Preston County, West Virginia Biography: Daniel MOSSER ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , March 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 130-131 DANIEL MOSSER. One favorable characteristic of the Mosser family represented by the venerable Daniel Mosser, a retired farmer at Clifton Mills, is strong attachment to the home environment in which the family have lived for a century or more. The Mossers have been sterling patriots in time of war, but in peace have chiefly devoted themselves to the land, its cultivation, and the duties of good local citizenship. Daniel Mosser is living today on the spot where he was born, September 21, 1837. His grandfather, Nicholas Mos- ser, was a native of Germany, and came to America in Colonial times, locating in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where the City of Lancaster now stands. He left there and moved on west to the vicinity of Selbysport, Maryland, where he died and was buried on the farm. The children of Nicholas Mosser were Nicholas, Chris, John. Mrs. Nancy Fike, Mrs. Elizabeth Teets and Mrs. Mollie Weimer. John Mosser, father of Daniel Mosser, was born in 1786, either in Germany or Pennsylvania. His early education was in the German language, but he spoke English well. He was a good business man, a successful farmer, and left a fair estate at his death. It was John Mosser who entered the land and made the first improvements on the place where his son, Daniel Mosser, now lives. John Mosser was a sol- dier in the War of 1812, and drew a pension from the Government for that service. He was a democrat and a member of the Presbyterian Church. His first wife was Elizabeth Maust. Her two children were Jonas and Cath- erine, the latter becoming the wife of Samuel Fulk. They spent their lives at Grantsville and Salisbury, Maryland. The second wife of John Mosser was Susan Frankhouser. Her father, Nicholas Frankhouser, was a native of Ger- many and settled first at Hagerstown, Maryland, and sub- sequently came to West Virginia, and lived out his life near Brandonville, where the widow of his grandson, Henry, now lives. Susan Frankhouser was born on that farm, and died about 1869. Her children were: Rebecca, who be- came the wife of Joseph Thomas and died in Fayette County, Pennsylvania; Ann, who was the wife of Barclay McCollum and died near Pisgah in Preston County; Henry, a blacksmith, who died in Fayette County; Joseph, whose home was at Dawson, Pennsylvania; Sallie, who became the wife of Augustine Wolfe and spent her life at Harmony Grove in Preston County; Polly, who was the wife of Isaac Moyer and died in Fayette County; John and Jacob, who moved out to Illinois and died in McDonough County; Susan, who became Mrs. John Summers and spent her life at Clifton Mills, where she is buried; Elizabeth, who was married to John Eaton, went to Iowa and is still living in the vicinity of Chariton; Daniel; and Samuel, who was killed while a Union soldier. The soldier representatives of the family were Samuel and Henry, and Henry was a pensioner. Daniel Mosser grew up on the home farm, was educated in the local schools, and for half a century, until the bur- den of years made him incapable, he continued the culti- vation and management of the homestead in Clifton Mills. He was a successful grain and stock farmer, and the Mos- ser farm of 128 acres lies on the east side of the Big Sandy. This farm is now the property of his son, L. Harry Mosser. Daniel Mosser has always voted at election times and is a member of the Methodist Church. He married Elizabeth Frances Frederick, a native of Eastern Virginia, daughter of Samuel and Rebecca (Der- flinger) Frederick. She was born in October, 1838, and died, August 9, 1885. Her children were: Samuel, of Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania; Linley Harrison, everywhere known as Harry Mosser; John, who died unmarried; Mat- tie, Mrs. J. J. Barnes, living at Morgantown; Lando Walter, of Vanderbilt, Pennsylvania; Dwight Roscoe, of Star Junc- tion, Pennsylvania; and Hampton Frederick, who died at Clifton Mills, leaving three children. The second wife of Daniel Mosser was Mary Virginia Wheeler, and she died in May, 1919, leaving no children. L. Harry Mosser, successor to his father's farming ac- tivities and to the ownership of the old homestead, which has been in the Mosser family through three generations, was born on that farm, February 1, 1865, and has spent all the fifty-five years of his life in the same locality. He was educated in the schools of Clifton Mills, and he is one of the sturdy and successful stock farmers in this section of Preston County. The residence in which he and his family reside was erected in 1873. May 2, 1886, Mr. Mosser married Miss Elizabeth Boger, daughter of John W. and Clarissa (Smith) Boger. Her father was born on the Boger farm near Brandonville, son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Myers) Boger. The Bogers were of German ancestry, and all of the name have been farm- ers. John W. Boger was a Union soldier in Captain Clay Hagans' Company, and died in 1867, at the age of thirty- three. He was survived by his widow until September, 1918, her death occurring when she was eighty-five. Mrs. Mos- ser was born December 16, 1858. Her two sisters are Mary Gatella, born April 10, 1860, who died as the wife of W. M. Collier, of Clifton Mills; and Barbara Ellen, corn January 13, 1862, now Mrs. L. H. Kelley, of Pair- chance, Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Harry Mosser had two children. Jessie Clara died March 20, 1920, leaving a daughter Helen Lucile by her marriage to J. M. Silbaugh. The only son, Harold Bay Mosser, died in 1896, when four years of age.