Willis Moseley: Blind Businessman
Willis Moseley: 1902-1967 (Maternal First Cousin 2x Removed on Leachman branch, and Second Cousin 3x removed on the Moseley branch)
I first
discovered Willis Moseley while reading a news account of a traffic accident
involving another ancestor, Beverly Childress. The article noted that Childress
was driving a car owned by Willis Moseley, in which Moseley was a passenger.
The article said Moseley suffered extensive bruising and laceration to his head
and ear, and described Moseley as a “blind broom manufacturer”. I had to read
that several times. Blind broom manufacturer? I had to know more: a blind man
who owned a car? And manufactured brooms? This was a story worth investigating.
Willis
Moseley was a double cousin—his father was Charles Jackson Moseley, my
husband’s first cousin four times removed, the son of third great-granduncle
Isaac Fletcher Moseley who was featured in an earlier blog post. His mother was
Mary Alma Leachman, my husband’s great-grandaunt and sister to
great-grandmother Cora Leachman. That made Willis both a first cousin 2x
removed and a second cousin 3x removed.
Willis was
born December 15, 1902 in Moseleyville, Kentucky. He was the fifth of Charles
and Mary Alma’s seven children, and grew up on the family farm. According to a
news article written years later, Willis lost his vision around the age of
eight. However, another article stated he was born blind. Willis’ parents sent him
to the Kentucky State School for the Blind in Louisville to be educated. The
school endeavored to train the students in a skill that could support them in
adulthood; Willis was trained in broom-making.
When
Willis was 34, the local newspaper did an article on his broom business (Owensboro
Messenger, September 13, 1936). The article noted he had been operating his
business for twelve years. He started up in a building on East Second Street
but quickly moved to 1324 Independence Avenue in Owensboro—an appropriate
street name for a man who worked hard to maintain his independence.
The
journalist said the broom-making work was “divided between hand and machine”.
The process was described as follows:
“…the
straw…is dyed a light green, put on the end of the stick which is turned with
his foot and bound on with wire. An electrically driven machine takes the seed
from the straw after it is on the stick, and then it is stitched and the broom
given its oblong shape. A large blade operated as a paper cutter clips the end
of the straw and give it a straight bottom.”
The
journalist said Willis moved easily around his factory room from one machine to
another without assistance. His business had prospered enough to hire an
employee, and together they produced twenty dozen brooms per week. The article
also noted that Willis had paid for his combination home and factory with his
earnings.
I found
several references to county and city agencies purchasing Willis’ brooms. Both
the school and the city government budgets, printed in the local newspaper,
included line items for broom purchases from his factory.
At some
point, Willis apparently abandoned the broom business to focus on farming. This
was even more surprising to me. Farming is a labor-intensive business—I could
not imagine how a blind man could possibly run farm equipment, raise crops and
tend for livestock without the benefit of sight. A March 28, 1955 article
titled “Though Blind, Daviess Farmer Operates Normal Farm Program” by reporter
Jim Grise described Willis’ farm operation.
The
article stated that Willis started farming in 1938, just two years after the
article on his broom business. He apparently specialized in raising brood sows—hogs
raised to breed young pigs. He had thirty brood sows at the time of the article.
The writer noted that Willis’ success was due to his “ability to master the
operation of such modern equipment as [a feed mixer and electric brooder]. With
the aid of one man who help put the ingredients into this mixer, Moseley
completes the operation of mixing, sacking and tying the feed.” He went on
to write that, “It has been my privilege to watch him perform his task of
caring for sows in his farrowing barn…As each peg was born, he clipped the
cord, dried it and put it in an electric brooder out of the way of the sow.”
Willis’
farm was also featured as a demonstration farm in a Daviess County Swine Field
Day event on June 11, 1961. The article stated that, “Moseley has a herd of
Yorkshire hogs and his was the third herd in Kentucky to become a certified
brucellosis-free herd. In addition to his breeding herd, Moseley has a group of
hogs on feed out of which he expects to select some individuals for entry in
the second annual Owensboro meat hog-carcass contest.”
Willis’
personal life was not as successful as his two businesses. On May 8, 1926, when
Willis was 23 years old, he eloped to Evansville, Indiana with a fourteen-year-old
girl named Anna Belle Troutman. I suspect they had to cross the state line
because she was too young to marry in Kentucky. The marriage stood—her parents
did not intervene despite her youth and the nine-year age difference. The
couple seems to have become acquainted because Anna Belle’s aunt and uncle
lived just down the street from Willis’ home and factory.
The
marriage failed. Anna Belle left him July 23, 1935. Their divorce was granted September 20, 1935. I wonder if Willis decided to switch careers
due to the divorce. He may have had to give his wife the house and factory on Independence
Ave. as part of the divorce settlement.
Two years
later, in November of 1937, Willis married again. His new wife, Louvenia Wyatt,
was a fellow graduate of the Kentucky School for the Blind. She had been trained
for a job at the cigar stand in the Owensboro post office, so had just moved to
the area a few months earlier. The news write up was titled “Blind Couple Weds”,
and noted they would be living in Moseleyville, presumably on Willis’ new farm.
I suppose
their shared disability gave them common ground and mutual understanding, but
perhaps wasn’t the best basis for a marriage. The marriage lasted eight years.
Willis and Louvenia divorced in April 1945.
Willis
reconnected with first wife Anna Belle, and they remarried May 5, 1945, just
weeks after his divorce from Louvenia. The relationship remained troubled, and
they separated yet again on May 24, 1948. Anna Belle filed for divorce, alleging
cruelty.
Willis and
Anna Belle also had trouble with her mother, Daisy Wyatt, in 1948. She filed suit
against her daughter and Willis, claiming they had promised to give her the
Independence Avenue house, but that Anna Belle never legally transferred the
deed, and that Anna Belle and Willis were trying to evict her. I was unable to
find out how the suit was settled, or when Willis’ divorce was granted.
By the 1950
census, Willis was still living on his farm with his widowed mother. He was
listed as “separated” under marital status, and “unable to work” even though he
was still farming. His mother died two years later when Willis was 49 years
old.
Willis
apparently continued to live on his own, farming, at least until the 1960s, since
we know his farm was featured in the 1961 Swine Field Day. By 1967, however,
something must have changed for him. He had lost more family members; over the
course of five years, two of his sisters and his brother Charles had all died. Perhaps
he began to feel isolated, or maybe his health began to fail. He must have
become despondent, for on July 5, 1967, a neighbor found Willis sitting in the
back seat of his car with a hose in his mouth that had been attached to the
exhaust pipe. He had committed suicide by inhaling exhaust fumes. The article
reporting his death said he had mailed a farewell note to a friend. Willis was
buried in Rosehill Elmwood Cemetery in Owensboro near his family members.
Despite
Willis’ sad ending, he had lived a productive, independent life despite his
blindness. When it came to “taking care of business”, he had taken care of two.
He had founded a successful broom-making business and built up a fine hog breeding
business. He never let his lack of vision stop him.
Sources:
Three are
Hurt in Double Crash. Owensboro Messenger Inquirer. Sept 3, 1936.
Willis
Moseley, Blind Broom Maker, Has Built Large Trade. Owensboro Messenger
Inquirer. Sept. 13, 1936. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1060425518/?match=1&terms=willis%20moseley
Blind
Couple Weds. Owensboro Messenger, Owensboro, KY. Nov.
20, 1937. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-owensboro-messenger-blind-couple-wed/147946384/
Louvenia
Moseley files for divorce again. . Owensboro Messenger, Owensboro, KY. April
1945. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1060257335/?match=1&terms=willis%20moseley
Though
Blind, Daviess Farmer Operates Normal Farm Program. Jim Grise. Owensboro Messenger Inquirer. March 28, 1955. https://www.newspapers.com/image/375607266/?match=1&terms=willis%20moseley
Blind Man
Found Dead in His Car. . Owensboro Messenger Inquirer, Owensboro, KY. July 5,
1967. https://www.newspapers.com/image/382589131/?match=1&terms=willis%20moseley
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