Family history, Moreland

Rose Stetzel and Amos E. Moreland’s biography

(adapted from excerpt in Albright Family History, 1727-1977 by Elzora Stetzel Weston)

            These were two lovely Christian people. I remember this wedding at Grandmother Stetzel’s farm home just one-half mile west of the corner of U.S. Highway 71 and the county road that leads to Irwin [County F-24], on the south side of the road.

            I recall they stood in the parlor, Aunt Rose looking like a queen in her beautiful white gown, and Uncle Amos standing like a knight beside her.

            So much delicious food I had never seen, and my eyes were as large as saucers and my mouth watering to eat more than my stomach could hold.

            The welcome mat was always out at the home of Rose and Amos Moreland. They were loyal members of the Evangelical Church in Audubon that their parents had helped to build. I’ve heard Aunt Rose tell that it was one Sabbath morning when the Rev. Wendell preached on “Naomi” from the Old Testament that she dedicated the unborn child she carried to the Lord and, if the child was a girl, she would be called Naomi (and it was).

            Aunt Rose told me once that my mother taught her in school, and she was a good teacher.

            When Amos was growing up, he traveled in a covered wagon with his parents, William and Rebecca Moreland, from Iowa to Texas and back to Iowa within a few years’ time.

            The George and Catherine Stetzels founded a truly Christian home, as did the William and Rebecca Morelands. They and their children always were the backbone of the Evangelical Christian Church.

            Job Yaggy, a horseback-riding preacher for the Evangelical Association in Johnson County, had come to Audubon County and established a class a mile south of the Viola store, known as the Moreland School, and a class near George and Catherine Stetzels’, called Rose Hill. He later founded the Evangelical Church in Audubon.

            Rose Moreland resided at the Friendship Home in Audubon for several years, becoming totally blind [from glaucoma] two years or so before she died. She listened to her radio, keeping up with world, national, state and church affairs. She was a wonderful singer and sang from memory. She loved the gospel programs aired over KFGQ in Boone (1260 on the dial). She told me how she got blessed as she sang the grand old hymns.