George Eilert Morisse was born December 6, 1858, in Alser, Oldenburg,
   Germany, to Eilert Gerhard and Diederica Christena Rebecca (Menke)
   Morisse. He had three brothers and three sisters. Bernard (Ben), Wilhelm,
   Katherine and George came to America. George was twenty-six years old
   when he came to America in 1881 and traveled to Kingman County, Kansas.
   He bought a farm in Liberty Township, section 13, township 30 south,
   range 10 west.
     Gesine Gerdes was born March 15, 1861, in the village of Rodenkirchin,
   Oldenburg, Germany. In 1883 at the age of twenty-one, she came to America
   and stayed in Hiawatha, Kansas, for a year before coming to Nashville.
     George and Gesine were married in the small village of Bross, Kingman
   County, September 24, 1884. They had seven children. Emma Bertha married
   Benjamin Franklin House and they lived near Sawyer, Kansas. Katherine
   died at the age of three. Otto William married Lydia Borgstead; they
   resided on a farm south of George's. Hulda Lily married Bernard DuMars;
   they lived in Nashville.
     Ella Rebecca married Henry Lawrenz and lived near Sawyer. Julius married
   Julia Wehling; they lived on a farm southwest of George's. Edward Roy
   married Ruby Steele and they lived on the original homestead.
     George was a large land owner and a director of the Nashville State Bank,
   which his sister Katherine owned. His brother Ben had bought a farm about
   two miles south of George's. As far back as 1700 in Germany, George's
   ancestors have been farmers. George built a two-story frame house on the
   farm in 1905, the year their youngest son was born. Roy and his wife Ruby
   have lived there all their married life.
     George and Gesine were members of the Lutheran Church and George had an
   active hand in organizing a Lutheran congregation in his new community, thus
   being one of the original organizers of the St. John Lutheran Church at
   Nashville, Kansas.
     George passed away April 30, 1926, in Pratt, Kansas, at the age of sixty-
   eight. Gesine lived with her son Roy until her death February 10, 1937, at
   the age of seventy-five. They are both buried in the Lutheran Cemetery at
   Nashville.
                      
  Source:St. John's Lutheran Church Centennial 1893-1993, Nashville, Kansas, pg. 73 
  Written by Ruby Morisse and submitted by Odetta Keimig.