O B I T U A R Y
Thomas Moulding of Campton died Sept 02 at the residence of his youngest son, Dr F C Moulding of Watertown, Wisconsin. Though quite feeble, he had a strong desire to visit all his children once more, but during his visit to his children in Wisconsin, took a severe cold which settled on his lungs, causing death after a short sickness.
Mr Moulding was born in Warrington, England on a memorable and sad day for that country, October 18, 1805, the day Admiral Nelson was shot at Trafalgar. War and pestilence brought misery and destitution to the homes of the poor during his early childhood. His father died before he was born, and when seven years of age he was at work earning a small pittance to help his widowed mother and grandparents keep the wolf of hunger from the door. No free schools then - the only school Mr Moulding ever attended was the Sabbath school, where he was taught how to read. Learning to read opened up to him a broad field, the tree of knowledge grew in the midst of the field, and even thus early he was aiming to climb to the top.
At ten he was grappling with hard questions in mathematics, at this time working in a cotton factory fourteen hours a day. Many a time, after the long day of toil, difficult problems were passing through his brains. He said, "by the flickering light of the fire with my slate on the bars, I worked them out before I slept, and many, many times as I lay in bed partly sleeping and waking, have I worked out difficult problems in algebra, and by the light of the moon placed the figures and demonstrations on my slate, we being too poor even to afford candles".
As he grew to manhood, he became a cotton spinner and only when almost prostrated by hard work did his knowledge of figures help him. For many years before coming to America, he was manager of a large cotton factory, and took a prominent part in the affairs of the town; he was a local preacher, one of the directors of the Mechanics' Institute, superintendent of a large Sunday school, and active temperance worker and advocate; at the time of his death he had been a total abstainer for over fifty years. During the time of the famine in England in 1847, Mr and Mrs Moulding were actively engaged in alleviating the suffering of the poor. They were much respected and loved by a large number of friends.
Mr Moulding landed in America on the first day of May, 1851, and came to Chicago during the same month. He remained only a short time there and bought a place adjoining Judge Wilson at Geneva, and started his son and daughter in business there. The son soon after died and he sold the place and bought the farm at Campton, moving there in the spring of 1853.
His life has been so pure, and good, and useful, that he was highly respected by all his friends and neighbors as he had been in the old world. He had a large circle of friends in Chicago, many of whom were out to sympathize with the bereaved children. It will be seen that Mr Moulding was in his eightieth year; he has had the large family of 15 children, 50 grand-children and 2 great-grand-children; 7 of the children and 32 grand-children are living. His last words to his children who stood by his dying bed were, "I have full faith in the love and tender mercy of God, I have tried to live in the cordence to his laws, and now at the last have few regrets. Both mother and I tried to set a good example to our children. God bless you and all the absent ones".