Uncle Fed

OK, I admit it. I have a bit of a crush on 3rd great grand uncle Frederick "Fed" Moser. Maybe because he is the only one in the family I've been able to find information on because, well, he made some bad decisions. But I am still convinced he was a good man. He was the younger brother of my not so good 3rd great grandfather James P. Moser.

Fed was born in Chesterfield County, SC circa 1840 and raised in Lancaster County, SC, moving to Pickens, SC with his entire family around 1865. Some say he was never married but we know better. Some say he was a trouble maker but I think he was what we would call today a "free spirit". The last known existence I have of Fed is in 1884 when he was stabbed and hopefully survived. I am in touch with a descendant of the Moser Family in Pickens and in her family records it says Fed died in an abandoned house sitting by a fire to keep warm and his feet caught on fire. My poor Fed. It also says he was never married but we have a marriage record of Frederick to Ellen Adenie Ayers in Franklin County, GA, which is near upstate SC. He is also on the 1880 census with Ellen. And I met another cousin whose 2nd great grandmother was fathered by Fed and she believes they were married round 1869 but we have no proof. But her 2nd great grandmother knew who her father was, and her children did, as well. And this cousin connected to the family through DNA.

The family said he would steal to help the poor

Catherine Howard was not connected to Fed, just part of the news

 We do know the family was very poor, that few of them could read or write. We know they left Lancaster, SC, due to some trouble with a brother. I believe this was William Postell Moser and that he was hanged in Lancaster in the mid 1860's for horse thievery. Fed was a wanderer that could not seem to settle down. He was a thinker. He had three brothers that served as Confederates in the war, but there is no record of Fed in the war even though he was of age. 

Did Fed survive the stabbing? Did he die when his feet caught on fire? We may never know. The 1890 census was destroyed but apparently Fed didn't make it to the 1900.