Virgil Henry Moats, son of William Virgil and Mary S. Wilson Moats, born May 5, 1827, spent his younger years in Licking County, Ohio. He married Sarah McKinney and was in Defiance County for the 1850 census. On August 10, 1850, the enumerator noted Virgil H. Moats, 23, a farmer with real estate worth $800, Sarah, 18, and a couple who lived with them, Matthias and Margaret Shellebarger.
Eventually, Virgil and Sarah had two children - Franklin, born on September 21, 1850, and Rowena, who died in infancy. Sarah, his wife, died in 1854, and in June, 1855, he married again to Eliza Richardson. The dates of the their children's births differ among sources, but using his pension record, William F. was born on April 7, 1856; Douglas on October 25, 1858; Charles Virgil on June 22, 1861 and a daughter, Hattie, who lived from 1858 - 1861.
Eliza Richardson Moats
When the Mexican War broke out in 1847, he was still in Newark, Ohio, and there he enlisted in the cavalry where he served as corporal. He mustered out in 1848. Virgil was educated enough to be a teacher and he did so until 1849, when he decided to take up farming in Delaware Township.
In 1860, his family was enumerated in Delaware Township with V. H. Moats, 33, a farmer with real estate valued at $1500 and a personal worth of $500. His wife, Eliza was 27 with children: Frank, 9; William F., 4, Hatty J., 2 and Douglas, 1. With them lived John Sanders, 25 and his wife, Matilda, 21 and their children, Josephus, Margaret and Robert, along with a domestic, Louisa Longsmith. By the next year, Virgil was at Camp Dennison where he helped organize an infantry unit for the Civil War - Company F, 48th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Virgil, himself, was commissioned as Captain. His first significant battle was at Shiloh, a disaster for the Union. He led his company through two days of fighting there and lost 100 men.
In the spring of 1863, he was promoted to Major with the 21st Regiment and went with the Army west to join the Union on the heels of the Confederates going to Mississippi. It was at the second assault on Vicksburg that Virgil was shot in the knee on May 22, 1863, and sent to the army hospital in Cincinnati where he died on July 11, 1863.
Brunersburg Cemetery
His obituary appeared in the Defiance Democrat on July 18, 1863:
"Major V. H. Moats, 48th Ohio Regiment, late Sheriff of Defiance County, died at Cincinnati, on Saturday last, from wounds received at Vicksburg. His wounds, at first, were not considered dangerous, but want of proper treatment in season made it fatal. While at Cincinnati, he was in the house of his aunt, attended by his wife, father, mother and sister, and received all possible attention.
He was in his 37th year. He leaves a wife and several small children, hosts of friends and no enemies. Major Moats served in a cavalry company recruited in Licking County in the Mexican War, and has been since 1849, a citizen of Defiance County, of which he was for four years the Sheriff.
In 1861, he recruited a company in this section for the 48th Regiment and has been in active, hard, fatiguing service ever since. He was in the Battle of Pittsburgh Landing, the occupation of Memphis, the attack on Vicksburg under General Sherman last summer, at the taking of Arkansas Post, and in all the recent operations against Vicksburg up to May 22nd, when he was wounded.
His funeral took place at Brunersburg on Wednesday last."
His widow, Eliza, applied for his pension in August, 1863.
As was usual at the time, evidence had to be collected to assure that Eliza was the true widow, that the children's birthdates were correct and they were minors and that the pension was owed. Someone in the county took affidavits from neighbors, friends, mothers of both wives, midwives, family physicians and anyone who might have had dealings with the family and these were presented in the probate court. In 1873, she applied for an increase in her pension.
At Virgil's death, Eliza had four children under the age of 16: Frank Wallace, 10; William Frazer, 7; Douglas, 5, and Charles V., 2. She received $25 a month in pension plus $2 for each minor child, so $32 a month.
Part of Eliza's application with her signature
In the 1870 census of Delaware Township, Eliza was found living with her four sons. Wallace (William), the oldest at 19, was a farm laborer. She reported real estate worth $6000 and personal goods worth $900. Virgil had been granted land as a result of his service in the Mexican War. The land patent read:"To Virgil H. Moats, late a corporal in Captain Duncan's Company - Ohio Mounted Volunteers," dated July 1, 1851, signed by Millard Fillmore and totaling 78.48 acres in section 4.
By 1880, Frank lived next door to Eliza and the remaining three sons, all who were working on the farm. Liley Boyd, 14, her niece, lived with them, along with her father, John Richardson, 88, palsied.
Charles, 38, and single had taken over the farm by 1900, while his mother, 66, lived with him. Lily Richardson (formerly Liley Boyd), her divorced niece, 33, was also there. By 1910, all the children were gone and just Eliza and Lily lived in their homestead, except that she had taken in a boarder, Harry Bayliss.
Eliza died on August 14, 1913. Her obituary:
"MOTHER OF CO. F DEAD
MRS. ELIZA MOATS PASSES AWAY AT HER HOME AT MOATS.
Mrs. Eliza Moats, known to the veterans of Defiance County as "The Mother of Company F," died at her home in Moats, Thursday evening.
The deceased was the widow of Capt. Virgil Moats, a former sheriff of Defiance county and who was Captain of Co. F., 48th O. V. I., the only full company to be recruited from Defiance county. Capt. Moats was wounded in the battle of Vicksburgh and was taken to Cincinnati where he died.
Mrs. Moats has resided on the Moats farm at Moats ever since. She leaves three sons, Charles, Douglas and William, all of whom live near the old home.
Mrs. Moats was a woman beloved by all. She was known to veterans as "The Mother of the Company," and she had a wide acquaintance over Defiance county.
The funeral will occur Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock. The body will be laid to rest in the Moats cemetery. It is expected that a number of the members of Bishop Post G.A.R. and the W.R.C. will attend as a respect to the "Mother of Co. F."
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