Annie Oakley Foundation: Taking Aim Newsletter

Created 12/20/04
© The Annie Oakley Foundation
Updated 12/19/05

The Annie Oakley Foundation
P.O. Box 127
Greenville, Ohio 45331

Taking Aim Newsletter No. 14 Summer 2003

We Hope "Mosey" Ends the Debate

We have said so often and obviously it bears repeating as we gather new members who range in age from nine years to 94 years, we first want to educate. The last four biographers tried hard to "tell it like it was" but some couldn't resist telling some long-held beliefs. Old records are one thing. When that recorded material differs from "long-held beliefs," how do you reconcile the difference? Shirl Kasper's book, Annie Oakley, gave me the jolt I needed to get back to research. I had to go well beyond Kasper's amazing search that found Mauzy as the family name spelling.

Now, there's the search to determine the numbers of French and Germans who descended upon Northern Darke County. Obviously, it was a French man or woman who was the recorder of the 1860 Census who heard the Mosey name as a French person would. While I have not searched the demographics of the county, I doubt if the residents are identified by ethnicity or country of origin.

There is another factor that must be included in this strongly debated name spelling issue. That's the personality of Annie's ONLY brother, John. (There are references to Annie's brothers in countless stories written about her.) The earliest record of his preference of name spelling, was found in the early vital statistics volumes in county records. Consider the only mode of transportation available to the two youngest Mosey siblings, Hulda and John. To obtain a marriage license which was available only in the county seat, knowing my grampa's "I can, I will do that" manner, I can imagine how he would say, "I'll get the licenses" and off he'd go on a horse or in a horse drawn buggy to Greenville leaving his youngest full sister Hulda to prepare for their dual wedding in March, 1884.

Mosey is recorded in the family Bible that rests in the Annie Oakley Room of the county Historical Museum.

Mosey is chiseled in granite in the tombstone of Jacob Mosey, Annie's father, and three of Annie's sisters, buried alongside with their names on the same stone. His military record is given as, Jacob Mosey, and that's good enough for me.

Long before I moved back to Ohio I had searched endlessly for Jacob Moses in microfilmed Morman Church Genealogy files and found hundreds of them -- none matched any other information I had. As I said earlier, in addition to educating, we wanted "Taking Aim" to be lighthearted and fun to read. We hoped to motivate young members to study History and enjoy it.