The mistress of what is the oldest house in Warren, and possibly Trumbull County, was from a wealthy social and political prominent family from the start of our country.

Signers of our Constitution and Declaration of Independence she called uncles. Her family owned what is now the Bronx in NYC. Other recognizable names in the Morris family genealogy are Hamilton, Schuyler and Bowdoin among others. And that was just her father’s side of the family.

Louisa Maria Morris was born 1787 in a large house that is still standing on the Connecticut River in Springfield, Vermont. Her father, Lewis R. Morris, was an early settler of the area. Her parents separated soon after her birth because, as the story goes, her mother did not want to live in Vermont.

Her mother, Mary “Polly” Dwight Morris, was the great-granddaughter of the great theologian Rev. Jonathan Edwards (also president of Princeton University) and Susan Pierpont Edwards. Mary’s mother, Louisa’s grandmother, was Mary Edwards, whose sister married Aaron Burr. Another sister married Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin.

After her divorce from General Lewis R. Morris, she married again to William Hall. Little is known of any relationship Louisa had with her mother while growing up. It appears she was raised by her father and maternal grandparents. According to her father’s letters, he wishes her to attend the school in Deerfield (possibly in Deerfield, Massachusetts) and instructions on how to behave and dress. He also recommends women of character she might rely on. He mentions visits to Mount Vernon to visit Mrs. Washington and also his sorrow at the death of General Alexander Hamilton.

“I wish your Cousin Burr could have been better employed,” he stated in a letter dated July 22, 1804.

Louisa and John Stark Edwards were married in Springfield, Vermont on Feb. 28, 1807. Mr. Edwards purchased a lot on what is now South Street to build a home for them. Before the home was finished, the couple lived with Simon and Nancy Bishop Perkins on Main Street near the Franklin Street intersection.

Louisa’s life was totally different after her marriage. She left behind the high society of New England for the backwoods of the Wild West that was Ohio at the time. Her close friend in Vermont wrote to her in July 1807 that she was “more and more convinced, Louisa, that I would not go 700 miles, even with as great inducements as you had. What, travel on horseback, over mountains, in continual danger and settle at last in a cottage!!!!”

Louisa seemed very content with her life here and made many friends. She and John had three sons before John’s untimely death in early 1813. The Edwards family in Connecticut wished to have Louisa and her three children, Pierpont, Lewis Morris and William Johnson, move back east so they could take care of them. Louisa made plans to return, but also felt sad at leaving the friends and people that she came to know. She told her sister in a letter that the time here was the happiest she had ever or would ever know. And her husband was buried here.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, her going back home never happened. A woman could not travel on her own and no one was able to come escort her back because of the state of the country. After about 18 months, Louisa remarried a gentleman who had come to this area in 1806 from Pennsylvania, Robert Montgomery, on June 21, 1814.