John Wesley Moe
ID # 3, (1823-1904)
| Father | Henry Moe (-1839) |
| Mother | Teressa M. Coleman (1802-1894) |
| Birth | John Wesley Moe was born on 14 April 1823 at Dumfries Twp. |
| Marriage | He married Amelia Lawrason, daughter of John Purvis Lawrason and Amelia Simons, on 5 November 1847 at Dumfries Township. From The Marriage Registers of Upper Canada/Canada West, Vol. 13: Gord District 1842-1856. Compiled by Dan Walker & Fawne Stratford-Devai: Under marriages by Rev'd Whighting (Wesleyan Methodist) Minister (p. 116 & 117) John W. NIO (Moe) of Beverly, to Amelia Lawreson, of Dumfries. 5 Nov.1847. Rev Whighting. Wit. William Parsons and Sarah Shook. John W. Moe would have been born at St. George, Ontario, in DumfriesTownship, later South Dumfries. He was 24 at the time of his marriage. Just why John was living in Beverly at the time of his marriage isn't clear. Township assessments for Beverly, however, place his name against one of his father's half lots. This may be to ascribe ownership or he may actually have been residing there. His father was dead some eight years and his mother was remarried to Samuel Wait. They were living on a farm in the St. George area until at least 1851. In the 1851 census at South Dumfries, John Wesley Moe was living with his mother and Samuel. This was around the time of Amelia's death. |
| Marriage | He married Sophia Augusta Lawrason, daughter of Joseph Lawrason and Ann Jerusha Carpenter, on 24 November 1852 at Brides Residence, Dumfries Township, Gore Dist.. Information for the date and location of the marriage of John and Sophia is taken from a transcription of the Christian Guardian, Toronto, as it appears on 377 of Reid's Marriage Notices. The newspaper date is 15 December 1852. |
| Death | He died on 7 February 1904 at Toronto General Hospital at age 80. |
| Burial | He was buried on 8 February 1904 at Prospect Cemetery, Sec. 14, Lot 542, Toronto. |
| Note | John Wesley Moe's first wife, Amelia Lawrason, died October 1, 1851. For the 1851 census he appears at the Wait household in South Dumfries and his daughter 'Tressa' is with his sister Clarissa Parsons in Galt. According to Tressa's descendants, she was raised by her maternal grandfather and his second wife. The members of the Wait household appear elsewhere in this account. Within a year of Amelia's death, John married her first cousin Sophia Augusta Lawrason. By the time of the 1860 U.S census he is to be found with his second family in Ada, Kent Co., Michigan (near Grand Rapids). His first three children are on the scene by this time. In the 1881 Canadian census the family is at Charlottesville Twp., in Norfolk County, Ontario. Teressa and Samuel Wait are in Berlin in the 1861 census. John Wesley Moe isn't mentioned. He may still have been Ada, Michigan, as stated above, but Sophia Moe is staying in Berlin with the Waits as are her children: Charlie age 7; James age 6. There is no mention of Anne Jerusha who we know was on the scene by this time and who grew up to marry. Also in the household was Douglas Lawrason, Sophia's brother. The Moes and Douglas are shown as 'not members of the family', which apparently means not residing there. Sophia and her children are said to be living in the U.S. and Douglas Lawrason in Dumfries. In the 1891 census Sophia and her children are at Simcoe Town. John isn't with them and Sophia is listed as a widow. John was still living, however. He appears in the Toronto City directory in 1892 as an carpenter for the GTR (presumeably the Grand Trunk Railway). That this is him is likely since in 1898 he appears in the directory living with his son Charles. He doesn't show up again in the city directory until 1900 when he is described as an 'inmate' in the Home for Aged Men. He is listed there as late as the 1904 directory. His death registration says that he died on February 7, 1904, in Toronto General Hospital of Brights disease. His death registration number is 001500-04. According to information received from Mount Pleasant Cemeteries, John Wesley Moe is buried in Prospect Cemetery, Toronto, in Section 14, Lot 542. Prospect Cemetery's burial records indicate that John was buried there on February 8, 1904. Sophia's gravestone inscription states that she is the wife of John Wesley Moe, but it would appear that their relationship at the end wasn't a happy one. The 1881 census suggests that John Wesley Moe was born in 1825. The 1901 census says he was born April 14, 1823. Given the precise way it's dated the information was likely given by family members. The 1901 census is accepted here A visit was made to Prospect Cemetery on April 12, 2005 and it was found that no stone was installed for John. The burial plot was purchased by Charles H. Moe, John's oldest son. The area of the cemetery is a very old one. The lot markers have sunk. It was only possible to identify the approximate area where John is buried. According to Memorial 594 on microfilm GS1423 and dated 27 March 1855, which relates to the sales of Henry Moe's Beverly lands by the executors, Admiral Nelson Vrooman and Adam Misener, John Wesley Moe and his wife, Sophia Augusta, resided at the Village of Berlin where he was a livery stable keeper. |
Children of John Wesley Moe and Amelia Lawrason |
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Children of John Wesley Moe and Sophia Augusta Lawrason |
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| Last Edited | 15 Jun 2020 |