Mail Delivery in the 18th Century
When Post Masters received letters, they listed the names in the newspapers of those to whom the letters were addressed. If the letters were not picked up by a specified date, they went to the Dead Letter Office.
Dr. Robert C. Moody and Dr. William R. Raum of Shippensburg
Although many records spell the name as Moody, the family spelled their name Moodey. Middle Spring Presbyterian Church
In May 1828, Dr. James Patterson Henderson1 set out on horseback from Western Pennsylvania to visit his relatives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He kept a journal filled with details of the places he saw and the people he met. As the editor of his journal states, Henderson “tells of the State Capitol in Harrisburg. He describes James Buchanan, then a young lawyer at Lancaster. He sees his first town clock and first billiard table…He visits a militia drill…a Dunkard immersion, and he never misses an opportunity to flirt with women.”2
Henderson’s route took him through Mechanicsburg and Carlisle, which he described, and on May 28, Henderson reached Shippensburg. He wrote:
“Shippensburg. 20 miles from Carlisle. This town is built principally on the highway and stands on the sides of a small hill, on the summit of which the turnpike--the broadway of Shippensburg—runs in an obtuse angle. The town is a mile in length and the houses removed from the heart of it far indeed from rich or elegant. The heart itself forms but a very paltry exception to this general character. There are 3 or 4 good churches in the town: Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian and one for the Methodists now building…The population of the place I heard estimated at 1,600. The business is mercantile, mechanical and innkeeping with a few exceptions. These consist of gentlemen of the liberal professions, who I think are here unusually crowded.
“I saw the shew-boards of several lawyers and physicians and among the rest those of my old acquaintances as Moody and Rhaum. They are in partnership and the latter has married a sister of the former. I understood their practice was not very arduous, nor extensive. They were wild dogs at college and no doubt regret, when too late, their idleness and dissipation. Their complete failure and ruin I would not be surprised at. The course is natural and easily trodden.”
The men Henderson was writing about were Robert Crawford Moody and William Rippy Raum. The three men attended Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania. Moody and Raum in the Class of 1823 and Henderson in the Class of 1825.
William Rippy Raum, son of John Raum and Catharine Rippy, was born in Shippensburg on May 2, 1805. Both the Raum’s and the Rippy’s were old Shippensburg families. According to a listing of Washington and Jefferson College students, Raum was a student with Dr. Finley of Shippensburg and Baltimore, and he practiced medicine in Charlestown, West Virginia from 1830 to 1863.3
Dr. Raum married Elizabeth, the daughter of Dr. Rev. John Moody of Middle Spring Presbyterian Church on January 25, 1827,4 making him a brother-in-law of Robert C. Moody. Soon after Henderson’s visit in 1828, Raum and Moody dissolved their partnership, and Raum moved to Charlestown, West Virginia where he and his wife raised ten children, and Dr. Raum practiced until his death on September 17, 1863.
Robert Crawford Moody, born near Shippensburg in 1805,5 was the eldest son of Dr. Rev. John Moody of Shippensburg and Elizabeth Crawford his wife.6 He was a medical student with Dr. Finley in Shippensburg and practiced in Newville from 1825 to 1838.7 Dr. Moody did not fare as well as his brother-in-law. He petitioned the court for insolvency in August 1833. He said that his assets included medical books worth $20, uncollected fees on his books of $50-60, and $10 worth of furniture. He gave the reason for his insolvency as “disappointment in professional business and non-payment of money due me for professional services.” 8
Dr. Moody never married and died at the age of 33 on May 3, 1838. He is buried in the cemetery at Middle Spring Presbyterian Church.
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References (Sources Available at CCHS in bold)
[1] “Dr. James P. Henderson died Monday morning at his residence in Newville, Ohio. The end came through a gradual breaking up of a system worn out by many years of devotion to professional duties. His death removes one of the most remarkable and prominent figures in the history of Richland County, Dr. Henderson having been associated very closely with the settlement of the same. Dr. J.P. Henderson came from a long line of distinguished Scotchman, who were influential and intelligent and came to this country from Scotland before the Revolutionary War and took a prominent part therein. The deceased was born near Elizabeth, Allegheny County, Pa., January 17, 1803, and is, therefore, 86 years old. His classical and scientific education was received at Jefferson and Washington colleges. He located in Newville, this county, in November of 1830. It will be seen from this how important a part he must have taken in the early history of our county. He received many honorable attentions from his profession in the state and was frequently elected to high positions in the medical societies. In politics, Dr. Henderson was, prior to 1854, a Democrat, but since that time he was associated with the Republicans. In 1841 and in 1842 he represented this county in the House of Representatives of the Ohio Legislature, and in 1850 he was a member of the constitutional convention which framed the present state constitution. He leaves a wife and one son, John M. Henderson, of Cleveland, O.” -- [INDEPENDENT-STAR (Bellville): 06 July 1889, Vol. 2, No. 12 as re-printed from the SHIELD]
[2] James Patterson Henderson, Elizabeth, PA. Journal of A Tour To Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in the Spring of 1828. Edited by Raymond Martin Bell, Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, PA., 1973.
[3] G. H. Buchanan, Biographical and Historical Catalogue of Washington and Jefferson College: Containing a General Catalogue of the Graduates and Non-Graduates of Jefferson College and of Washington College and of Washington and Jefferson College, 1802-1902. Washington and Jefferson College (Washington, PA. 1902), 36.
[4] Records of Middle Spring Presbyterian Church, Shippensburg, PA.
[5] Baptisms at Middle Spring Presbyterian Church record Robert COOPER Moody, of John Moody, was baptized April 9, 1805.
[6] Rev. Moody was the minister of Middle Spring Presbyterian Church from 1803-1854. Belle McKinney Hays Swope, History of the Middle Spring Presbyterian Church, Middle Spring PA., 1738-1900 (Newville, PA: Times Steam Printing House, 1900).
[7] G. H. Buchanan, Biographical and Historical Catalogue of Washington and Jefferson College: Containing a General Catalogue of the Graduates and Non-Graduates of Jefferson College and of Washington College and of Washington and Jefferson College, 1802-1902. Washington and Jefferson College (Washington, PA. 1902), 36. Tax records for Newville do not list Moody.
[8] Prothonotary. Insolvent Debtor Petitions: 1833 August Term, 1833.1309. Cumberland County Archives. Carlisle, PA.