Stephen Van Rensselaer Mosher, our paternal great-great grandfather, was born June 30, 1818, in Galway, Saratoga County, New York, the 7th of 12 children. His parents are Jeremiah Mosher (1782-1836) and Delana Haskins (1786-1859).
Stephen married Miranda Kingsley (1823-1856) in 1842 in Galway, NY. He was a farmer, then wagon and carriage maker. They lived in Dansville, NY and had four children, Newton Alphonzo (1844-1862) Marion Winslow (1848-1864), Lucy Delana (1852-1905) and Arthur A. (1855-1920). Miranda died in 1856.
In 1857 Stephen moved to Rockford, Illinois, leaving the children with their mother’s relatives in NY. Sons Newton and Marion both enlisted in the Union army to fight in the Civil War, Newton died in 1862 in St. Louis, Missouri of diarrhea, and Marion died in 1864 in Andersonville Prison, Georgia of scurvy. Daughter Lucy Delana moved to Shell Rock, Iowa in 1868 near her father in Waverly. She married in 1870 and later lived in Waterloo, where she died in 1905. Son Arthur A. married at the age of 49, lived in Rochester, NY and worked as a nurseryman.
In 1858 he married Ellen A. Miller Robbins (1833-1929), our paternal great-great grandmother, in Rockford, Illinois. Ellen was a widow from NY who had a six year old son, David Burt Robbins. In 1959 a son, Orson J. (1858-1916) was born in Pecatonica, IL, he is our paternal great-grandfather and Art Mosher’s father.
Stephen enlisted in the Pecatonica, IL Union Army on November 8, 1861, and was discharged in May of 1862 from Illinois US Calvary, Company A, Unit 12, as a private, for war injuries to the spine and left hip. A Sept. 15, 1862 Benefits Injury Claim was granted for $18. a month.
In 1867 the family moved to Waverly, Iowa, and in 1868 a son, Fred M. (1868-1930) was born. Stephen was working as a photographer and Ellen as a dress maker. In 1880 they were living in La Porte City, Iowa, and in 1885 living in Waterloo, Iowa. He had a photography studio on Commercial Street in Waterloo in the Robinson Building, and he and step-son David worked as photographers.
Stephen died on May 22, 1895 of cancer of the bowels, according to his obituary, which also noted “The deceased was a very pleasant gentleman to meet and leaves hosts of friends wherever he has resided, to mourn his death.”
Ellen lived with her sons, David and Fred, in Waterloo, until she died of pneumonia on March 22, 1929, at the age of 95. Ellen and Stephen are buried in a joint headstone at the Fairview Cemetery in Waterloo, Iowa
