Answers from Glenette Forgea's Scrapbook: George Moseley and the Oldest House

Little did I know when I wrote my last post that some of the questions I had asked were answered in a scrapbook sitting right on the desk beside me! On Tuesday, I brought home a scrapbook from the historical society that was created by Mrs. Glenette Forgea - my great-grandmother's best friend - in the 1940s. The book covers nearly every subject in the history of the village, with much material taken from personal interviews and written correspondence with "old-timers." One of these old-timers was 90-year-old George Moseley.

Mrs. Forgea writes:

"From an interview with Mr. Moseley came the following interesting facts: He was a drummer-boy during the Civil War. He served in place of a member of the family to which he was a slave. He came to [the village] with a family named Gregory in 1871. He worked for H. W. Leonard and one of his memories is the draining of Kirby's Pond in 1888, which act destroyed the Optical Works, an industry employing many people throughout the surrounding country.

"It was the Silas Gregory family that brought Mr. Moseley here. This family lived in a house at the foot of Lundy Lane. Mrs. Charles Underhill of Yorktown Heights was born in this house. Mr. Moseley's wife was the cook at H. W. Leonard's. He and his wife adopted two children: Ruth A. Moseley who teaches music and David Turpeau, a minister."

Note that a "George Mozely" served in the 5th United States Colored Infantry Regiment, Company C. This may have been George Moseley.

Mrs. Forgea also illuminates the background on the "oldest house" in the village:

"According to an old resident the first house in [the village] was located on the east side of the Railroad Reservoir on Capt. Merritt's Hill just above the Gilbert Ganun building. This was on the Captain Merritt farm and was lived in at one time by Leander Sypher. The second house (still standing) was the house of Pat Malone, to the rear of Barney Tompkins's building and close to the railroad tracks. The third house was the Barney Tompkins's (Smith Hall) house. The fourth was built by David Moger and known also as the Dr. Miller house. It was originally located near the site of Bailey Department Store and had a white picket fence around its grounds."

The Moseleys

My last post featured this excerpt from a 1976 article about St. Mark's Church: "Efforts to locate the old rectory led (Mr. Hall's) sister, Catherine Hall Metz to recall that the site opposite the old church, where Conte's fishmarket now stands, was the home of a black family named Moseley who had been slaves before the Civil War. 'Mrs. Moseley,' Mrs. Metz remembered, 'taught piano to the Baldwins and others.'"

Sure enough, I found the Moseleys - or specifically a G. Moseley - living at that location in 1901. The Moseley house was sandwiched between St. Mark's Church and its parsonage, and would have had a lovely view of Kirby Pond before it was drained in 1888. G. Moseley still owned the property in the 1929-31 atlas. At this time it seemed that the house had been expanded, and a corner of the property now belonged to R. Moseley.

New Castle Corners 1901

New Castle Corners 1929-31

Looking into the census, I was able to identify George Moseley, the landowner, and his daughter Ruth Moseley, the piano teacher, in 1940. George's place of birth is given as Delaware, which was indeed a slave state at the time of his birth circa 1850 (that was only 23 years after slavery was abolished in New York State). You can see that each person's level of education was noted in this census. Ruth's was "C-2" (two years of college) while her father's was "0" (meaning no formal education). Viola Brice, age 19, was the Moseleys' maid, a native of Florida.

1940 US Federal Census of New Castle

I was also able to find the Moseleys mentioned a few times in the local paper. In 1932, the Recorder noted: "Miss Ruth Moseley, well known pianist of [the village], was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. William F. Kingsland of 30 Mechanics avenue last Saturday." In the 1930 census, William Kingsland, who was a mailman, his wife Carrie, and their 12-year-old daughter Esther were living at 30 Mechanics Avenue in Tarrytown.

The 1930 census shows that Ruth Moseley was born in New York, while both of her parents were born in Delaware. It also indicates that George was married for the first time at the age of fourteen, and indicates that he could neither read nor write.

1930 US Federal Census of New Castle

In the 1925 New York State Census, a family of Stevenses and one servant, Albertine Appo, were living with George and Ruth. This was the first census (going backward) in which George, then 75, was listed as having an occupation: "general laborer."

1925 New York State Census of New Castle

The 1910 census is the first (going backward) in which George's wife Annie appears. Like George, she and her parents were born in Delaware; also like George, she could neither read nor write. They were recorded having been married for 32 years (circa 1878). Annie was the mother of one child, which one would assume would be Ruth, but this will come into question later on. Eliott McMaster, a Scottish hired man, lived with them.

1910 US Federal Census of New Castle

The 1900 census gives more specific information about George's and Annie's dates of birth: George in March 1855, and Annie in August 1856. Contradicting the 1910 census, George was said to have been born in Maryland and Annie in New York. Though Annie was still listed as the mother of one child, Ruth was not recorded in the census. Instead, David Turpeau, a minister born in Louisiana, was listed as George and Annie's son. They also had one boarder, Sarah Brown.

1900 US Federal Census of New Castle

On May 16, 1890, the local paper reported:

According to a notice from 1887, "Mr. Arctic DeVoe, from Savannah," a "young colored man who has been living in this village for the past three years" who had been "recently employed by Mr. J. H. Crane, the furniture dealer," was now working as a coachman for County Register J. O. Miller. The paper added, "'Art' is quite a nice young fellow, attends to his business, and is thoroughly reliable."

It is interesting to note that George Moseley also worked as a coachman at this time - for none other than Judge William H. Leonard (hero/villain of the Kirby Pond controversy). On February 3, 1888, the Recorder reported that George Moseley "has bought the house and lot known as the Jackson house, east of New Castle Corners, and now occupied by Mr. Benjamin Miller."

A year earlier, in August of 1887, Moseley saved a man from being killed on the railroad tracks (a fate that befell far too many others in the village). The man happened to be Marcus Dean, who is buried in the cemetery. It seems that Dean was not particularly grateful to Moseley, but that may be due to the fact that he was quite old and in poor health at that time (he died two years later at the age of 89). Dean's obituary notes that he was also blind, in addition to being deaf.

In the 1880 census, George and Annie were living by themselves in Bedford.

1880 US Federal Census of Bedford

A letter from Ruth Moseley to The Crisis (official newspaper of the NAACP) dated December 27, 1929, is held in the W.E.B. DuBois Collection at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Library. The letter requests information regarding "the John Wananabe Jr. Contest for musicians" and is signed Ruth A. Moseley.

That same year, the New York Age reported that Ruth Moseley and her students gathered books and toys to send to sick children at Harlem Hospital.

The book Breaking Barriers: An African-American Family and the Methodist Story elucidates David Turpeau's relationship to the Moseleys - apparently, George and Annie served as "surrogate parents" to David when he moved from Louisiana to New York. David, whose full name was David DeWitt Turpeau, married Ila Marshall and raised eight children in Ohio, where David served four terms in the State House of Representatives. In 1920, David and Ila christened their second youngest child Leontine Ruth after Ruth Moseley. In 1984, Leontine Ruth Turpeau Kelly became the first black (and second female) Methodist Bishop. She died on June 28, 2012.