Our Great-grandfather, Moses Blood

Above is a picture of the funeral card - evidently used in place of a program for those attending the funeral.  

The information about our great-grandfather, Moses Blood, father of Roscoe Marion Blood comes from our second cousin, Betty Sullivan, who has done a great deal of research on our Blood line.

Moses was the grandson of the first Moses, pioneer from Vermont, was born in Flora Township south of Belvidere, ILL.  He grew up on the family farm about three miles south and one west of Charles City, Iowa schools, and went into town to an old stone school building.

   

Young Moses, the grandson of the pioneer from VT, was b. while the family still lived in Flora Township, south of Belvidere. But he would have been too young to start school until they arrived in Charles City, IA.

He grew up on the family farm, about three miles south and one west of Charles City schools then were pretty modern in Floyd County. There were no one-room school houses. He went clear into town to school in the old, stone building that was blown down in the terrible tornado in the 1930's, which changed the whole look of the downtown.

When he was a young man helping his dad farm, Sarah  Batty HAWKINS bought land right across the road from them, and they were married in 1870. They had four children but the first baby died shortly after birth. So Mabel Clare BLOOD was their only girl, and they also had three boys. They had a nice farmhouse and outbuildings, still standing in 1997, but by then in pretty bad shape, as the ground had just been sold to a quarry, and the people renting were obviously very poor and uncaring about the looks of the place.

Moses and Sarah lived on the east side of the river, about five miles from town. When Moses was just 45-years old, he had a bad accident in the woods, followed by a long illness, and died, leaving Sarah and her four children. When he died, the farm was foreclosed for back taxes, and so Sarah and the children moved to town. He is buried in Riverside Cemetery, Charles City, IA., but there is no marker. (Source: "Riverside Cemetery Records", Charles City; "History of Floyd Co", (1893), p. 393; Personal Knowledge from Father and Grandmother & three visits to Charles City to see land, get land records, take photos, etc.).