The Moses Clouse Family

The 5 Dec 2015 post talks of Grant Frederick Tapscott, who was probably a Tapscott in name only.

On 28 Jan 1905, Grant married Lena C. Clouse at Grace Church in Marshall. Lena was a child of Moses Clouse Sr. and his third wife Pina Ann Plunkett. It was a penurious upbringing in a penurious family. Moses and Pina Ann were “dirt poor,” and their children at times, unschooled.

Born in Coshocton County, Ohio, 16 Nov 1837, Moses married Susan Siverly on 15 Jan 1857 in Clark County, Illinois. The couple had seven children—Emanuel, Mary, Jacob, William, Frederick, Margaret Ann, and Moses Jr. And then sometime around 1873, Susan died, probably from the strain of bearing seven children in sixteen or so years.

Moses married a second time, to Ann (also “Anna”) Dulaney in Clark County on 1 Oct 1875. It is not unlikely that Ann’s maiden name was “Pittzenbarger” and “Dulaney,” her married name. In the 1870 census, before her marriage to Moses, she was living with a 66-year-old woman, Mary Pittzenbargr” (her mother?), and two children, James and Emma Dulaney (her children?).

The second marriage was short-lived. By 1880, Moses was living with companion number three, Pina (sometimes “Piny” or “Piney”) Ann Plunkett., We say “companion” because no official record of a marriage has been found and the years married provided in censuses give calculated marriage dates of 1881 – 1882 and 1894 – 1895. We know little of Pina’s origins. Official records show Indiana to be her birthplace and David Plunkett to be her father, but she appears in no record prior to her marriage to Moses. Census data correspond to birth years of 1841-1842 and 1850. Her cemetery marker gives 1855; her obituary, 4 May 1855; and her death certificate, 4 May 1846. Censuses show Pina to be illiterate, which probably accounts for the scattered dates for both her birth and marriage.

Moses and Pina Ann had nine children of which the names of eight are known—John, Cynthia, George, Charles, Belle (also “Bell”), Lena, Roy, and Bertha. Some say that the ninth, a girl, was named "Lizzie"; however, this is probably due to confusion with Lizzie the wife of Charles Clouse, who appears with Moses and Pina in the 1910 census.

Most of the time Moses worked as a farm laborer in and around Marshall, Illinois, though, for a while, the family lived in Sullivan County, Indiana. A farmhand's income was insufficient for a total of sixteen children (not all present at the same time, of course) plus, occasionally, some Dulaney descendants of his second wife. Times were desperate. In 1913 Pina, claiming blindness, asked for a pension from the Clark County Board of Supervisors. The request was rejected. In 1918 the Board did, however, pay $5 to H. Prust (Harry Prust, the local undertaker) for “taking Moses Clouse & wife to poor farm.” There, the couple lived, and died, Moses on 15 Apr 1924 and Pina on 2 Feb 1927.

Moses, Pina, and first wife, Susan, are buried in Shotts (also known as Siverly and Shad) Cemetery, just off Fox Road in Anderson Township. The rustic cemetery markers may have been erected at public expense.