Johnston's of VA, KY & MO:Information about Thomas Benton Moss
Thomas Benton Moss (b. 24 November 1840, d. date unknown)
Notes for Thomas Benton Moss:
T. Benton Moss, Sheriff of Jefferson County in the year 1876, was born in Jefferson County, along Glaize Creek, on the 24th of November, 1840.He belonged to a family who were among the earliest settlers of this part of Missouri.His grandfather, Captain William Moss, was a Virginian, a soldier in the Revolutionary War, through which he served as captain, and gained the title by which he was always known.Captain Moss left Virginia, migrated to the West, and landed at Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, in the year 1795.Not long afterward he came to what is now Jefferson County, and made a permanent settlement on Sandy Creek, in Township 41-range 5.In 1798 he married Judy Thomas, the daughter of Captain Mark Thomas, who was then living in the American Bottom in Monroe County, Illinois.Before the marriage, it is related that Captain Moss swam the Mississippi River several times in order to pay his attentions to the lady in question, till at last Miss Thomas became Mrs. Captain Moss.Miss Thomas was born in Kentucky.Her father, Captain Mark Thomas, built the forts at Louisville, Kentucky, and was also an early settler in Illinois.
The oldest child of this marriage was Thomas Moss, who became the father of the subject of this sketch.His birth occurred in the year 1799, at Harrisonville, in Monroe County, Illinois.At the age of two years he was brought over the Mississippi River in a canoe, to Jefferson County, where he resided the remainder of his life.He married Eliza Smirls of this County.
Thomas Moss served in the Black Hawk War, and was captain in a force organized against the Indians under the command of that celebrated chief.He was a quiet and plain farmer, an unassuming citizen, and died, as he had lived, an honest man.His death took place on the 24th of August 1874.He had thirteen children, the seventh of whom was T. Benton Moss, whose name heads this sketch.
T. Benton Moss was raised on the Grand Glaize.At about the age of twenty he left home, and became a clerk in a store and postoffice at Sulphur Springs, at which place he took up residence.After about a year's connection with the store, he bought out a hotel, and for a time followed that business.He became Deputy Sheriff under Sheriff John Williams, in November 1870.He served two years as Deputy, and on the resignation of Williams, he was appointed Sheriff by the County Court.In November, 1872, he was elected to the same office by the people.In 1874 he was reelected.
He was married on the 13th of December, 1865, to Miss Octavia Boggess, of Galena, Illinois.Mr. Moss came honestly by his Democratic principles.His father was a Democrat, and voted for Andrew Jackson for President when only three votes were cast for Jackson in Jefferson County.Mr. Moss cast his first Presidential ballot for McClellan in 1864.
Though still a comparatively young man, Sheriff Moss had considerable influence throughout the County, seemed to have no enemies, and was known as a man reliable for his honesty and integrity of character.By his ancestry he was connected with men who, in their day and generation, were hardy and adventurous pioneers of this western country.Of the old Virginia stock, they belonged to the hardy class of men who, towards the close of the 1700's, left the settlements east of the Alleghenies to form the advance guard of civilization in the Mississippi Valley--one of his grandparents, as we have seen, erecting his cabin at Bear Grass, where afterward was built the Metropolis of Kentucky, and the other forming one of the first American settlements of Jefferson County in Missouri.Taken from Mary Joan Boyers, "Jefferson County, MO., in Story & Pictures."Published in 1956.
More About Thomas Benton Moss and Octavia Boggess:
Marriage: 13 December 1865
Children of Thomas Benton Moss and Octavia Boggess are:
- Eva Moss, b. Abt. 1867, d. date unknown.
- Freeman W. Moss, b. Abt. 10 October 1869, d. 31 July 1874, Sulpher Springs, Jefferson Co., MO.