George H. Mosher

George Howard Mosher was born March 12, 1921 on the farmstead that was the home of his parents, Jonathan and Emily Anna (Olson) Mosher. George was the first born child. His birth was later followed by Lillie Irene (Mosher) Cox, Mildred Hazel (Mosher) Pelland, Fred Elmer Mosher and Robert Dean Mosher. All his brothers and sisters preceded his death. He married Mary Louise Roe January 1. 1944. Children born to them include Donald Ivan Mosher, married to Anita Kay Mollenkemp; Marilyn Joyce (Mosher) Bogart married to Gary Bogart, and Mark David Mosher married to Glennifer Jean Havel. George and Mary had 3 children, 7 grand children and currently have 9 great grand children. George was preceded in death by one grandson, Michael, on July 12, 1990, and wife Mary April 5, 1997. George grew up on the farm he was born on and that we now own. He went to grade school and graduated from the Lawrenceburg elementary school. In his day, High School was not considered a necessity and he worked cutting wood and trapping on the river to help pay his way to Concordia High School from which he graduated. He was able to pay for the gas and tires to get to school by also giving rides to others to school. Through the years together, George and Mary were farmers and raised livestock. They lived north of Clyde, north east of Clifton and then north of Clifton. Theirs was the time of chickens raised to sell eggs and eat, cows milked to sell cream, beef and pigs raised for sale and for food. It truly was a different time. Their lives were seasonable and neighbors were their community. They lived through the time of farming with horses to the development of tractors, threshing machines through to modern combines, and loose hay harvested by hand through giant hay bales. I have a video tape of our father tracing the passages of his adult life by the tractors he owned. They saw the development of rural electricity to farms, television to cable and satellite, crank telephones with party lines to cell phones and something called the internet! Ice cubes went from ice placed in an ice box to keep your foods cool to something dispensed on the door of a refrigerator/freezer. I remember watching the wood cut from trees with long hand saws and axes, pulled to a buzz saw frame connected to the old tractor with a huge belt, listening to the singing of the saw as logs were cut into sections, splitting the wood in the winter with sledge hammer and wedge and the smell of the wood stove as it heated the house. Mother lived through this as a young wife, mother, farm helper, cook and then a nurse. She lived through cooking with a wood stove, baking our own bread to the development of sliced/purchased bread. She made her own cottage cheese and turned her own butter until the time butter could be purchased in the store. As children we grew up with milk from the cows and meat from the animals that we raised. We knew the smell of bacon cooking and bread baking. We knew where our food came from and collected the eggs we ate. Dishwashers had two hands and water to drink was carried from a well. Water bottles were gallon jugs covered with denim material from old jeans our mother stitched around them and then soaked in water and set in the shade of a tree on hot days. Doing laundry was a chore in a separate building with a ringer machine and water heated on a stove and carried to the machine. Clothes were hug on long clothes lines across the yard with clothes pins to dry. Then it evolved to two automatic machines in the corner of the kitchen to do the whole job. We remember well mother’s fried chicken (many that we raised) and home made gravy made in the skillet. To his last days, gravy was still a favorite that George could eat. While life was at times tough, we remember well the joyful smiles of our mother and our father and his welcome chuckle. They both loved to remember days gone by and a good story, so we hope you appreciate ours. The change our parents saw was immense. For us this marks the passing of another generation and a different way of life. George passed from this life on March 3, 2011, with family present, just 9 days from his 90th birthday. My God bless his memory to us all. Survivors include: Daughter: Marilyn Joyce and her husband, Gary Bogart, Concordia, KS Son: Mark and his wife, Glennifer Mosher, Liverpool, NY Son: Donald and his wife, Anita Mosher, Wakeeny, KS Grandchildren: 7 Grand and 9 Great Grand Funeral Services will be held on Monday, March 7, 2011 at 1:30 PM at the Faith United Church Presbyterian in Clifton, Kansas. Officiating the service will be Pastor Mark Mosher. Burial will be at the Hollis Cemetery, Cloud County, KS. Visitation will be held on will be held from 2-5 PM Sunday at Turner Funeral Home. Memorials can be made to may be made to the Park Villa Nursing Home or Meadowlark Hospice in care of the funeral home.