Moses' Legacy

The winter of 1816 was not only one of the coldest in the history of the State of Maine but the U.S. Bank lead to a panic and an economic depression had ensued, putting many people in the small community where Moses was born, into bancruptcy. It was a time of crisis and despair when Moses came into this world as the fifth child, the second to survive, and the first son born to his father, Aaron.

During that time, Aaron had been fortunate he did not own a business, like some of the more powerful families around him whose lives and fortunes crumbled in a matter of days. He was a common farmer, with an apple orchard and land which set upon the banks of the Kennebec. He had the resources that could sustain and feed his family during difficult times and he had learned from his father how to face adversity, which like many of his time had also experienced it as a child.

Feeling compassion for his less fortunate neighbors, the manwho was listed on the censuses as a "free man of color" was able to employ them to assist him in developing his own special, hearty breed of Durham cattle which had become quite popular throughout the state. Though not wealthy in his own right, he felt a responsibility toward charity and together he and others assisted the least fortunate in the community in surviving.

Aaron's eldest son learned to hunt and fish, as well as farm. His mother, a woman of stature with her Pilgrim heritage insisted on manners, presenting one's self in a dignified manner and to not only be educated but to value education.

Days were long, with morning chores prior to going to school, long days at school and then evening chores at home. His father instilled a strong work ethic within his children, as well as a strong sense of social consciousness.

Maine was set far north above the Mason Dixon line. South of that line slavery was a very strong institution. Enroute to Canada, runaway slaves often fled and through his small community, only to be pursued by bounty hunters who were not discrimant in whom they apprehended and took to the South, into bondage.

Fortunately, Aaron and his family were insulated from the cruel, criminal acts of the bounty hunters by a compassionate group of neighbors who viewed them, despite their color, as peers and valuable members of the community. Despite this, Aaron felt the chill which was sweeping through the nation as debates regarding slavery were echoing through the newly found nation. The spirited and often heated and violent debate, fueled by new found and publicly vocal abolitionists instilled fear for his children's future should slavery prevail. Despite his love and desire to have his children remain at home, he knew he had to raise them to be independent and to find their own way into the world, to a place where they could begin their lives, not as men of color, but simply men of character. He taught them to survive, not only within the safe confines of the Maine community, but within the world beyond.

Thus, at the age of eighteen, Moses left home, armed with a handwritten family history which had lovingly prepared by his mother, a Bible given him by his father and a small sack of his belongings. He headed to Massachusetts where slavery had been outlawed in 1783, at the end of the Revolutionary War. There, he attended an apprentice to learn to be a carpenter.

By the age of twenty, upon completing his apprenticeship, Moses traveled to Columbus, Ohio, which was a boom town for carpenters with experience in constructing homes. In 1838, at the age of twenty, he met and married a young woman who was orphaned at a young age and had been placed into guardianship. After aquiring enough money to buy property, they set out with their infant child, David, to pioneer and settle in the frontier of Iowa.

Like his father who had settled the frontier of Maine and his grandfathers who had settled the frontier of Masschusetts, times were difficult, though Moses had been prepared for this, knowing the stories of their trials and armed with the skills which he had been taught by his own father.

The first year was wretched, a time of grueling toil and hardship, both indoors and out. Fields had to be created from a thick wilderness for the next year's crop, rails split and fences built, to keep out wild game and other folk's stock, which all ran at large. The ground, after being grubbed and cleared, was plowed with four yoke teams, with large plow attached to the front wheels of a wagon. No machinery was at hand, as is available today, to prepare the ground for the seed, which entailed much hard hand labor. To make rows for planting the corn, the fields were marked both ways, with a single shovel plow, the corn being dropped in the intersections, and covered with a hoe. Later a "skip jack' was used for covering purposes. Men planted corn in tough sod, using a long handled hatchet to chop a hole into the soil, and dropping the corn into the hole, covering it with his foot.

Trading and buying was in a primitive state. Money was scarce, so settlers had to trade something they had produced for additional food and clothing. Markets were far distant, entailing long trips to trading points, with much exposure in bad weather. Most of the clothing was hand made in the homes. The wool, as it came from the sheep, was scoured, dried, picked and made into rolls, by the ladies of the family, ready for the spinning wheel. When spun into yarn, it was warped and woven into cloth, on the hand looms, and made into clothing for the various members of the family. Flax was raised, rotted, broken, scrunched, releasing the fiber, which was converted into thread on the little spinning wheel, and made into summer clothing. All the wives and daughters knew how to perform all these operations. Just how they could find time for it all, I do not know, but they did and children were always warmly clothed, albeit not clad in what you might call fancy garments.

The winters were grueling and his wife didn't survive the first. He was left alone within a strange place, with a child he had to care for. The cost of receipt of a letter was twenty five cents, a luxury to be able to afford. Many settlers asked their families back east not to write, as they couldn't afford the cost.

His neighbors were not better off. One of the first the funeral processions in his community was on horseback, due to the conditions of the road. A farmer lost a little child. There were but two people in the procession, the father-in-law, with the tiny homemade casket carried on his horse, and the father following. No one was in the cemetery to assist them. Iowa was a frontier that wasn't established and each was left on their own to fend for themselves.

Around 1845, he moved to Platte County, Missouri with a new wife and his child. There, he worked as a Sheriff for a while and witnessed the outright violence and discrimination against those of color. Not able to adjust to the mindset of those in Missouri, he headed to Wisconsin to work in the logging camps.

To add to his difficulties in surviving, his marriage with his wife did not work out. He was left with a young son and the demands of twelve to sixteen hour days in the Wisconsin wilderness. Feeling the camps were too rugged for his son, who he felt needed stability, he boarded him with a family on a Wisconsin farm while he tried to save enough to make a good life for him.

In 1851, he moved to Illinois, where he was able to purchase a home in a small town which was located at the site of a proposed railway. There, he was able to make a living building homes. He met a woman who, like his own family, was a staunch Congregationalist. Together, they started the first Congregational Church in that community with individuals who were abolitionists.

Moses became a Deacon and a central figure within the Church. Meetings were held at his home, on the upper floor, which also served as a school for his community. With his own hands, he built a new church for the community. He also was involved with a reunion with old friends from Maine who had also moved to Illinois and they shared a common interest.

Most of the most radical abolitionists of that time, within Illinois, had come from Moses' small community in Maine. He had grown up with them and worked with them side by side, in school and within the fields. His father, during a difficult time, had keep those families suriving and the community together. And the children of those families had also learned from their parents, as Moses' generations of fathers had, that each generation was to rise higher than the next. One of those sons, a staunch abolitionist and a publisher had been murdered by slavery advocates in Illinois. Another had become a state senator within Illinois.

Moses worked with the underground railroad in assisting fleeing slaves get to Canada and up North, as well as stood firm in his beliefs against slavery. While Abraham Lincoln was getting recognized as a circuit lawyer and a politician, he often visited Moses' church and was hosted by the family.

Moses was a staunch Republican, standing behind Lincoln. He watched his only son enlist in the 13th United States Infantry, to fight with General Sherman in Mississippi and worked to support the troops and the cause against slavery. After slavery was abolished and his city was urbanized, he and his wife moved for a short time to Olathe, Kansas, where his son had married and was living, then onward to pioneer the Oregon frontier.

At the age of eighty-two, he was listed on the Oregon census as a "logger" still working and owning a home with his wife. In 1901, his son died young, as a result of a long, ongoing disease he had contracted while fighting in the Civil War. Within three months of his death, Moses, himself passed away, to join his son.

Moses made a difference in the world and within our country, as we know it today. He made sacrifices not only to continue generations into this country, but to better the conditions of his fellow country men and a democracy that recognizes all men as being equal. He stood tall and firm in his convictions and faced adversity at its face. Moses' legacy was his leadership to a community, his strength in standing up for his beliefs despite the dangers involved and raising a child that would pass those values down through the generations. Moses helped bring freedom to those who were not free.