Henry Moe
ID # 1, (-1839)
| Birth | Henry Moe was born at New York State. |
| Marriage | He married Teressa M. Coleman, daughter of John Coleman and Elizabeth Lawrason, at Likely Beverly Township, Dist. Of Gore, Ontario. |
| Death | He died on 22 October 1839 at Camden West Twp. |
| Note | The Hon. James Young, in his book about the Settlement of Galt and Dumfries, mentions Henry Moe as having a store at St. George. Henry was township clerk from 1827 to 1830, but was in Dumfries Township earlier, for he appears in the Dickson Papers (see MS5 reel 3, C1 Ledger A, page 99 Henry Moe, January 4, 1822, S1/2 lot 7/3rd 100 (the south half of lot 7 on the 3rd concession). Here is an excerpt from a local history compiled by St. George Women's Inst. of 1947. Henry Moe owned the first store in the village. It was a log structure stocked with a strange conglomeration of merchandise 'red herrings to tobacco plugs, barrels of pork and bales of dry goods. Under the counter stood a keg of whiskey'. Henry seems also to have operated a mill. There is a stream that passes under the highway to the south of St. George and the remains of masonry on the east side of the road are perhaps remnants of this mill. We can, however, also place Henry Moe in Beverly Township from a very early date. The Township Papers MS658 series of reels has a fine file on reel 37. This is for Concession three, lot 4 of Beverly. This lot was a Clergy Reserve and it seems that Kings College in Toronto was involved in the transaction. The lot was originally leased in 1811 to Daniel Perine and, later, his son James Perine was involved as well as a number of other early residents of Beverly. The document is of especial interest for family researchers for there are some fine handwriting samples. Henry Moe contributes at least one paragraph and possibly two in the transfer of the lease and these are dated from 1823 and 1826. The 1832 census and assessment for East Dumfries, MS700 reel 1 (apparently limited to persons and lots in Dumfries Township on the east side of the Grand River), shows Henry Moe on Concession 3, lot 8. With him is a Benjamin Moe. Elsewhere on the census appears Craig B. Moe. The census shows numbers of family members above and below the age of 16. We are left with no certainty, but the circumstantial evidence suggests that Benjamin was Henry's father and that Craig was his brother. Benjamin and Craig left Dumfries around the time Henry moved to Camden West Township (1839), but not all family members departed. Some records indicate that a Minerva Moe married Joshua Bradish. She apparently had one child and died young, however if she died in Ontario we do not know her place of burial. Joshua is said to have moved to Michigan. Amanda Moe unquestionably married James Perine. Their daughter Elizabeth married Conrad Misener and their son William Henry went by the surname of Prine and is buried in St. George Cemetery. Finally, it is believed that Elizabeth Moe married a Joshua Mulholland and that they were for a number of years in Blenheim Township in Oxford County. It is believed they had children, but that they died young. These three, so far as may be told, were Henry's sisters. Henry Moe owned in Beverly Township two contiguous half lots of 100 acres each on lots 4 and 5 of the second concession. The Abstract Indexes listing the transactions for these lots apparently show that they were sold by Kings College to Henry Moe, but the information on them is obviously incomplete. Henry Moe's will, referred to below, left these half lots to be sold when his youngest son reached age of majority and for the proceeds to be divided among all his children. It is possible that the title wasn't absolutely clear, for a faded document exists dated 1851 and apparently settling the matter with Teressa in exchange for a sum of money. The land was sold by Nelson Vrooman, one of the executors, and the beneficiaries in 1855. Henry's youngest child, Henrietta, was not married at the time, but married a few months later to Sylvester Smith. They were somehow able to obtain another 100 dollars from the purchaser of the property. How this was done is not at all clear on these faded documents. If dower rights entered into the equation, it's difficult to see how. We do not have a copy of the original will of Henry Moe. It does not appear in the main index of wills for Wentworth County, but is indexed in the F register and begins on page 355. (See reel GS225). The preamble states that Henry died on 22 October 1839 In Camden West Township in the Western District. This is not far from Chatham. He is described as an innkeeper and cannot have been in Camden West for very long. The text, which is copied into the register, indicates that he is sick and weak of body but of sound mind. The will is witnessed by George Stanton, Admiral N. Vrooman and Adam Misner. The will was not filed for probate in Wentworth County until 1842 and the executors are shown, at that time, as Teressa Wait (Henry's wife, now remarried to Samuel Wait), Admiral Nelson Vrooman and Adam Misner. The sale of Henry's Beverly lands is to be found in two documents, identical except that they relate to two different half lots. One of these documents is quite faded, but the other is clear. See GS1423, Memorial 594 on page 600. This excellent document names all of Henry's living children and shows his daughters by their married names. Places of residence are also shown. An added note: It is now found that Henry Moe did not go directly from St. George to Camden West. Henry did a small inventory of household goods for the estate of Andrew Van Every of West Flamborough. This is dated January 26, 1836, and locates him as an innkeeper in West Flamborough. This appears on microfilm MS638 reel 69. Henry's signature as it appears on this document matches his signature as it appears on other documents. Just where he resided in West Flamborough has yet to be determined. |
Children of Henry Moe and Teressa M. Coleman |
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| Last Edited | 21 Oct 2023 |