Random Notes

Written by

R. Everett Moses (74)

To my knowledge, these are the only accounts that have been written by any of the children of Thomas and Jane Moses. The rest of this, except where otherwise stated, is repeated conversation, word of mouth scraps of information pieced together, perhaps inaccurate at times, but as true as can be expected when gleaned from memories.

There may be other documents and if so, may I have a copy?

Grandfather and Grandmother Moses must have been industrious for on the voyage to America, each carried a money-belt containing nine hundred dollars in English gold. With this money they bought the old homestead, as mentioned in Aunt Etta’s letter. It was one of the better farms in the area, containing sixty-nine acres bordering a beautiful lake, which was then known as Little Mud Pond, later as Moses Lake and presently as Lake Arrowhead. The farm was purchased from Daniel Hoag on July 4^th, 1849 and the deed is dated August 16, 1849. The price paid was twelve hundred dollars for land and stock.

The route from England to the new home was either from Liverpool or from Hull England, to New York City, up the Hudson River to Albany, then by way of the Erie Canal to Utica, where the family stopped for three weeks, during which time a new baby was born. This was the 11^th of May, 1849. The baby was named Lucy.

Grandfather and John traveled via the Chenango Canal to Binghamton, N.Y., then south eleven miles to Brackney, Silverlake Township, Susquehanna Co., Pennsylvania. At this place were friends to the Moses family by the name of Darley. After checking his welcome, grandfather returned to Utica for his family. The last eleven miles from Binghamton to Brackney were traveled with an ox team.

Many useful and precious items brought in a large sturdy box, about 3’x3’x4’, among which were flower seeds and narcissus bulbs, which still exist after 110 years (I have some in my garden).

The farm prospered through the hard work of many hands, using the tools of the day: the axe, the adze, the hammer, the hoe and the spade and in the fields the scythe, the cradle, the hand rake and the flail were used. Stone walls lined the lanes to every field. True to English custom, the stonewalled fields were from three acres to about ten acres in size.

In 1857 the old house burned and the family lived in temporary quarters later used as a chicken house. The new house was built containing four bedrooms, and a pantry downstairs. Another bedroom, a milk room and “backroom”, which covered the cistern, were evidently added later. The cistern was a very important part of the house, for all the water used for washing was caught from the eaves and stored. The cooking and drinking water was carried from a spring which was about a thousand feet from the house.

Aunt Etta has told me it was not unusual to see her mother trudging from the spring with a bucket of water in each hand and one on her head. Later a well was dug about fifty feet from the house. It was about 30” in diameter and walled with field stone. The water was good and stayed at 40 degrees temperature the year around. A windlass was used to raise the oaken bucket with a valve in the bottom. Valeda, my wife asks me how I remember so much about the well. That memory was impressed on my head several times because, as a lad I would have to reach on my tiptoes to turn the crank on the winlass. Sometimes my hand would slip from the handle and the arm would catch me on the head knocking me flat. Pain and anger impresses one’s memory.

As was typical of the times, the cows were milked in the pasture and the milk carried to the house.

The family had belonged to the Church of England. As there was no church of that faith nearer than Binghamton, grandmother walked the eleven miles over the hills, carrying baby Lucy to be baptized when she was a few months old. We know that the family afterward attended a small Methodist Church at Brackney and that the children grew up in the Methodist faith. Grandmother was noted for making “bag puddings” which were something like our steamed graham puddings, except that they were placed in a bag and boiled. They were a choice dessert for the younger children. In later years the grown up children attempted to duplicate them, but never quite succeeded in making them last “like mother’s” And we have heard also about the “leather whangers” made of an unleavened dough, baked flat on the bottom of the oven and eaten with syrup. These too were favorites with the youngsters.

Then came the War Between the States in 1861. Sons Thomas and William were volunteers and it is said that they helped to recruit a company that saw a lot of service. John, who married in 1856 and had two little girls, entered the war in 1863. He was wounded in the second battle of Bull Run. All three sons were spared to return, John to his family and farm near Hawleyton, N.Y., Tom and Billie to take up homesteads in Minnesota, where they married and raised large families.

Letters, still preserved, show the close family ties and concern for the better things of life. Grandmother’s letters to her sons written in a fine regular hand, that would put most of us to shame, radiated the love of motherhood. The letter contained no complaint, no fretting, but told of the health of family and friends, what they were doing, their loves, their friends, simple things, but how they must have warmed the hearts of the absent ones!

Letters from the boys in service, especially from John, must have been an inspiration to their parents and to their brothers and sister. There was always concern for Jennie (evidently a great favorite and quite a beauty) who was ill. She died in 1865, in her twentieth year.

Grandfather was a hard worker and taskmaster. He expected and got, from those working with him, a day’s work every day. He had lost an eye when he was still a young man in England, but this did not deter him in his pioneering spirit. Each of us thank those our forebears for the fact that we are now living in this,

Our Native Land.