MOOERS
This is an early New England name and is found with various spellings in the pioneer records, such as Moors, Moores, Mooers, Mores, also sometimes as Moore. It was identified with the settlement and development of several New England towns, and has taken no inconspicuous part in the making of norther New York. Its revolutionary record is an honorable one, and its members had been no less worthy in civil life.
(I) Edmund Mooers, born about 1614, came from Southampton, England, to Boston, in 1638, and is found of record in Newbury, Mass., as early as 1640, with his wife Anne. He died in Newbury, June 7, 1676.
Children: Martha, born Dec. 12, 1543; Jonathan, mentioned below; Mary, Nov. 30, 1648; Edmund, died Nov. 8, 1656; Richard, born Nov. 3, 1653; Sarah, April 1, 1661.
(II) Jonathan, eldest son of Edmund and Anne Mooers, was born April 23, 1646, in Newbury, where he subscribed to the oath of allegiance in 1678. He was assessed jointly with his brother, Edmund, in 1688 for the following property: Two houses, fifty-two acres of land, two horses, one two-year-old, two oxen, three cows, four three-year-olds, one two-year-old; eight sheep, one hog. He was a member of the military company, being promoted from corporal to cornet in 1689, and to lieutenant in 1690. Either he or his son bearing the same name was a soldier in 1707.
He married May 10, 1680 (this appears 1670 on Newbury records, but is evidently an error), Constance Langhorne.
Children: Jonathan, mentioned below; Richard, born July 24, 1683; Samuel, Feb. 20, 1686; Thomas, Nov. 6, 1688; Dorothy, Dec. 8, 1690.
(III) Jonathan (2) eldest child of Jonathan (1) and Constance (Langhorne) Mooers, was born April 30, 1681, in Newbury and resided in that town, where he died April 8, 1745. The records of the town show that Jonathan and one of his brothers received twently shilings as a bounty for killing a wolf in Bradford, "This last winter," voted March 13, 1722, by the town of Newbury.
He married, Jan. 17, 1714, Mary, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Wallingford) Poor. Children: Joseph, born Feb. 3, 1715; Jonathan, April 4, 1718; Edmund, Aug. 24, 1772; Benjamin, mentioned below; John, Oct. 15, 1726; Samuel, Nov. 5, 1728; Amiruhama, Nov. 17, 1730.
(IV) Benjamin, fourth son of Jonathan (2) and Mary (Poor) Mooers, was born Jan. 20, 1725, in Newbury, settled in Haverhill, Mass., where he married (first) Nov. 16, 1749, Abigail, born Jan. 7, 1729, daughter of General Moses and Abigail (White) Hazen. She died in 1778 and he married (second), Sept. 2, 1779, Widow Rachel Duston. He died April 25, 1799.
Children born of first marriage: Moses, died young; Abigail, Jan. 6, 1754; Moses Hazen, Aprl 26, 1756; Benjamin, April 1, 1758, mentioned below; Anne, June 2, 1760; John and William (twins), the former mentioned below, the latter died young; Jonathan, Sept. 26, 1764; Betty, Nov. 7, 1766; Katherine, June 7, 1769; Polly, Aug. 26, 1772.
(V) General Benjamin (2) third of son Benjamin (1) and Abigail (Hazen) Mooers, was born April 1, 1758. He was a distinguished citizen of Plattsburgh, who rendered valuable services to the colonies during the war of the revolution. In the summer of 1776 he participated in the battle of Ticonderoga and in the following winter was appointed ensign in the First Congress Regiment, commanded by Colonel Moses Hazen. Soon after he was promoted to lieutenant and adjutant of the regiment, and continued in the service until the end of the war, being present at the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga and of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Immediately after thd close of the struggle in 1783, with ten other members of his regiment, he went to Clinton county, N.Y., then a wilderness, and through the remainder of his life was one of the most active and useful citizens of the community. He was the first sheriff of Clinton county, was four terms a member of the state assembly and rou years in the state senate, and for thirty-eight consecutive years was treasurer of Clinton county. He was prominent in the state militia, rising to the rank of major-general, and in that capacity served at the siege of Plattsburgh in 1814.
He was president of the County Bible Society and of the County Temperance Society. He died at his home in Plattsburgh, Feb. 20, 1838, near the close of his eightieth year.
(V) John, fourth son of Benjamin (1) and Abigail (Hazen) Mooers, was born April 30, 1762. in Haverhill, and was, like his distinguised brother, a soldier of the revolution. He served under Captain Pope in the fourth regiment from 1777 for a period of three years, and in 1780 again enlisted and marched June 29 to the reinforcement of the coninental army, being dischared Dec. 15 of the same year. For his first enlistment he received a bounty of $50.
He married, Nov. 28, 1786, in Haverhill, Susanna Morrill. It is possible that she was the fifth daughter of Archelaus and Hannah (Kimball) Morrill, though she could have been but little more than sixteen years old at the time of the marriage. No other Susanna Morrill appears who could be identical with this bride. She was born Aug. 15, 1770, in Salisbury, Mass., a twin of Israel Morrill. No record of John Mooers' children appears in Haverhill. For a short time he lived in Corinth, New Hampshire, and in 1793 he settled in Plattsburgh, N.Y., where he died.
(VI) Dr. Benjamin J., son of John and Susanna (Morrill) Mooers, was born ______, 1787, in Haverhill, and died at Plattsburgh. He was but six years of age when he removed with his parents to Plattsburgh and there grew up. He studied medicine and began the practice of his profession at Plattsburgh in 1810, so continuing until his death, May 20, 1869.
He married Mary Platt, born July 15, 1796, in Plattsburgh, died April 8, 1869, daughter of Deacon William Pitt and Hannah (Kent) Platt.
Children: Eliza, born July 24, 1815; married Amherst Douglas Fouquet; Susan, died young; Hannah Maria, Nov. 27, 1821; married (first) Theodore Platt Cady, of Plattsburgh, and (second) DeWitt Clinton Boynton; William Pitt Platt, mentioned below; John Henry, mentioned below; Moses Kent, died young; Romain, died young; Sophia Whitside, July 26, 1829, married William Denning Morgan; Robert, born 1836, settled at Decorah, Iowa, was captain of a company in the Fifth Minnesota Regiment during the civil war and was killed at the battle of Corinth, Mississippi in 1862.
(VII) William Pitt Platt, eldest son of Dr. Benjamin J. and Mary (Platt) Mooers, was born Jan. 9, 1824, in Plattsburgh, and died in that town Jan. 1, 1894, almost seventy years of age. He was a merchant in that city, was a member of the assembly in 1878-80, treasurer of Clinton county, 1855-57, was treasurer of the Whitehall and Plattsburgh Railroad Company, 1864-66, and for nearly thirty years director of the First National Bank of Plattsburgh. He was for many years a member of the board of education and a part of the time itrs president.
He married, Jan. 27, 1846, Marian Catherine, daughter of Captain John and Rebecca (Smith) Boynton, born Aug. 16, 1823, died June 16, 1904.
Children: John Boynton, died young; Moss Platt, born 1850, died at the age of thirty-seven; William Boynton, mentioned below; Catherine Mount Platt; Mary Helen, 1870.
(VIII) William Boynton, only surviving son of William Pitt Platt and Marian C. (Boynton) Mooers, was born Aug. 11, 1855, in Plattsburgh, and received his education in his native place. He served an apprenticeship at the plumbing trade, and at an early period in life began business on his own account in Plattsburgh. This he continued until Feb. 1, 1910, conducting a large establishment dealing in stoves and kindred wares, and carrying on a general plumbing and steam and gas fitting business.
He has always taken an active interest in the welfare of the city and was for a period of ten years a member of its board of education, being five years secretary of the board. This position he resigned in 1907, in which year he was elected mayor for a term of two years, which he filled acceptably. He was appointed postmaster of Plattsburgh, N.Y., dec. 21, 1909. He had previously served in various capacities as a town officer.
He is a member of the Masonic order, being a past master of Clinton Lodge, No. 155, and is affiliated with Plattsburgh Chapter, No. 30, Arch Masons and De Sota Commandery, No. 49, Knights Templar.
Mr. Mooers has always been a Republican in political principle.
He married in Plattsburgh, April 26, 1883, Jean M. McCain, of that city, daughter of George and Elizabeth (Hooker) McCain. Children, born in Plattsburgh: Benjamin N., Jan. 27, 1884; John H., Oct. 7, 1885; Stephen Boynton, Dec. 28, 1886, Elizabeth M., Oct. 30, 1892.
(VII) Dr. John Henry, second son of Dr. Benjamin J. and Mary (Platt) Mooers, was born Nov. 27, 1827, in Plattsburgh, where he grew up and prepared for a practice of medicine and became an assistant surgeon of the Sixteenth New York Regiment in the civil war. Later he became surgeon of the One Hundred and Eighteenth Regiment, New York Volunteers, in which he served to the end of the struggle.
Subsequently he participated in an expedition against the Indians, under Colonel Forsythe, in 1868, and was mortally wounded in an engagement about the twentieth of September, dying on the twenty-third.
He married Helen M. Boynton, born Dec. 15, 1827, in Plattsburgh, died March 16, 1872, at the age of forty-four years.
(VIII) John Boynton, only child of Dr. John Henry and Helen M. (Boynton) Mooers, was born Feb. 9, 1857, in Saranac, N.Y., and was brought up on the old Boynton farm in Plattsburgh, where his parents located soon after his birth. He has continued to make his home on this place to the present time.
At the time of the battle of Lake Champlain this was occupied by the American army and the buildings used for a hospital. Mr. Mooers is among the successful farmers of Clinton county and for the past nine years has been parole officer at the state prison at Danemora.
He married April 12, 1899, in Plattsburgh, Adeline, born in Beekmanton, daughter of John and Lydia (Allen) Banker.