Ella3 A. Wildey (Edward Henry2, Thomas1) was born on 25 August 1853 in Rome, Oneida Co. NY, the daughter of Edward Henry Wildey and Victoria Maria Weeks. [1] Her birth year of 1853 is from her obituary; her tombstone, however, gives the year of 1855. [2] The 1860 census, confusingly, indicates a birth year of c. 1857. [3]
Ella's mother died in 1864, and Ella has not been found in the 1870 census, leaving it unclear who raised her after her mother's death. In 1875 she was working as live-in help with the Joseph H. Crawford family in Rome. Mr. Crawford was a prosperous hoop manufacturer. Ella's age was given as 20, suggesting a birth year of c. 1855. [4]
By 1880 she had relocated to Kirkland and was married to Dwight Mosher. Dwight was born in Oriskany Falls, Oneida County, on 20 June 1847. He was the son of Dwight Mosher and Delia Bentley. Dwight was a farmer, and boarding with the couple was "Hattie Wildey," born c. 1858. This was probably Ella's sister Adelaide. [5] Ella had been born in Rome, her father was a canaller, and she had worked as domestic help for a commercial family, so farm life was likely a new experience for her. Her experience as a hired girl, however, likely provided her with useful skills for running a household.
Ella and Dwight had only one child, Hattie, born in May of 1885 in New York. The little family was still living in Kirkland in 1900, where Dwight carried a mortgage on the farm he owned. [6] He had cleared the mortgage by 1910, when the census showed the Mosher family still farming in Kirkland, with the aid of a hired man. [7]
1900: Aug 1856 1910 c1865 The two owned a farm in Kirkland, Oneida Co. NY. [4]Ella A. Wildey and Dwight Mosher had the following child:
| 11 | i. | Harriet J. Mosher was born c. 1885 in New York. [5] |