On 1 June 1850 Joseph was a 20 year old single school teacher who lived with his parents and siblings in Washington, District of Columbia. ®11306 On 1 June 1870 Joseph H. Nourse was a 40 year old lawyer, with a personal estate of $700, who lived in Bayfield, Wisconsin with his family. They had moved from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin between 1856 and 1858. His wife, Isobel, 37, had real estate valued at $3000. Their children were Isobel, 14, born in Pennsylvania, and Emily, 12, Edward, 6, and Harvey, 4 months, all born in Wisconsin. ®11305 In 1857 he founded the Presbyterian Church in Bayfield. On 1 June 1880 he had changed his name to Harvey J. Nourse and was a 49 year old dry goods merchant in Bayfield. His wife Isabel L., 46, and children Isabel L., 24, Emily R., 21, Edward E., 16, Harvey, 10, Laurie, 8, Louisa, 6, and Bessie, 4 lived with him. ®11307 He died aged 60 on 22 June 1891 in Bayfield. ®4465
1883. “J. H. Nourse, merchant, Bayfield, the oldest son of Rev. James Nourse, was born in Washington, D.C., July 1830. In 1853, just a few months before marriage, he was appointed by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, a teacher to Spencer Academy, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. Failing in health, he returned with his wife to Washington late in the Fall of 1854. Bleeding from the lungs, in August 1856, he visited Bayfield, and early in the Spring of 1857 brought his family to that healthy spot. In the Fall of 1858 took charge of a large hotel belonging to the Bayfield Land Co., called the Bayfield House, and since burned. Taught the public school from October, 1861 to June 1864; was County Treasurer during the same time and Town Clerk from April 1860, to 1864; Collector of the port in 1863 and 1864; Receiver of the U. S. Land Office from 1869 to March 1872; taught the public school again from September 1869, to March 1871; has been in his present business since May 1872; and from April of that year up to the present time (1881) annually elected Town Treasurer. His wife was Miss Isabel Rittenhouse of Washington, D. C.; they have had eleven children, four deceased.” ®5728
“Mr. (J. H.) Nourse is now proprietor of one of the largest mercantile institutions of this town, located on corner of Rittenhouse and Second Street. His stock is complete and of first-class goods, consisting of dry goods, ready made clothing, hats, caps, gents’ furnishings, crockery and glassware; also full line of groceries and provisions. He has also in his establishment a heavy stock of boots and shoes, a to of handsome trunks, traveling bags and valises, as well as tinware. He is prepared to make camp outfits, for which he has the selections of many cases of fine blankets, quilts and other requisites. The premises cover an area of 40 X 50 and are full of merchandises, both upstairs and in the cellar, as well as the general store on the street floor. Among his real estate holdings are seven or eight of the finest lots in town, 120 wooded acres on Oak Island, ‘also 160 acres located four miles from Bayfield which is equally well supplied with nature’s growth....utilized in the spring extensively as a sugar grove, for which there is an abundance of maples’”. ®7376