Preston T. and Sarah Ann Elrod Moody

There is an excellent biography of the Moody family in Godspeed’s “Reminiscent History of the Ozark Region” dating from 1894, 25 years after the family arrived in the Swan Creek basin of Christian County. Born in Bedford, Lawrence County, Indiana in 1825, Sarah Ann Elrod was the daughter of Thomas Benton and Mary Jane Blevins Elrod.

Extensive work on her family tree indicates her ancestors included Swiss and German Anabaptists and Quakers. They most likely came to the New World as early 1700 to practice their religion unmolested. Mr. Moody’s parents were Thomas and Elizabeth Belyew Moody, natives of Kentucky. Their back ground was French and Scotch-Irish.

“In 1844, he went along to what is now Maries County, MO,” according to Godspeed’s, “first going down the river to New Orleans and then back to St. Louis. He followed rafting from Texas County down (the) Big Piney and on the Missouri River to St. Louis for a number of years.” In 1847 the couple married.

There were 12 children. They included three sets of twins and nine children who lived to adulthood: twins Mandy and Emily died in infancy; William and Elizabeth Jane, the latter the wife of John L. Cunningham, were twins; John married Elizabeth Adams; Colonel P. spent most of his unmarried life in Christian and Taney Counties; Sarah Ann was the wife of Amos Bateman of Taney County; Mary wed Daniel Batmen, also of Taney County.

Mary’s unnamed twin died in infancy. Serilda and Isabel married in a double wedding at the home of their father in 1882 to Volney and John C. Clark, respectively, and spent the remainder of their lives on a farm near Taneyville; and Julia Ann married Samuel Isom Case.

Mr. Moody was in the Maries County State Miitia during the Civil war for which he received a pension. He and his family came to Christian County in 1869 and settled on a 240 acre farm outside Garrison, located today along Garrison Ridge Road and Longhorn Drive off of Missouri Route H. There were 100 acres under cultivation.

He was a productive and involved livestock trader in the locale for a number of years. He belonged to the Odd Fellows Lodge in Forsyth and both he and his wife were members of the Baptist Church.

By 1900, the couple were being cared for by their youngest child and husband, Julia and Sam Case. Mr. Moody died in 1903. His wife continued to receive his Civil War pension until her death in 1912 at the age of 84. The couple was buried in the Peace Cemetery on Swan Creek outside Garrison, MO.



Sarah Ann Elrod Moody, center and daughters Isabel Moody Clark, left, and Serilda Moody Clark. (Courtesy Robert Melton and the estate of Lillie Case Rains Beesley).

Shares a stone with P.T. Moody and Sarah A. Bateman

Preston & Sarah Elrod Moody