Individual Notes
Note for: James Thomas Moss, 9 Mar 1830 - 17 Oct 1892
Index
Individual Note: LIFE OF JAMES AND SERELDA: At the close of the Civil War in 1865, James and Serelda, Missouri Presbyterians, came west by ox train from near Knoxville in Missouri’s Ray County. With them were their children: Lucy Frances, age seven; Clayton, age four; and Sadie, age two. They came over the same trail used earlier by missionaries Dr. and Mrs. Marcus Whitman. The captain of the train was Franklin B. Hart, father of Walla Walla’s J.B. Hart. They were part of a large emigration from Missouri that had come to settle in Umatilla County and other parts of eastern Oregon. These emigrants were nearly all Democrats and many of them had been in the Confederate service.
Too frequently for comfort, the train was thrown into confusion by Indian alarms, Lucy later recalled. When Indians were a menace her mother would place feather beds along the sides of the wagon cover, and make the children crawl under them; the arrows stuck in the feather beds. For self-protection, several bands went together to form a train of 318 wagons at one time. While en route they saw thousands of buffalo and dined on the meat of the animals, using buffalo chips to cook with.
In spite of dangers and excitement, the train got through. The Mosses settled on Birch Creek, five miles south of Walla Walla, and lived there five years. Then they moved to the above-mentioned farm on the Walla Walla River, where Serelda died. The farm was only three miles north of Milton, Oregon.
CENSUS DATA: 1880 US census; 48 year old James Thomas Moss, page 17, family 169, Milton precinct, Umatilla county, Oregon, was born in Missouri. Both parents were born in Kentucky. He lived
with wife Serelda, age 38, who kept house and had dropsy. She was also born in Missouri while both her parents were born in Tennessee. With them lived 5 children.
Sadie WF age 16 daughter single assisted at home MO MO MO
Clayton WM age 18 son single laborer MO MO MO
Susan WF age 13 daughter single attends school OR MO MO
James WM age 10 son single attends school OR MO MO
Josie WF age 4 daughter single OR MO MO
Individual Notes
Note for: Ralph Maxon Wood, 23 Jul 1860 - 14 Dec 1930
Index
Individual Note: ANNIVERSARY: Mr. and Mrs. R.M. Wood celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary in North Roseburg, Oregon. Ralph's second wife was Lillie, by whom he had three children: May, Ralph Jr., and Caroline. May was married to an Eaton.
OBITUARY: From the Roseburg, Oregon newspaper, December 20, 1930: Ralph Wood was Son of Pioneers in Walla Walla. Ralph Maxon Wood, 70, whose funeral was held here Friday, was the first male white child born in Walla Walla. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. J.F. Wood, crossed the plains in 1859, and with other immigrants found safety from Indians at Fort Walla Walla in November of that year. Ralph Maxon was born July 23, 1860 in a floorless log cabin a couple of miles east of the fort. He was married at Walla Walla January 15, 1880 to Miss Eva A. Beardsley, who died here in 1914. He was the father of 11children, nine of whom survive, as does his present wife. All the children, Mrs. May Eaton of Salem; Ralph Wood, Jr., Caroline, FrankT., Romanso R., Rufus B., of this city; Mrs. Gertrude Fisher and Mrs. Francis Stunenberg, of Los Angeles; and Mrs. Jessie Duncalf, of Spokane, were at the funeral.
Individual Notes
Note for: Helen A. Simpson, 18 Feb 1844 -
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Individual Note: CENSUS: US Federal Census, 1870: Helen Simpson, age 27, is listed as “pauper, idiotic” in Meredith, Delaware County, NY. On
Helen Simpson from Sidney is listed on the Delaware County, NY pauper's list for 1877-1883.
1857 POORHOUSE INVESTIGATION: This is a two-story house of wood, very old and dilapidated, thirty by forty feet. Beside this is an asylum twenty-five by thirty feet. Attached is a farm of one hundred and seventy-five acres yielding a revenue of $250.00. The basements are used only for the storage of produce. In the house are twelve rooms heated by stoves and furnaces, destitute of ventilation and with extremely low ceilings. The number of inmates was fifty-eight; twenty-five males and thirty-three females; of these two-thirds are native and one-third foreign born; eleven are under sixteen years of age. The sexes are kept separate. They are under one keeper assisted by his wife. From two to twelve paupers are placed in a single room. The average number of inmates is sixty-five; supported at an average weekly cost of one dollar. The able males are employed on the farm and the women about the house. Once during the year past the supervisors have visited the house. It is supplied with Bibles, and there are occasional religious services; the children are sent to the district school. The superintendent procures supplies for the house, and prescribes rules and regulations concerning government and system of diet. He also binds out the children and exercises the power of discharging lunatics. A physician is employed by the year, who visits the house when called. There are no arrangements for bathing and no water for the house except what is drawn from the river. They have a well, which is now (August 16,) dry. During the year have occurred seven deaths.
Of the inmates, thirteen are lunatics; three males, ten females, all except one are paupers. For the reception of lunatics is erected another and separate building, in size twenty-five by thirty feet. In this are fourteen cells, close and without means of light or ventilation, except by a small diamond hole in the door. The inmates sleep on straw changed once a week. Two are confined in these cells the whole time and all at night. They have no special medical or other attendance. Sometimes they are restrained by handcuffs. The keeper reports two as improved and three cured during the year; but the committee fails to discover how improvement or cures can be effected with the facilities here offered. Eight of the paupers are idiots; five males, three females. There is one deaf and dumb.