John and Ellen Moody
Images and notes from Joyce Duggan Autrey great granddaughter of John and Ellen Moody
Dear Bob,
I am Joyce Duggan Autrey. I live in Ketchikan, Alaska, though originally from Colorado. I had family that lived in Carbon, Wyoming in the 1890’s. This month I called the Saratoga museum and spoke with Sherry MacKay, who suggested to look up Hanna Museum. I’m so glad I did! Through Facebook I met Frances Kirby (Sherry and others at the Saratoga Museum know Frances) who lives in Saratoga and her Grandma lived in Carbon in 1895. I don’t know Frances’ Grandma’s name. I wrote Frances a letter in care of Sherry at the museum and hope to learn more. My Grandma was born in Carbon in 1892. I believe my Family may have lived there 1889 - 1896. I’ve studied quite a bit of your website, which is quite good and very informative. My great grandparents were John and Ellen Moody and ran the a general store in Carbon in that time era. My Grandma Pearl May Bell was born in 1892, a son John William Jr. 1893 died at birth ; buried at Carbon ( not listed in cemetery notes) and daughter Mary Etta 1894 was born in Carbon. I will send pictures in a separate email; two were from Carbon printed in an article about my grandma Pearl in the Platteville Herald Newspaper in Colorado, dated 1975. Pearl lived in Wyoming, Montana and mostly Colorado. I saw the undated photo of Carbon — I wonder if that was after the big 1890 fire — If you know or have any other photos of Carbon 1889- 1896 I would like to see them on the website - I’m still researching the site as well. Thank you for all your hard work !
Sincerely,
Joyce Autrey
More at: Ellen and John Moody Scrapbook
Life Story
1864: John Moody was born in Lonaconing, Maryland to Richard and Mary Jane (Gray) Moody.
1868: Coal was discovered at Town of Carbon Aka: Old Carbon and Carbon City
1868 June 30: The Union Pacific Railroad arrived at Carbon, Wyoming. Coal was now needed in great quantities to run the steam engines up and down the track. The great coal rush was on.
1872: Ellen Young was born in South Normanton, Derbyshire, England to Samuel and Ann (Bamford) Young.
1880: John Moody, age 16, was living in Pekin, Maryland with his parents, Richard and Mary Moody and was a coal miner by occupation. His father Richard was also listed as a coal miner. (1880 US Census)
1880: “As a youth John Moody discovered and opened a coal mine on his family farm in Maryland. The mine supplied the family coal for many years.” (Lyons Recorder Newspaper)
1888: The Wyoming Territorial Assembly sent the United States Congress a petition for admission to the Union.
1889: The Union Pacific Coal Company towns of Carbon and Hanna overlapped coal production for 13 years from 1889 to 1902.
1889 September 30: Wyoming approved the first state constitution to grant women in Carbon and Hanna the right to vote.
1890 June 19: A fierce fire broke out in Carbon and burned most of the business district to the ground. A few reports indicate the fire started in the Scranton House hotel where a guest knocked over a kerosene lamp. The fire fighters even tried dynamiting a few buildings in hopes of stopping the fire from spreading, but their efforts were not successful. Immediately after the fire, the people and businesses started rebuilding the town and new laws and ordinances were passed to help avoid such a thing from happening again.
1890 August 28: John and Ellen Moody were married in Carbon Wyoming, witnessed by George W. and Mrs Griffin. The minister was Daniel L Rader. (Joyce Duggan Autrey - From Family Bible)
In 1890: John and Ellen Moody, parents of Mrs. George (Pearl) Hildenbrant, are shown here in 1890. (Unusual photo for that time. The lady is seated.) They were married Aug. 28, 1890. Photo was made at Carbon, Wyo. There were 12 children in Mrs. Hildenbrandt's father's family and 10 in her mother's family. The couple had six children: Pearl, Marietta Moody Wells, who lived at Portland, Ore., Bertha Moody Ramey of Lyons, Charles, who lived at Central City and Edith Moody who remained at Hygiene. One son died in infancy. All are now deceased except Pearl and Bertha. John Moody was born at Lonaconing, Md. Ellen Young Moody was born in South Normanton, England, and came to the USA in 1880 when she was eight years old. Mrs. Hildenbrandt remembers her mother telling it took two weeks to come overseas. There was a terrible storm. A man died aboard the ship and was buried at sea. Mrs. Hildenbrandt's husband's mother was also born in Europe in Germany. She was Anna Bohlken before her marriage to Phillip Hildenbrandt. The latter was born in New York City. They were parent of eight children: Phillip, who lived at Platteville; George, who also lived at Platteville; John of Santa Rosa, Calif.; Henry of Eugene, Ore.; Eleanor Eby of Fort Collins; Junie Gammon of San Clemente, Calif.; Grace Jones of Rangely. All but Eleanor and June are deceased. The Willie Ebys once owned what is now part of the Norgren Farms. The Floyd Hildenbrandt's lived there at one time. (Platteville Herald via Joyce Duggan Autrey 2021)
John and Ellen (Young) Moody’s wedding certificate in their Bible. Married at Carbon, Wyoming August 28, 1890
1890 August 28: John and Ellen (Young) Moody’s wedding certificate in their Bible Married at Carbon, Wyoming.
1890: Wyoming’s population was 62,555 people, 6,857 of which were living in Carbon County.
1890 Nov. 12: William Moody, John Moody's brother married Hannah Mowbray in Carbon, Wyoming.
1891 January: An amazing story:
George Haywood came to Carbon by way of the mines in Rock Springs, Utah, and Como in Colorado in the space of four years, arriving about1886. He remained four years as superintendent, leaving the UP Coal Company in late 1890 to be a superintendent in the mines at Cambria. His wife, Annie, and children and Mr. Upton left to join him in January 1891. Haywood left his dog, a family pet for ten years, with John Moody for eight months and then had the pet shipped to Newcastle. The dog must not have liked his new home because he turned up back in Carbon two months later at the Moody house, having walked the entire distance. (Kinnaman's Book Carbon - The First Coal Town In Wyoming)
1892 March 16: Martha Moody, John Moody's sister married William Reed in Carbon, Wyoming.
1892: John Moody operated a general merchandise store in Carbon.
Unfortunately Pearl (Moody) Hildenbrandt [John Moody's daughter] doesn't show much in this old photo. She's inside the wicker baby carriage which can be seen through the doorway. The photo shows her father [John Moody] in front of the family general store in Carbon, Wyoming. The original of this photo is quite faded, but we'll do the best we can in reproducing it because it's so typical of the small "everything" stores common throughout the west in the 1890's The sign across the front of the store reads "Don't Go Home Until You See the Wonderful Bargains on our Counter." Sign by Moody's head says, "Good Lemon-50 cents", but we can't make out if that's each, a dozen, or what. Anyway, a good lemon in Wyo. in 1892 must have been quite a treat. Notice also the wood plank sidewalk, the closeness of the buildings, even though there must have been room to spare in those days. (Joyce Autrey, 2021)
1892 January 24: John Moody's daughter Pearl was born in Carbon, Wyoming.
1892 February 23: Pearl May Bell Moody, daughter of John and Ellen Moody was baptized in Carbon.
1900: John Moody and Ellen (Young) Moody were living in Black Hawk, Gilpin, Colorado. (US Census)
1902 June: All the mines at Carbon were abandoned. The salvageable mining equipment was removed from the mines and moved or sold to other mines in the area. The coal chutes for fueling trains were torn down. The railroad track from Carbon to the No. 7 Sand Creek mine was taken up and moved elsewhere.
1916 August 28: Pearl Moody married George William Hildenbrandt in Hygiene, Boulder Colorado. Pearl's wedding gown is in the Platteville, Colorado Museum.
Platteville Pioneer Museum Colorado, where our three family dresses are : Left - floor length - Joyce and sister Ginger’s dress made by Joyce and mother Ruth Hildenbrandt Duggan 1968, 1971 / Pearl Moody Hildenbrandt’s dress and sister Marietta Moody Wells’ with sash hanging in middle 1914,1916 / Right on model with brown hair, Ruth Hildenbrandt Duggan’s 1941 WWII War Bride dress. (From Joyce Duggan Autrey)
1938: Ellen (Young) Moody passed away in Hygiene, Boulder County, Colorado at the age of 65.
ELLEN YOUNG MOODY
Ellen Young Moody was born in South Normanton, Derbyshire, England, on October 29th, 1872, and died at her home in Hygiene, Colorado on January 23rd, 1938 at the age of 65 years, 2 months and 23 days. She accompanied her parents and brothers and sisters to America in 1881, the father, Samuel Young, having been favorably impressed by this new land. She grew to womanhood in Almy, Wyoming and was married to John Moody at Carbon, Wyoming on August 28th, 1890, later living in San Coulee, Montana, and Perigo, Colorado, from which place the family moved to Hygiene, Colorado in 1904. Six children were born to this union, one son dying in infancy. Mrs. Moody is survived by her beloved husband, John Moody, and five children, Mrs. Pearl Hildenbrandt, of Platteville, Colorado; Mrs. Marietta Wells, of Portland, Oregon; Mrs. Bertha Ramey and Charles Moody, of Lyons, Colorado, and Miss Edith Moody, of Denver, Colorado. Surviving brothers and sister who visited her in recent months are: John Young, Spokane, Washington; Mrs. Annie Crouchane and Mrs. Mary Nogle, of Idaho; Dr. William Young, of Wenatchee, Washington, and Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson, of Post falls, Idaho are present at this service. Another brother, Thomas Young, of Medford, Oregon and 9 grandchildren, also survive her. She was born and reared in a christian home, and early in life united with the Methodist Church, of which she was a faithful member. For a number of years she served on the Hygiene School Board.
Always interested in the activities of the church, her devotion to the Hygiene Ladies Aid Society was one of the outstanding characteristics of her life. None in sickness or distress failed to see her at their side. The keynote of her life was friendliness and helpfulness. As a wife and mother, she exemplified in the highest degree those sweet christian influences associated with home.
Having lived such a life, she continued steadfast in her Faith, throughout the long months of suffering in her affliction; always without murmur or complaint. In her last hours she told those about her bedside that she saw Jesus; that she was going home. She emphatically stated, “There is ONE GOD”, and to the end was submissive and happy. She peacefully breathed her last, as the first rose tints of dawn came streaming from the eastern sky on Sunday, January 23rd, 1938. Her husband, and all of her children, excepting Mrs. Wells, were present up until the time of her death; Mrs. Wells having been called home a few days previous, on account of illness in her own home in Portland. Ellen Young Moody was the mother of Pearl Hildenbrandt. (From Joyce Duggan Autrey)
1941: John Moody passed away in Hygiene, Boulder, Colorado at the age of 77.
- John and Ellen (Young) Moody had 6 children together:
- Pearl May Bell Moody (1892 - 1990) Born in Carbon
- John William Moody (1893 - 1893) Born 1893 and died after birth in Carbon, Wyoming
- Marietta Moody (1894 - 1971) Born in Carbon, Wyoming
- Emma Bertha Moody (1897- 1985) Born in Sand Coulee, Montana.
- Charles Richard Moody (1902 - 1970) Born in Perigo, Colorado.
- Edith Floy Moody (1908 - 1973) Born in Hygiene, Colorado.
1971 August 28: Joyce Duggan married John Autrey in Aurora, Colorado. Fifty-five years earlier, on August 28, 1916, Joyce's grandmother Pearl Moody married William Hildenbrandt in Hygiene, Colorado and eighty-one years earlier, on August 28, 1890, Joyce's great grandmother, Ellen Young married John Moody in Carbon, Wyoming. All married in the same month on the same day.
A story near and dear to my heart is the Wedding dates - 81 and 55 - years apart on August 28, 1890, August 28, 1916 and August 28, 1971 for my husband and me. (Joyce Duggan Autrey, 2021)
More at: Ellen and John Moody Scrapbook
2023 October 5: Visiting Old Carbon
Names of visitors from Thursday Oct. 5, 2023 with the Moody folks from Alaska are : Duane Duggan of Boulder, CO (brother to Joyce), Clarence and Ginger Hashagen of Las Vegas, NV (sister of Joyce) and John and Joyce Autrey of Ketchikan Alaska. (April Avery)