By Jessica Gorman
Madison Calloway Moseley was born about 1853 in Georgia. He was still a young boy when his father, Dr. Benjamin F. Moseley died. After the Civil War, he, his brother, Benjamin, and their mother, Mary Ann, came to Cotton Valley, in what was then Bossier Parish, with her family, the Calloways.
M.C. and his mother moved to Minden. He taught school before studying law under Judge A.B. George for three years. He then enrolled at University of Louisiana which later became Tulane University. He graduated in 1874 and began his practice in Minden. He served as both Parish Attorney and District Attorney. In 1883, he moved to Alexandria where he became “one of the city’s wealthiest and most prominent citizens.” A 1903 newspaper article describes him as “not only one of the ablest lawyers in the State, but he is a most pleasant, affable gentleman, whom it is a pleasure to know, and it is to just such men that Louisiana owes her rapid strides in progress and prosperity during the past few years.”
In 1890, M.C. Moseley married Pearl Boagni. Lapearle Frances Boagni was born 31 July 1866 to Dr. Vincent Boagni and Susan Littell, in Opelousas. Dr. Boagni was born in Italy and came to the U.S. in 1838. At his death in 1898, he was said to have been the wealthiest resident of St. Landry Parish. It was estimated his estate was worth $1.5 million.
The Moseleys had two sons. Henry Vincent Moseley was born 9 October 1891. The couple’s youngest son, Benjamin Thomas, died as an infant on 1 November 1894. He is buried in the St. Landry Church Cemetery in Opelousas along with his Boagni relatives.
Five years later, Pearl fell ill. She was taken to New Orleans for treatment but died at the Hotel Dieu on 31 May 1899. She was only 32 years old. Even though she had never lived here, “she expressed a desire to be buried at Minden, La., thus manifesting tenderest devotion to her grief-stricken husband, who will rest by her side in the Moseley cemetery when life’s journey is ended. Dear old Minden – ever dear – the sweetest, fondest, and best!!”
Pearl Moseley was “true to every relation in life, an affectionate and devoted wife, a patient and indulgent mother, a respectful and dutiful daughter, a gentle and deserving sister, a generous and faithful friend and a sincere and devout Christian.”
Vincent Moseley was only seven years old at the time of his mother’s death and was just shy of twenty when he lost his father. They were on vacation in Manhattan when M.C. Moseley died on 15 September 1911. His body was returned to Louisiana where he was laid to rest alongside Pearl in the Minden Cemetery.
During World War I, Vincent served as a naval aviator as part of the Northern Bomb Group in Europe. He ran for governor of Louisiana against Governor Earl Long and Sam Jones in 1940 and against Jimmie Davis in 1944. In 1942, he was the commencement speaker at the Palmetto School, “asking the graduates to look forward to and plan for the love of town, community and institution which served them.”
Today, the Moseley plot is marked only by a large family marker. Individual markers no longer remain, presumably because of damage from the 1933 tornado. We are only able to identify these burials through newspaper reports. M.C. and Pearl are buried there. M.C.’s mother Mary Ann is also said to be buried there, as is his brother, Dr. Benjamin Thomas Moseley, Jr.
(Jessica Gorman is Executive Director of the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, Webster Parish Historian, President of the Minden Cemetery Association, and an avid genealogist.)