Michael Moser jr was born in Weissenberg Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania,[1] on 4 Mar 1782, and christened on 4 Aug 1782,[2] the son of Michael and Eva (Bortz) Moser. He died in Glencoe Twp, Somerset Co PA, 8 Aug 1859.[3]
Michael married Maria Magdalena Frey before 1805, possibly in Berks Co PA. Autosomal DNA evidence suggests she was the daughter of John George and Maria Magdalena (Zeigler) Frey. Dates from her gravestone show she was born 3 Jan 1780 (calculated) and died 5 Jul 1858 in Glencoe Twp, Somerset Co PA.[4]
Michael and Maria Magdalena were probably in Berks Co PA in 1810; this census fits their young family: Berks Co PA, Windsor Twp: Michl Moser, 10010/11010. The “Tunnell & Hootman Family Genealogy” gedcom at Ancestry.com states that the christenings of three of their children have been found at Friedens Union Church, Albany Twp, Berks Co PA; I have not located these records. “Baptismal records for children Michael (III), Sarah and Mary Magdalena were found at Fridens Union Church, Albany Twp. Berks Co. Sometime between 1817 and 1820, Michael. Jr and his family also made the trek to Bedford County, where he turns up in the 1820 census near his parents who had preceded him there.”
In 1820 he was in Bedford Co PA, Colerain Twp, p 14, Michael Moser Jr: 300010/21010; there were three sons and four daughters. In 1830, they were still in Bedford Co PA, Londonderry Twp, p 88, Michael Moser: 10320001/1101101; by now there were six sons and four daughters. By 1840, Michael Moser Jr had moved to Somerset Co PA, p 16, Michael Moser: 10012001/00011001; only four sons and two daughters were still with their parents. Michael was confirmed at Lybarger Church, Bedford Co PA, on Dec 8, 1831.
There is less clear evidence for the children of Michael and Maria than of other ancestors in the same era. My list is generally from Arlis Eilerts and gedcoms on the Internet. The best clues are in census and cemetery records. Two sons, William and George, were buried in the same cemetery as their parents. The family of Reuben Moser and the widow of George moved to Osborne Co KS before 1880. Sarah, in addition to the baptismal record, was with her family in 1850 between a brother’s family and her parents. George, his wife, Lydia’s daughter and a Jane Caton, relationship not yet clear, were with Augustus Dorsey in 1860.
The census indicates these children:
Daughter or other girl born ca 1800 or earlier
One or two sons born 1800-1810
Daughter born 1805-1810
Two sons 1810-1815
Two daughters 1810-1820; one 1815-1820 in 1830
Three sons 1815-1820
Daughter 1820-1825
Daughter 1825-1830
Son (or grandson) 1835-1840
These children might be the following:
1. Reuben MOSER was born on 15 Jan 1805 in Berks Co PA. Reuben died in Somerset Co PA, on 25 Oct 1873 and was buried in Fichtner Cemetery, Northampton Twp, Somerset Co PA. On 20 Feb 1839 when Reuben was 34, he married Mary Ann FRAZER in Bedford Co PA. Born on 29 Sep 1822 in Bedford Co PA, Mary Ann died in Osborne Co KS, on 29 Jun 1881. Her father may have been George Frazer, who was buried in the same small Somerset Co cemetery as her husband. They had the following children:
i. John (1840-)
ii. Louisa (1844-)
iii. Martha E (1847-)
iv. George W (1848-)
v. Margaret (1850-<1860)
vi. Eliza J (1853-)
vii. Mary Emma (1859-)
viii. Clara E (1863-)
ix. Alfred McClellan (1864-1917)
2. Susannah MOSER was born say ca 1807. On 1 Mar 1832, she married John WOLFORD who was born in 1805 in PA. His relation to Susannah’s sister-in-law Mary Ann Wolford cannot be determined from Internet sources. They had the following children:
i. Sophia (1833-)
ii. William (1837-)
iii. Caty Ann (1842-)
iv. Polly (1844-)
v. Elizabeth (1846-)
3. Lydia MOSER was born about 14 Jan 1808 in PA. On 13 Jan 1833, she married William TIDY in Bedford Co PA. They had the following children:
i. Henry (1834-)
ii. Rebecca (1836-)
iii. Mary E (1839-)
iv. Ann M (1841-)
v. Catherine (1843-)
vi. Sophia (1847-)
4. Maria Magdalena MOSER was born on 17 Feb 1809 in PA. Maria died on 9 Feb 1892. On 8 Aug 1830, she married Samuel HUFFMAN in Bedford Co PA. Born on 9 Jan 1801 in Harrison Twp, Bedford Co PA, Samuel was living in 1880 in Bedford Co PA. They had the following children:
i. Hester (1830-)
ii. Hannah (1832-)
iii. Catherine (1834-)
iv. Elisabeth (1837-)
v. Mary (1838-)
vi. Josiah (1840-)
vii. Sarah H (1843-)
viii. Samuel (1845-)
ix. Martha E (1849-)
5. Michael (III) MOSER was born about 19 Aug 1811.
6. Sarah Ann MOSER was born on 27 Mar 1813 in Berks Co PA. She died in Somerset Co PA, on 8 Dec 1870. She was christened in Friedens Union Church, Albany Twp, Berks Co and confirmed in Lybarger Church on Dec 8, 1831. About 1840 she first married Lloyd DORSEY, son of William Cumming DORSEY & Mary BLACK, in PA. Born on 12 Mar 1813 in Somerset Co PA, Lloyd died in Somerset Co PA, on 3 Jun 1873. No record of a divirce has been found. They had one child:
i. Augustus (1841-1924)
About 1846 Sarah second married David COUGHENOUR who was born on 15 Apr 1801 in Somerset Co PA. They had the following children:
i. Mary (1847->1924)
ii. Christina (1849-<1924)
iii. Magdeline (>1850-)
iv. Michael (1854-1924)
7. Nathaniel MOSER was born on 25 Mar 1815 in Berks Co PA and died in Somerset Co PA, on 23 Mar 1857. In the 1840s, he married Catherine Ann FAIR. Born on 10 Mar 1822 in Allegheny Co MD, she died in Somerset Co PA, on 15 Nov 1905. They had the following children:
i. Mary Ellen (1846-)
ii. Anne Elizabeth (1848-)
iii. Martha Jane (1850-)
iv. Julian Ann (1852-)
v. William Nathaniel (1854-)
vi. Sarah Rebecca (1857-)
8. Abraham MOSER may have been born about 1816.[5]
9. William MOSER was born on 16 Feb 1817 in PA. William died in Somerset Co PA, on 8 Nov 1855. On 2 Apr 1847, he married Margaret Rebecca FINK in prob Somerset Co PA. She was born ca 1818 in PA. No children are known.
10. George MOSER was born on 20 Mar 1820 in PA and died in Somerset Co PA, on 4 Apr 1862. In the 1860 census, he was listed as blind and, along with his wife and son, was living with his nephew Augustus Dorsey. About 1838 when George was 17, he married Mary Ann WOLFORD, daughter of Johann Frederick WOLFORD & Anna KERR. She was born about 1822 in PA and was living in 1880 in Grant Twp, Osborne Co KS. They had one child:
i. William (1839-)
11. Barbara MOSER.
12. Polly MOSER.
The other young man in the 1830 census may have been:
David MOSER was born ca 1803, son of Michael and Eva (Bortz) Moser and a brother of Michael Jr, and died 19 May 1875 in Bedford Co PA. He married first Catherine –?– and second 11 Jun 1835 in Bedford Co, Elizabeth Smith. David was in a militia unit with Reuben in 1830.He and Catherine donated land where the first Lybarger Church was built. In 1850 he had an Elizabeth Caton, 18, in his home; this compares to 1860 when Augustus Dorsey had a Jane Caton, 17, living in his home.
©2008, Kathy Alvis Patterson
[1] I received a Family Group Sheet from Arliss Eilerts of Kansas, who had this data: born 13 Feb 1782 in Orwigsburg, W. Brunswick Twp, Berks [now Schuylkill] Co PA. I believe this is a different Michael Moser, son of Michael and Magdalena Catherine (Weinman) Moser.
[2] Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University, Kutztown PA, letter 7 Dec 2007 from Lucy Kern, Librarian. Children of Michael and Eva: Michael Moser, born ca 1782, Zion’s Lutheran Church, Lower Macungie Twp, in John T Humphrey, PA Births. Lehigh Co 1734-1800, p 193. Johann Heinrich, in Rev A S Leiby, Church Rec, Jordan Lutheran Church, So Whitehall Twp, Lehigh Co PA, 27. Magdalene and Elizabeth in Paul Buralli, Church Rec of the Schlosser’s or Union Reformed Church, Unionville. No Whitehall Twp, Lehigh Co PA, pp 53, 56. Margaretha, Daniel, Elisabeth, Esther, in Raymond E Hollenbach, Church Rec of the Schlosser’s or Union Reformed Church, Unionville. No Whitehall Twp, Lehigh Co PA, pp 2, 3, 4, 6. Esther was also in Leiby, 11. Michael Jr’s profession was in Donna R Irish, PA German Marriages, p 407.
[3] Dates are calculated from cemetery records. Fink Congregation, Southampton Twp. The listings below were recorded by the Rev Ben. Knepper in the Fink Congregation. Many of these persons are buried in the Fink Cemetery, some having no markers, according to John Getz. Moser George Apr 4 1862 42 0 26; Moser William Nov 10 1855 38 7 22; Moser, Mary Magdalena Jul 5 1858 78 6 2; Moser, Michael Aug 10 1859 77 5 4.
[4] It is remotely possible she was a Flickinger, since Augustus Dorsey’s son said his grandmother had that name; Maria Magdalena was this man’s great-grandmother. I do not care much for the statement that her name was anglicized in 1850 from Maria Magdalena to Margaret; too many sisters had these two names which show that they were considered different. It is more reasonable that the census taker wrote what he wanted to.
[5] I doubt he was the Abraham of Northampton Co PA. Ancestry.com places this man in Michael and Maria Magdalena’s family, but ignores other nearby Mosers, who were probably his close relatives.
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