Mat. C. Moseley, Rapides Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker

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Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890

     MAT. C. MOSELEY, attorney at law, of Alexandria, La.  It can not be
expected, in a work of this kind, where but brief biographical sketches of
prominent citizens of the parish are presented, that a lengthy laudatory
article of each one should be written, and yet at times there are some who
have been so intimately and closely identified with the parish, and whose
names are so familiar to all that it is only just to dwell upon what they
have done, and the influence of their career upon others, not as empty
words of praise, but the plain statement of a still plainer truth.  Mr.
Moseley, who is a talented young lawyer of this section, is one of these
gentlemen.  He was born near Cedartown, in Polk County, Ga., January , ,
and, although his father died when he was young, his mother was an
intelligent and accomplished woman, and possessing sufficient means, wisely
kept her son at school, giving him the advantages of some of the finest
educational institutions of which the State of Georgia could boast.  Until
he attained his seventeenth year he remained in his native State, but at
that time he came to Louisiana, and has since prominently identified
himself with the State of his adoption.  After coming to this State he
taught school for a short time in Webster Parish, but the following year
commenced the study of law in the office of that eminent jurist, Judge A.
B. George, of Minden, La., and after three years of faithful study was
thoroughly fitted to be admitted to the bar.  Owing to the fact that
Louisiana did not allow a license before one had attained his majority, Mr.
Moseley was advised by his distinguished preceptor to review and further
perfect himself in his studies, which advice he faithfully followed, after
which he took a. course of lectures in the law department of the University
of Louisiana, at New Orleans, from which institution he was graduated with
the degree of LL. B., in 1874.  During this time he received the
inestimable benefit of the library and council of Hon. E. John Ellis.
After graduating, with the independence that he had ever characterized his
actions through life, he returned to Minden, opened a law office, and
there, amidst able and experienced competition, he passed through the
hardest ordeals incident to a lawyer's life, ordeals that would have
discouraged a less indomitable will.  With him a resolution once formed is
a fixture, and he kept steadily at his desk, and in the management of the
cases that came in his way, showed such a high order of talent and ability
that he soon won a widespread reputation, and is now enjoying the reward of
his close application and the diligent pursuit of his studies.  While in
this place he became distinguished by winning some very difficult and
intricate cases, handling them with ease, grace and power, and made his
case perceptible and plain to the most ordinary understanding by his
smooth, logical and convincing reasoning.  He is an eloquent and pleasing
orator, and won golden opinions for himself in the estimation of all by the
delivery of one of the most ornate and brilliant speeches ever given in the
town of Minden, on the occasion of a Knights of Pythias celebration.  After
remaining in Minden until 1883, he became possessed of a desire to seek a
more lucrative field for his labors, and accordingly came to Alexandria,
where he has since made his home, and here, as at Minden, has made a
reputation for ability, zeal and earnestness.  His success in several cases
of homicide is well known to most of the residents of the State, and in the
management of other important cases he has been very successful.  At
present he is one of the attorneys for the Texas & Pacific Railroad
Company, but does not confine himself alone to railroad cases, enjoying a
large practice at several bars.  He has held only one office, that of
attorney, for Webster Parish, to which position he was appointed in 1877,
by Gov. Francis T. Nicholls, in the discharge of which duties his usual
zeal and earnestness were brought to bear.  In appearance Mr. Moseley
possesses a fine physique and is handsome and distinguished.  He comes of
one of the most brilliant families of Georgia, two of his maternal uncles
achieving distinction in the world of letters, Richard Malcolm Johnson, now
of Baltimore, Md., being the author of the life of Alexander H. Stephens.
His paternal uncles also acquired a name and fame in the literary world,
his father also possessing a deep and scholarly mind.  His manners are easy
and engaging, and this, coupled with a mind of undoubted brilliancy, and
with unquestioned integrity and strict morality, nothing seems to be
wanting to make his life a brilliant success in legal, political or social
circles.  His father, Hon. Benjamin Thomas Moseley, was born in Green
County, Ga., and there, in later years, became a member of the bar.  He
graduated from the University of Georgia, at Athens, and also graduated in
law from the University of Virginia.  For a number of years, during the
latter part of his life, he abandoned law and accepted a professorship at
Covington, Ga., and filled the chair of mathematics for several years with
distinction.  While practicing law in Greensboro, Greene County, Ga., he
was chosen to represent the citizens of that county in the General Assembly
of the State, and proved himself a capable, zealous and competent
legislator.  His father, Thomas Moseley, was a Virginian by birth, and a
planter by occupation.  The family are noted for their large statures,
hardy constitutions and strong will power.  Many became eminent in the
different professions.  The wife of the Hon. Benjamin T. Moseley, whose
maiden name was Mary Ann Callaway, was a Georgian by birth, and a daughter
of James Madison Callaway and Catherine Rebecca (Johnson) Callaway, an old
Georgian family.  Mrs. Moseley is now a resident of New Orleans, making her
home with a son, Dr. Benjamin T. Moseley, an eminent physician of that
city.  She is a true Christian in every sense of the word, and possesses
kind and pleasing manners.