Joseph Moomaw (1816 - 1894)

Born 23 May 1816 in Daleville, Botetourt, Virginia, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Stover) Moomaw — married 23 Nov 1840 in Botetourt, Virginia, United States

Descendants

Died 21 Apr 1894 at age 77 in Amsterdam, Botetourt, Virginia, United States

Joseph Moomaw has German Roots.

This profile is part of the Muma Name Study.

Biography

Censuses

In 1850 Joseph, who was born in 1816, was a farmer in Botetourt County, Virginia, with $2844 in real estate. The 1850 agricultural schedule shows Joseph with 90 acres of improved land, 50 acres of unimproved land, $125 worth of farming implements, 4 horses, 5 milk cows, 10 other cattle, 19 sheep, 30 swine, livestock valued at $324, 230 bushels of wheat, 400 bushels of Indian corn, and 225 bushels of oats.

By 1860 he had increased his holdings to $5400 in real estate and $1300 in personal property. His mother, Catherine Snider Moomaw, widowed 13 years earlier, lived with him, his wife, and their 7 children.

By 1870, his mother had died and the rest of his twelve children had been born. Three of his seven sons had died (Edward at 11, Matthew at 4, and Charles at less than two months.) Also living with the family was 24-year-old, Laura F. Montgomery, who perhaps served as a servant but also attended school. By this time Joseph had $8,000 in real property, and $1200 in personal property. His 20-year-old son Coephus [sic., i.e., Cephas], who later became a self-taught lawyer and a judge, worked on the farm, as did his sons, George, 16, and Simon, 14, both of whom also attended school.

For a larger, clearer view of the census image below, click here.

Brothers and sisters

Of his four brothers and six sisters, one brother died in infancy, and another in 1852. One sister had died at age twelve. His brother Samuel (a farmer with nine children and $1400 in real estate in 1850) moved in 1848 by covered wagon from Virginia to South Bend, Indiana, with his wife and eleven of their eventual twelve children. Only his brother Benjamin Franklin still lived in Botetourt. "BF," as he was called, an extremely pious man, was also quite successful. In 1850 he reported ownership of real estate worth $10,000 and in 1860 of $25,500 and an additional $3500 in personal property. By 1870, he had $40,000 in real estate and $15,000 in personal property.

Joseph’s sister Susannah had married John Truxell, who died in 1850-1851 and was a farmer worth about $2700 in real property in 1850; sister Barbara was married to Jacob Peters (a farmer with $3312 in real property in 1850; real property valued at $12,000 and personal property at $3526 in 1860 and at $15,000 and $3000 respectively in 1870); sister Elizabeth was married to William B. King (a farmer with $673 of real estate in 1850; after a move to Tennessee he was a farmer with $2000 in real estate, and $1000 in personal property); sister Catherine had married Abraham Stover and moved with him to Ohio and on to Indiana, but had died in 1847; sister Ann had married Robert Denton, who was a carpenter with $971 in real estate in 1850, $3500 in 1860 plus $1260 in personal property, and by 1870 was a farmer worth $12,000 in real estate and $3000 in personal property and had a live-in farm worker and a live-in servant.

Children

Of Joseph’s four sons who were still living about 1875, the first-born, Calvin, who married his cousin Sarah Moomaw in 1866, was living in Delaware County, Indiana, with his growing family. The second, Cephas (b.1849), who married Sarah Elizabeth Manges in 1873, was well on his way toward becoming a successful lawyer and a leading attorney in Southwest Virginia, judge of the 20th Circuit Court of Virginia, and the popular mayor (1913-1915) of the booming young city of Roanoke. George, barely 20, and Simon, still in his teens (and with a bad foot and one leg much shorter than the other) were probably still at home, helping their father on the farm.

Of Joseph’s five daughters, two had married soon after the Civil War ended. Lucy moved with her new husband, farmer Lewis Joseph Hooke, (who had no property reported in the 1870 census) to Ohio (and would later move to Indiana) – she had had two of her eventual eight children; Maria Elizabeth had married Charles Elisha Pobst, a blacksmith of "Big Lick." Both girls were busy raising families. By 1874 Maria had already borne 5 of her eventual 13 children (though in the 1870s three of them died under the age of 3 of whooping cough and a fourth, a twin, died at birth). The other three girls, still in their early teens, were still at home, no doubt busy helping their mother with chickens, gardens, cooking, sewing, housework.

Church

As their children matured and moved away, Mary and Joseph found new interests, or spent more time with long-time interests. Joseph, a deacon in the Valley Meeting House, the principal Botetourt congregation of Dunkards (or German Baptists as they were now styling themselves), had always turned down requests to preach. He had a high regard for education and declared that he did not know enough to preach sermons. But he also had a high regard for Scripture and he was concerned that young Dunkards (perhaps including his own daughters) felt tempted to attend churches of other denominations, which had Sunday Schools for young people. Joseph bent Dunkard tradition in two ways that are still remembered. He began to teach a Sunday afternoon Bible class. Though open to all ages, it was aimed chiefly at young people. (From the Valley church the Sunday School movement spread throughout the district.) And he allowed his youngest child, Lillie, to join the church in her mid-teens. Never before had the Botetourt church admitted a non-adult to membership. In fact, Dunkards usually expected young people to be married before joining the church -- and hence, less likely to succumb to the wiles of the "devil."

Family

Joseph’s wife, Mary, always had a bent for nursing, both in caring for her own family and in looking after neighbors. After the last of their family reached maturity and left home she did what she loved best -- she served her church as "a leader upon Communion occasions" and was "first and most faithful at the bedside of the sick in the community."

At the turn of the decade came a spate of new marriages: George to Julia Bushong in 1879, Simon to 17-year-old Annie Slusser in 1881, Minerva (b. 1860) to William E. Thomas of Catawba in 1883, and Sarah (Sallie, b. 1857) to Benton Painter of Haymakertown in 1885. All of the men were farmers.

More marriages and more babies meant that Mary's services as a loving caretaker were more needed than ever. George fell ill a year after his marriage and died (within 3 days) in 1880, three months before the birth of his only child (Georgia). In June 1888 Simon lost his young wife Annie, age 25. That same summer a neighbor fell ill with typhoid, and Mary, trusting her own strong constitution, lent her services to his care.

But this time she was over-confident. For the first time in her life she fell ill and required the services of a physician. She had contracted typhoid fever. She did not recover.

Her husband's nephew, T.C. Denton, wrote the obituary. Mary was not quite 69 when, "from the bedside of the sick, . . . she took her bed to sleep in Jesus. She whiled away her last hours without a murmur. What a monument to Christianity! How consoling to her devoted husband and believing children to know they have a wife and affectionate mother waiting and watching for them over there."

At the time of Mary's death, only one child remained unmarried: Lillie, teaching in a nearby one-room school, was engaged to George W. Layman. They postponed their wedding to observe a year of mourning and plan for the changed circumstances. In the summer of 1889 Simon married Annie's cousin Sarah and moved his family to Indiana to farm. In January 1890 Lillie and George married and Joseph, now in his seventies, made his home with the newlyweds. In 1891 Maria moved closer home, to Cloverdale, where her husband had bought a farm for the family, and where Maria would run the farm and bring up the children alone. In 1892 she filed for divorce from her flagrantly unfaithful husband.

Last years

Actually, Joseph lived to see the birth of Lillie and George's first child, Louis Moomaw Layman, in February 1893, and to help observe his first birthday, and also to file for a divorce on Maria's behalf. Charles Pobst had gotten overly and very publicly involved with alcohol and other women in the raucous railroad village/town of Big Lick/Roanoke.

Joseph died of "old age" in April 1894, at the age of 78. The following September his oldest son, Calvin, died in Indiana, and Maria Pobst died a decade later. The other two boys and four girls died between 1915 and 1946.

Character

Though we have little recorded information of the character and temperament of Joseph and Mary Stover Moomaw, we can infer a great deal from the character and personality of their son Cephas, who died suddenly in 1915, while he was still mayor [of Roanoke]. The Roanoke Times described him as "a man of the utmost probity in public and private life," and commented on his "integrity and Christian character," his "kindly manner and genial humor," and his "courteous and considerate dealing with his business associates." [His law firm had handled the divorce proceedings for Mariah/Joseph.]

(Ironically, it was Mariah's first cousin John Crouse Moomaw who had been most instrumental in bringing the railroad up the Valley from Hagerstown, Maryland, to Big Lick -- and as Big Lick boomed so did houses of ill-repute -- also ironically it was the no-doubt nymphomaniac daughter of a good Brethren family from the Franklin County area with whom Charles Pobst was most prominently seen -- Charles was reported to have told his son that he liked both Mariah and Susannah (Peters Bryant??) but that Susannah was more fun. -- There is no indication that Susannah had borne 13 children -- or seen the death of 4 of them in infancy -- as had Mariah. Although he drank Charles was never physically abusive, but Mariah grew to fear he might become so.

Children

All of Joseph's children were born in Amsterdam, Botetourt County, Virginia.

1. Calvin Fabricius Moomaw, b. 13 October 1841.
2. Mariah Elizabeth Moomaw, b. 1 September 1843.
3. Lucy Ann Moomaw, b. 9 September 1845.
4. Edward Moomaw, b. 3 October 1847
5. Cephas Benjamin Moomaw, b. 23 October.
6. Matthew Henry Moomaw, b. 26 September 1851
7. George Stover Moomaw, b. 8 September 1853
8. Simon Joseph Moomaw, b. 8 August 1855.
9. Sarah Catherine Moomaw, b. 6 May 1857.
10. Charles William Moomaw, b. 13 April 1859
11. MinerVirginia Susan Moomaw, b. 22 August 1860.
12. Mary Lillie Moomaw, b. 22 March 1863.

Sources

Botetourt County. Court Orders, Deeds, Wills, Deaths, Marriages.

United States Census. 1850, 1860, 1870. Botetourt County, Virginia.

Pauline Layman Prickett Papers. Genealogical notes, family pictures, newspaper clippings, 1874-1988.

Patricia Prickett Hickin, Joseph Kinzie, Jr., Virginia Kinzie Visser. Recollections.

[Daleville Church of the Brethren]. Historical Sketches of Botetourt Congregation, 1851-1912. [Daleville, VA, 1912].

Denton, T.C. "Mary Moomaw," [obituary], Gospel Messenger, 1888, p670.

Fretz, A.J. A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of Henry Stauffer and other Stauffer Pioneers. Harleysville, PA, 1899. [a new, better, and more accurate account is Richard R. Weber, Stover Brethren: The Family of Elder William Stover of Antietam, 2001.]

Ikenberry, B.R. "Pobst, Maria E. Moomaw," Gospel Messenger, 1904, p431.

McMillan, Lucille R. and Katie Westman, Nine Roads from Cloverdale . . . Pobst . . . Moomaw. Baltimore, 1988.

Moomaw, Robert, compiler. Moomaw, Mumma, Mumaw , Mumaugh Genealogy. Houston, TX, 1990.

Mumma, Doug. Mumma Family Database. Website: www.mumma.org. 2000.

Sappington, Roger E. The Brethren in Virginia. Harrisonburg, VA, 1973.

Wanger, Geo., comp. Descendents of Rev. Jacob Price. Harrisburg, PA, 1926.

The Brethren Encyclopedia. 3 vols. Philadelphia, PA, 1983.