Charles Moser and Elizabeth

1900 U. S. Census

The 1900 Census almost provides more questions than answers. From this one document, we can conclude the following:

• Charles and Elizabeth are still living in the family home at 218 W. 6th Street in Covington.
• They have been married for 13 years.
• They got married in 1887, two years after the death of Francisca.
• Elizabeth claims to have had two children, only one of whom is still living.
• Charles was 47 and Elizabeth was 30 years old when they got married.
• Charles is listed as a naturalized citizen from Germany who came to the United States 35 years earlier.
• His occupation is listed as a "cabinet maker", but he has not worked during the previous two months.
  
• They have one child, Harry, who is listed as being born in September 1882. It would make sense that this was the one child Elizabeth mentions, but I know for a fact that her entire estate was willed to her son, John E. Smith -- so I'm confused.

By this time Anna was married to August VDH and they were already parents of one-year old Virginia. Her younger brother, Henry, would be 21 years old and is not listed as a member of this household.

I know from Aunt Evelyn's recollections that Anna ended up living with her grandparents next door. But there is ample evidence that her father was clearly in the court of his second wife. The fact that his first wife died of cirrhosis of the liver at age 39 leaving him with young children may say something about their marriage, but I found irrefutable evidence of the tension in the family because of a short article published in the newspaper.

Charles died of pneumonia February 1, 1915. Four days later, this short article was published in the Kentucky Times Star.

I couldn't help but try to find a copy of the will. Sure enough -- not only was Elizabeth the beneficiary of the entire estate, but the will includes this section:

If any one of my children should be dissatisfied or endeavor to contest this will, I direct that $5.00/100 Five Dollars shall be paid him or her for his or her share in my estate.

I guess no one contested the will, because upon Elizabeth's death from diabetes in 1925, Charles children finally got their "inheritance" -- if you believe they were only entitled to $25.

In Elizabeth's will, all of her estate was willed to her son John E. Smith of Ft. Thomas. (I've yet to figure out where John came from). Elizabeth's will included this section:

Item II. I give and bequeath to my three step-children, Fred Moser, Joe Moser, both of Chicago, Ill., and Anna Vonderheide of Wyoming, Ohio, twenty-five ($25.00) Dollars each.

Boy, am I underwhelmed. At least we know that by 1925, only three of the children of Charles and Francisca are still alive. I do not know what happened to the others.

Charles and his second wife, Elizabeth, are buried in marked graves at the Evergreen Cemetery in Southgate (Newport), Kentucky in Section 31. Here are pictures of their markers.

Cemetery Surprises

When I started doing research I had some underlying assumptions. For instance, if a grave marker said someone was buried there, I assumed that meant they were buried there. How naive! As stated earlier, Rachel Wainright Jones (Pop's Mom) is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Southgate, Kentucky. Interestingly there are grave markers on the plot for her father Britton, mother Mary Elizabeth, her brother Thomas, and her grandparents, Ruth and William Wainright. The people that run the cemetery office tried to help me out. They keep pretty good records. They told me that they had no record for the burial of William. They even had a sketch of the plot showing who was buried where -- still no record of William.



By the time I found Rachel, I had substantial information about her father, Britton. He had an interesting history I'll discuss in another posting. I knew he died "in defense of his country against the rebel John Morgan" of Morgan's Raiders fame. I knew he died of heatstroke near New Albany, Indiana in 1863. I had a copy of his Civil War Pension Index. I knew his widow, Mary Elizabeth, brought the family back to Cincinnati. I wondered how someone's body from the Civil War who died in Indiana made its way back to Cincinnati. The plot sketch says that Britton was buried in Evergreen in April, 1864 (a year after his death). I've read of families spending quite a bit of money to recover the bodies of their Civil War dead, but I wondered if Mary Elizabeth actually brought his body to Cincinnati when the family returned. The Cemetery Office could not locate a card for Britton in their file. But there was the grave marker -- spelling out all of the details about Britton's life.

Then there was William -- Rachel's grandfather. They had a record for the burial of Ruth, but not William. Again, William had a grave marker. Ruth was living with her daughter, Rachel Lusk, in Newport at the time of her death. Apparently, William and possibly Ruth had been living with another daughter in Athens, OH when William died. It wasn't until October 2008 that I was able to find William buried in the South Canaan Cemetery outside of Athens on the family plot owned by his daughter, Ann Eliza Broadwell. There was a wonderful verse engraved on his marker, yet his wife was not buried next to him when she died a few years later. Lesson number one: Sometimes it's not a grave marker, it's a memorial to a loved one they would have liked to be buried near.

Then there is the mystery of Charles Jones monument in the Walnut Hills Cemetery. I was fascinated from the first time I saw it. There was a symbol on the monument that referred to the "Golden Lodge" and "70". I've scanned in a copy so you can see the crossed swords, ivy, etc. I could not seem to identify a Golden Lodge.













A couple of years ago I found the Death Notice for Charles Henry. There was my answer! Again I found it interesting that the notice would acknowledge that he was a "Member of Golden Lodge, K. of P." but not mention that he was the father of Fred, Leo, and Edith. I guess Alwilda placed the Death Notice.

Further research allowed me to find out what the "K of P" was. It stands for the Knights of Phythias, a fraternal organization established by an Act of Congress in 1864. You can read more about the organization by following this link http://www.pythias.org/about/about.html The organization was devoted to international peace. If only their goals had been achieved. It gives me one more clue as to who Charles Henry was. He obviously valued friendship and service. Wish I could learn more.