Two Lodi families donate boat to S.J. County Historical Museum

LODI — Two pioneering Lodi families have made another donation to the San Joaquin County Historical Museum at Micke Grove Regional Park.

The Florence M II, a Stephens 26 pleasure speed boat, arrived at the museum on Nov. 11, and will take up residence in the McNeilly building on the 18acre museum campus.

It is a gift from the Morse and Elliott families and named after Florence Morse, whose descendants came west from Illinois in 1857. The freight wagon that brought them to California now graces the lobby of the museum’s Erickson Building. Their small, green “camp wagon” with the black cover resides in the museum’s Micke Building.

The Florence M II also comes with a boat trailer, a replica of the original, and the 1916 REO motorcar that regularly towed the boat on four-day journeys between Lodi to the shores of Lake Tahoe via Sonora Pass. The REO is now being detailed in Sacramento and will arrive at the museum at a later date.

Purchased by E.E. Morse from Stephens Brothers on the Stockton Channel in 1926, the boat is based on the company’s “spud boats,” speedy watercraft built for agricultural brokers in need of fast water transportation between Stockton or San Francisco and the Delta potato farmers.

The 1916 REO touring car was christened “Kerosene Kate” after word got out that the car’s original owner, John Carol Skinner, had converted his auto to kerosene power because of the gasoline shortages during World War I. Morse purchased “Kate” from Skinner in 1925 and soon paired it with Florence M II.

They will now become part of the Elliott-Morse Family Collection at the San Joaquin County Historical Museum at Micke Grove County Park.