Jacob Moudy. The community of Ludlow in Champaign County pays special honor and respect to Jacob Moudy and his family. Mr. Moudy has had a long and active career. His years have been spent with benefit to himself and also to his family, friends and neighbors, and he has done something to make every community with which he has been identified a little better and to elevate the standards of life and morality.
Mr. Moudy is a son of Peter and Elizabeth Moudy, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. In the early days they migrated from Pennsylvania down the Ohio River, traveling on a flatboat to Cincinnati. Later they went still farther west to Illinois, making this journey in the old-fashioned prairie schooner. Peter and Elizabeth Moudy had eleven children, Jacob being next to the youngest.
When Jacob Moudy was twenty-three years of age the war cloud arose over the land and he enlisted with the boys in blue and went to the front at Columbus, Kentucky, on the Mississippi River at Columbus Ford. Later his command was moved to the Little Obion River in Tennessee, and he was employed there chiefly in guard duty and in protecting railroads. With the close of his term he went to Chicago and was mustered out, but was still desirous of continuing his service to his country and sought to get enrolled in the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Illinois Regiment, where two of his cousins were fighting. He was unable to get enrolled because about that time he was taken with the fever. Returning home to Danville, Illinois, he was married two years later to Miss Mary Villars.
Mrs. Moudy is a daughter of Oliver and Mary Villars of Vermilion County, Illinois. Her Grandfather Villars was a native of Pennsylvania and her maternal Grandmother Timmens was a native of England. Oliver and Mary Villars migrated from Ohio to Illinois. Mrs. Moudy was a small child when her mother died, and she was reared in the home of her grandfather, who was a minister of the Gospel. She was carefully trained and given wholesome equipment for the duties of life.
After his marriage Jacob Moudy began housekeeping in Ford County, Illinois. His home was eight miles east of Paxton, where he was successfully engaged in farming. A year later he sold his farm and removed to Chicago, and took up the trade of carpenter. He was employed by the Illinois Central Railway in the passenger department, a position secured for him through an old friend. While there he received a telegram to return home, as his brother was dangerously ill. After his brother’s death, which soon followed, he yielded to the earnest wish of his father, whose feeble health unfitted him for work, and returning to Danville, took active control of the old homestead. Some years later Mr. Moudy returned to Ford County and resumed farming there, and with the exception of seven years’ residence in Missouri he and his family have lived in Ford and Champaign counties to the present time.
To Mr. and Mrs. Moudy were born eight children, four sons and four daughters. Their names are Luther, Oscar, Lisha, Lewis, Hannah, Leota, Dona and Cora. The children obtained their early education chiefly in the district schools of Ford County. Luther, who is a farmer with home at West Salem, is married and has two sons, Wilbur and Earl. Oscar, also a farmer at West Salem, married and has a daughter, Dorothy. Lisha, after the death of his wife, bought property near West Salem in order to afford better educational advantages to his son and daughter, Wayne E. and Mercedes. Lewis resides in Akron, Ohio, where he is employed in an automobile factory, and he has two children, Berdine and Herschel. Hannah is the wife of Ed Ketchum, a carpenter whose home is at Clarence, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Ketchum have five children, Oscar, Mary, Milo, Allen and Clarence. Leota married Clarie Hupp, who is a grain merchant at Cullom, and their two children are Raymond and Marlin. Dona married Charles McHaley, a hardware merchant at Rankin. Their three children are Marvin, Opal and Laura Etta. Cora is the wife of Homer Funkhouser, a fanner near Penfield. Mr. and Mrs. Funkhouser have seven children named Merle, Doris, Eugene, Christine, Margaret, Lenore and Emery. Mr. and Mrs. Moudy are very proud of their children, their grand-children and especially of their great-grandchild, Emerson Shoemate. This great-grandchild is a son of Elmer and Mary (Ketchum) Shoemate, and a grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Ketchum, above mentioned. Mr. and Mrs. Shoemate reside at Ludlow and he is employed with the grain elevator there.
Mr. and Mrs. Moudy deserve much credit for rearing and bringing their children to places of usefulness and honor in the world. Mr. Moudy in politics has always voted with the Democratic party. He takes pride in the fact that he supported William Jennings Bryan for the presidency three times, and with that great Nebraska commoner has always stood strongly for temperance principles. He believes that a joyful day awaits America when King Alcohol is dethroned. Mr. and Mrs. Moudy first united with the New Light Church and subsequently with the Christian denomination. They are able to take pardonable pride in their past, which they may review without regret. Mr. Moudy is now at an age when he may enjoy the leisure of well earned retirement and can feel that duty has been well performed. It is especially a satisfaction to know that in early life he marched away with the boys in blue carrying a gun for the protection of his flag and Government, and in subsequent years he lived to see his country peaceful and united and growing and developing upon the sure foundation of unity and freedom.