In mid-October 1907, one of the greatest financial panics in American history sparked when a stock takeover by “one of the most powerful bankers in the nation” failed. That banker was a man from Bath.

Charles Wyman Morse was born in Bath on Oct. 21, 1856, to Benjamin W. Morse and Anna E.J. Morse. The elder Morse was owner of “Morse and Company Shipbuilders and Ice Merchants,” as well as a “tow boat operation” on the Kennebec River.

By 1873, Charles entered Bowdoin College, where he graduated with the class of 1877. Charles was said to be a young “man of unbounded imagination and daring” who displayed “a remarkable talent for big business affairs,” one who saw potential profit where others did not.

After graduation, Charles went to work at his father’s business and immediately set to purchasing small “icehouses spread along the Kennebec River” for shipping ice to “New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore,” and he secured contracts to bring coal back to Maine.

Morse also purchased passenger steamships, which sailed the Kennebec, and soon owned a number of steamship companies, which he consolidated with his ice and coal interests “into a $120 million proposition.”

By 1897, Charles went to New York City and began purchasing more ice houses, eventually “consolidating 21 ice companies into the American Ice Company.” Charles Morse now had an ice “monopoly on the New York market,” where he supplied “every cake of ice entering the harbor.” While “the price of ice skyrocketed,” Morse earned his nickname as “the Ice King.”

Morse also purchased passenger steamers from New York to Maine and created the “Metropolitan Steamship Company … consolidating [over] 106 steamers,” which commanded the “coastal New England routes.”

By the turn of the 20th century, Morse had gained “control of the Garfield National Bank” and “the management of at least 13 banks and trust companies.” Morse soon commanded “control of capitol” in excess of $340 million, and his personal wealth had grown to more than $22 million.

In 1904, Morse had returned to Bath and his spatial home at 942 Washington St. In that year, Morse donated $75,000 for the building of a new high school in Bath, one that still bears his name today.

By 1906, Morse was a man of considerable wealth, worldwide influence and national accomplishment. He then teamed up with other investors to corner the stock market’s shares of the “United Copper Mining Company” of Butte, Montana.

Morse purchased shares of the stock along with “Augustus Heinze and his family” that already had a major interest in the copper company. For days, the stock’s prices rose dramatically, and for a while, it seemed the scheme was working. Then, unexpectedly, “the stock value began to plummet.”

The stock market suddenly lost “50% of its value” and many of “the depositors in Morse’s banks began to pull their money,” starting “the Panic of 1907.”

One after the next, in a domino effect, banks and trust companies began to fail as depositors pulled their cash through a frenzy of withdrawals. As these financial institutions began to collapse, many of Morse’s competitors began pointing their fingers right at Morse.

Many of Morse’s own business interests also began to fail, and by early 1908, “the Morse controlled steamship lines went into receivership” and were “sold at foreclosure sales.”

By November 1908, Charles W. Morse found himself in court, where he stood trial “for misdemeanors … of misappropriating funds.” Many had believed “Morse was the victim of a plot concocted by politicians and rivals in the financial world” who sought a scapegoat for the financial panic — and with Charles W. Morse, they found their patsy.

When the verdict was delivered, Charles W. Morse was convicted and “sentenced to 15 years in the Federal Penitentiary at Atlanta,” Georgia. Yet, a movement was afoot to see him released, and President William Howard Taft commuted Morse’s sentence. After two years behind bars, Morse was freed and returned home to Bath.

Although his finances had drastically dwindled, Morse’s business ambitions had not. By World War I, Morse was again engaged in shipbuilding, and once again he was charged with crimes. Now, he was charged with “war profiteering,” but this time, Morse was acquitted.

On Jan, 12, 1933, after a short illness, a 76-year-old Charles W. Morse died from complications from pneumonia. He was buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Bath.

Throughout his meteoric rise, amassed wealth and his public downfall, the people of Bath had “stood by [Morse] through thick and thin.”

Today, the incredible story of Charles W. Morse is engraved in American history and serves as another legendary tale in our Stories from Maine.

Lori-Suzanne Dell is a Brunswick author and historian. She has published four books and runs the “Stories from Maine” Facebook page.