Mahla D. Peters Moffitt 1813-1900

MOFFITT, MOFFET, PETERS, CASE

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 4/24/2011 at 14:13:38

The following article was reprinted for her obituary when she died February 19th, 1900, at 10 o’clock p.m., aged 86 years, 6 months and 12 days. (Emmet County Republican, Estherville, IA, March 8, 1900)

Celebrated her Eighty-Fifth Birthday
On the 7th of August a few friends met at the home of Augusta Case living east of town to celebrate the 85th birthday of Mrs. Mahale Peters Moffet, mother of Mrs. Case. Mahale Peters was born in Washington county, Ky., August 7, 1813. At the age of seven she moved with her parents to Sangamore county, Illinois, where she was reared to womanhood and where she was united in marriage to Geo. Moffet in 1835. Soon after her marriage she moved with her husband to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, which at that time contained but one log cabin and was almost entirely surrounded by Indians. For six months she was the only white woman in Mt. Pleasant. After two years she moved to a farm in Jefferson county, near Glasgow, where she remained until 1856. While there seven children were born to them, four dying in childhood, one son now living in Colorado, one daughter living in Kansas and Mrs. Case living in Emmet county with whom Mrs. Moffet has made her home for a number of years. In 1856 they emigrated to Macon county, Mo., where they remained until 1862 when, on account of the war, it became unsafe for them, being Union people, to remain longer. They returned to Jefferson county, Iowa, and again located on a farm. Here he husband died Nov. 25, 1865. Until 1892 she remained on the same farm with her daughter, Mrs. Case, with whom she moved to Emmet county in that year.

Mrs. Moffet has retained all her faculties and is much more active and enjoys much better health than could be expected of one of her years. She remembers meeting Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas and remembers Peter Cartwright who frequently preached at her father’s home.

A very pleasant day was spent, the writer being acquainted with her for forty-three years, when the friends departed wishing her many more pleasant anniversaries. W. A. Barton (Emmet County Republican, Estherville, IA, August 11, 1898)