Moses Bickford's Masonic Life

My 2nd great-grandfather, Moses Bickford, was born in 1796 in Starks, Lincoln Co., Maine.  Moses left Maine around 1817 and headed west.  He married Ruth Green in Columbia, Ohio on May 2, 1819.  Moses and Ruth continued west, and after living in Sangamon Co., Illinois for a few years, they moved on to Iowa in 1838.  Moses was a farmer and a shoemaker. They raised 14 surviving children.

Membership in the Masonic organization was a very important part of his life.  Moses first became a Mason at about 25 years of age when he joined the order of Nova Caesarea Harmony Lodge in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1824. This lodge is still active today.  After immigrating to Iowa in 1838, Moses, along with Rev. James Shephard of Keosauqua, was influential in organizing a lodge in Keosauqua and became a charter member.  He was also a charter member of Winchester and Birmingham Lodges.¹

The first Masonic lodge in the territory of Iowa was established in 1840 under the authority from the Grand Lodge of Missouri.²  Moses was a representative in the first Grand Lodge of Iowa. The Birmingham Lodge No. 56 was chartered on June 6th, 1855 and Moses Bickford was a Past Master from 1855 to 1856.³

At his death on December 4, 1887, at the age of 91, Moses had been a Mason for 63 years, 8 months and 17 days. At that time, he was the oldest Mason in Iowa.¹  

Maple Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, Van Buren Co., Iowa.

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¹ Public dedication by the Hall of Birmingham Lodge, No. 56, A.F. & A.M.Birmingham, Iowa.     Submitted to the Enterprise newspaper for publication.

² History of Grand Lodge of Iowa A.F. and A. M., vol 1, Joseph E. Morcombe, Historian.  Published by Authority of the Grand Lodge of Iowa 1910, page 168.

³ Annuals of the Grand Lodge of Iowa,  Vol 2,  page 556.  Muscatine. Printed by order of the Grand Lodge, 1858.  

A New Land

One of my immigrant ancestors is Gepke Janssen Smit Wessels. She is my 2^nd Great Grandmother. She was a woman whose husband, Heije Renken Wessels¹, had died in Germany in 1854. Two of her sons had also died at a young age in Germany. She left her homeland, memories, and life as she knew it in Neermoor, Ostfriesland, Germany and came to America in 1860 at the age of 56. She traveled on the ship Bremen with her four youngest children. As indicated on the Passenger list, she traveled under the name of her husband, Heye Wessels and her children are enumerated: Jantjen, 18, m, farmer; Jana, 16, female; Gretje 13, female; and Gerd 13, male.²

When she arrived in Illinois, Gepke was able to live on farmland with her family in German Valley, Winnebago Co. Her four older children had come separately to the area earlier. She lived in Illinois for about three years before moving to Timbercreek Township, Marshall Co., Iowa. In her lifetime, she was able to see her children marry and begin their families in a new land.

Laurel Methodist Cemetery is a small cemetery amid the cornfields in Laurel, Marshall Co., Iowa. Here lies the grave of Gepke Janssen Smit Wessels, 1803-1872.

It is so humbling to stand before an old tombstone of an ancestor and reflect. Thinking about who might have come to gather around there for the burial. Who has visited since? How many descendants have come from that one person? How many have made the pilgrimage to the site to pay their respects?

Well done, Gepke, well done.

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¹ Thorsten Harms, editor,  (Die Familien der evangelisch-reformeirten Gemeinde Neermoor (1669-1900), Emden, Germany. T. Harms 2007), p1280, #4965.

² "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957" (Ancestry.com. New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.), Year: 1860; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237; Microfilm Roll: 206; Line: 12; List Number: 1086.