Andrew Jackson Moran - A Confederate Soldier in Defiance, Putnam, and Williams Counties

 

Andrew Jackson Moran

"Jack" Moran

Born in North Carolina, A. J. Moran was a loyal, Southern man who joined the Confederate Army and served nearly the whole war in its ranks. Born on February 3, 1838, to parents both born in Ireland, he could not be found without question on the 1860 Federal Census. In his land census, he noted the parents were born in Mississippi, but all the rest claimed Ireland.

According to the Confederate records, Andrew joined Company D, 18th Mississippi Infantry Regiment in May 1861, and he may have reenlisted in 1862 for a three year stint.  Company D was very active on the eastern coast, with important battles at Sharpsburg, Maryland and Chancellorsville, Virginia.  The regiment served at Gettysburg in 1863 and ended their term in Virginia again at Spotsylvania and Petersburg.

The 18th Mississippi Regimental Flag

When Andrew was enumerated for the 1890 Veterans Census, he lived in Milford Township, Defiance County, Ohio, and there he reported being in Company E of the 18th Regiment, serving from 1861 - 1865. His name and information, however, were all crossed out with a single line. 

He married Edith Ruth Hannah Updyke after the war's end on June 1, 1865, in Virginia. The couple were found in the 1870 census of Hampton Township, Rappahannock, Virginia with their children, Virginia, Joseph and Thomas. 

By 1880, he had found Ohio and the family was enumerated in Leipsic, Putnam County. A.J. Moran, 42, born North Carolina, was a laborer, and his wife Edith, 39, had six children listed: Jennie (Elizabeth Virginia), Joseph, Thomas, Malinda, Alfred, and Robert E. L. (Robert E. Lee Moran).

We know the family lived in Milford Township, Defiance County, in 1890 when the Veterans Census was taken. By the Federal Census of 1900, they had moved to St. Joseph Township, Williams County, where A. J., now enumerated at "Jack," rented a farm and engaged in farming at the age of 62. Edith had had seven children, but now four remained living. Jennie had married and moved on to her own home, but still with the parents were Joseph, 30, a day laborer; Sinnie, 26, who worked as a servant; and Alfred, 24, who had no occupation listed.

They remained in Williams County until their death. In 1910, Jack, then 73, still rented a farm in St. Joseph Township. Edith was 65, and with them now was only Malinda, 35, working as a laundress. These Southerners had adapted themselves to Northern life. Edith died on February 14, 1919, and her short obituary appeared in the Bryan Democrat on February 21:

"Mrs. Jack Moran died at her home Saturday morning, funeral held at the M. E. Church Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. conducted by Rev. G. M. Baumgardner. Interment in Edgerton Cemetery."

Just a few years later, on April 29, 1921, Jack Moran died at the age of 83. He was a Confederate soldier who learned to love the North for at least the last thirty years of his life. He never had much monetarily, but he seemed to have a rich family life. In 1920, he lived with his daughter, Malinda, and her husband, Peter J. Theison, in Williams County, perhaps in the family home. He was buried with his wife in Maple Grove Cemetery, Edgerton, Ohio.

The Bryan Democrat ran his obituary on May 6, 1921:

"A. J. Moran died at his home near Edgerton Friday morning. Funeral services were held Sunday afternoon at two o'clock at the Methodist Church, conducted by the Pastor, Rev. R. Wright; interment in Maple Grove Cemetery."