Nobles County MN Archives Biographies.....Moberly, R. W. 1847 - 
************************************************

Copyright.  All rights reserved.

http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mn/mnfiles.htm

************************************************



File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com October 19, 2006, 6:47 pm

Author: Arthur P. Rose (1908)

  R. W. MOBERLY, now a resident of Oklahoma (postoffice address Chickasha,

Okla.,) was one of the earlier settlers of western Nobles county and spent the

best years of his life in this county, removing to the south in 1901.



  He was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, April 26, 1847. His father, Lewis B.

Moberly, was also a native of Kentucky and died in 1894. His mother, Susan

(Owen) Moberly. was born in Kentucky and died in 1864. The first seventeen years

of our subject's life were spent on his father's farm in Kentucky. During the

summer months he worked on the farm, and during the winter attended the district

schools. In the spring of 1864 his father sold the home place in Kentucky and

moved to Clay county, Ill. There R. W. Moberly worked on the farm until the fall

of 1866, when he entered the high school at Flora, Ill., of which school he was

a student for one year.



  After quitting school Mr. Moberly traveled for a patent medicine firm, which

work he was engaged in until the spring of 1868. Then he went to Quincy, 111.,

and in July, of the same year, he removed to Winona county, Minn. Four years

were spent in southeastern Minnesota. Summers he would engage in work on the

farm, and winters he taught school. These occupations were varied by occasional

trips down and up the Mississippi river, working in several different

localities. While in Winona county Mr. Moberly came in contact with the

literature of the National colony and he decided to cast his lot with those who

were booming the new country. He accordingly started for Worthington, arriving

in that frontier village May 23, 1872, shortly after the railroad trains began

making regular trips. He immediately filed a preemption claim to the southeast

quarter of section 14, township 102, range 42, then an unorganized township, now

the township of Olney. Accompanying Mr. Moberly was J. V. Bartow. These two

gentlemen entered their claims in the land office at Jackson on the same day,

and were the third and fourth to make filings in Olney township, being preceded

by S. D. Tinnes and Andrew Anderson.



  Mr. Moberly took an active part in the organization of the township in which

he had selected his home, and when the township was formed in July, 1873, he was

made the first town clerk. The township was first called Hebbard, later New

Haven, and finally the name Olney was selected, the name being suggested by Mr.

Moberly. For the first four or five years after settling in Nobles county Mr.

Moberly, in common with all the early settlers, suffered greatly from the

grasshoppers, seeing crop after crop destroyed by the pests. He spent the winter

of 1873-74 working in the woods near Minneapolis, he having suffered an almost

total failure in 1873. Again in 1874 he lost his entire crop, and. that winter

he and his family moved back to Winona county, where he engaged in school

teaching. They returned to the Nobles county farm in the spring of 1875 and

again fought with the hoppers for a portion of a crop. Mr. Moberly sold his

Olney farm in the spring of 1877 and removed to Westside township, taking a

homestead claim on section 10. He made final proof on his claim and lived there

until the fall of 1883, farming during the summer months and teaching school

during the winter months.



  In the fall of 1883 he sold his farm and moved to Adrian, taking employment

with his brother-in-law, James Cowin, in the grain and lumber business. He was

appointed deputy county treasurer by Captain William Wigham in February, 1884,

and that fall his family moved to Worthington. He held the deputyship two years.

Then, in 1886, he was elected county treasurer, being endorsed by both the

republican and democratic parties, his only opposition being a prohibition

candidate who .received 102 votes. He was nominated by the republicans in 1888

and was reelected by a big majority over both the democratic and prohibition

nominees, his principal opponent being H. C. Shepard. Again was he reelected

treasurer in 1890, defeating Mr. Shepard again. He was nominated for the same

office by the republicans in 1892, but was defeated by E. W. Goff, the

democratic nominee, by six votes. He was nominated by the republicans for county

auditor in 1894, and was defeated by J. J. Kendlen, the democratic and peoples

party nominee, by 36 votes. In addition to his service in the treasurer's office

Mr. Moberly served in an official capacity for several years in Olney and

Westside townships. He served as clerk of Olney from 1873 to 1877, with the

exception of one year. He was elected chairman of the board of supervisors of

Westside in 1877. The next year he was elected clerk, and held that office until

his removal to Adrian in 1883.



  To fill the unexpired term of postmaster of Worthington of Frank Lewis, Mr.

Moberly was made deputy in the spring of 1890, and served one year as acting

postmaster, Mr. Lewis having left the city. After his retirement from public

office Mr. Moberly entered into a partnership with A. C. Hedberg and engaged in

the real estate business in Worthington. For only a short time was the firm of

Hedberg & Moberly in existence; then Mr. Moberly engaged in farming in the

vicinity of Worthington. The hard times following the panic in 1893 caused Mr.

Moberly to meet with financial reverses, from which he was several years in

recovering.



  During the years 1899 and 1900 he was immigration agent for the Santa Fe road,

his work consisting in making up parties of immigrants from Nobles county bound

for Oklahoma. At the opening of the Kiowa and Commanche Indian reservation in

September, 1901, he secured a claim near Chickasha, I. T., the land being just

over the line in Oklahoma. There he engaged in farming and there he has since

made his home.



  Mr. Moberly was married at St. Charles, Minnesota, March 17, 1872, to Miss

Annie Campbell of St. Charles. She was of Scotch parentage, having been born at

Barry, Pike county, Ill., August 24, 1852. Both her parents died of cholera soon

after their arrival in America and the birth of Mrs. Moberly. Mrs. Moberly died

at Worthington June 193 1907. To Mr. and Mrs. Moberly were born six children, as

follows:. Susan M. (now Mrs. H. H. Smith), Stewart, Minn.; Lura C. (now Mrs. W.

C' Poland), Livermore, Cal.; Russell B., Worthington; Archie L., Worthington;

Maude (died in infancy); Mary D. (now Mrs. Thos. Moore), Chickasha, Oklahoma.



  Mr. Moberly is a member of the Baptist church of Worthington. He is also a

member of Worthington Lodge No. 65, A. O. U. W., having held the office of past

master workman of that lodge for many years.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:



AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NOBLES COUNTY

MINNESOTA

BY

ARTHUR P. ROSE



NORTHERN HISTORY PUBLISHING COMPANY 

WORTHINGTON, MINNESOTA 

PUBLISHERS

1908

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mn/nobles/bios/moberly48gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mnfiles/

File size: 7.3 Kb