman]] and [[Jeremiah Day]] and was a member of the Society of [[Brothers in Unity]]. He supported himself by painting. In 1810, he graduated from Yale with [[Phi Beta Kappa]] honors.

Morse married Lucretia Pickering Walker on September 29, 1818, in [[Concord, New Hampshire]]. She died on February 7, 1825, of a heart attack shortly after the birth of their third child.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/04/160426-samuel-morse-wife-lucretia-telegraph-invention/|title=The Heartbreak That May Have Inspired the Telegraph|date=April 26, 2016|website=National Geographic News|language=en|access-date=January 24, 2020|archive-date=May 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200525131507/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/04/160426-samuel-morse-wife-lucretia-telegraph-invention/|url-status=dead}}</ref> He married his second wife, Sarah Elizabeth Griswold on August 10, 1848, in [[Utica, New York]] and had four children.