JAMES MOSLANDER
Page 543
JAMES MOSLANDER
Page 543
|
JAMES MOSLANDER. This gentleman may truly be called a self-made man, as will be seen by the perusal of his history. He occupies a finely improved farm on section 10, Salt Creek Township, Mason County, and ranks among the highly respected citizens of the county by reason of his intelligence and sterling character. He is an enterprising farmer, prudently changing the crops in order to keep up the fertility of the soil, and devoting the greater amount of his land to grain without neglecting other articles of produce. Our subject was born in Cape May County, N. J., November 16, 1834, and is the son of James Moslander, also a native of that county, where his birth occurred in 1794. He spent the years of his life until 1840 in New Jersey, and that year coming west to Illinois located in Sangamon County, whence he afterward removed to Menard County. After a residence in the latter place of a year the father came to this county and made location in Leeses Grove, where he purchased property for which he paid $1.25 per acre. He erected a log house on the new land and worked hard to place it under cultivation. He lived here until his decease, which occurred in April, 1849, when in his fifty-fifth year. His father, Abram Moslander, is supposed to have been born in Long Island and was of German descent. Mrs. Elizabeth (Evans) Moslander was born, reared and married in New Jersey and was the daughter of David Evans. James, of this sketch, was the third in order of birth in the parental family, and was six years of age when he was brought by his parents to this state. After their location in this county he carried on his studies in a log schoolhouse in Salt Creek Township. During vacation he assisted in performing the farm duties and remained at home until his marriage, which event was celebrated March 31, 1859, when Miss Eliza Shay became his wife. Mrs. Moslander was born in Luzerne County, Pa., November 19, 1840. She came to this county in company with her mother and step-father when fifteen years of age, and here met and married our subject. Soon after his marriage James Moslander located on a farm in Salt Creek Township, which he operated with good success for six years. In 1866 he purchased his present estate of one hundred and twenty acres, when it bore but few improvements. It is now thoroughly tilled, improved in every part, and is made more valuable by the erection of good and favorably located buildings. To our subject and his wife have been born eleven children, all of whom are deceased with the exception of two. They are: Alpheus P., born in 1869, and Arthur F., who was born in 1880. The former was married in 1891 to Miss Ellen B. Bennett, of Menard County, where they now reside; they have one child, Harmon. Those deceased are: Charles L., who died in 1864, as did also George W, and Sarah E.; James and Christine departed this life in 1868, and John F. in 1874. Three died unnamed. In politics Mr. Moslander gives his allegiance to the Republican party. He has never sought office, but at the solicitation of his fellow-citizens he has at different times occupied the positions of School Director and Commissioner of Highways. With his wife he is an active member of the Methodist Epicopal Church, in which he has been Trustee and Steward. Mrs. Moslander is the youngest of thirteen children born to her parents, ten of whom grew to manhood and womanhood. She was seven years of age when her father, Samuel Shay, died. He was born July 10, 1797, and died in 1833. He was a native of New York, while her mother, Mrs. Sarah (Fowler) Shay, was born February 29, 1800, in New Jersey, and died in Wisconsin in 1868. |