Ben Moseby

From the February 20, 1925 issue of the PN&C:

Luray Colored Man Aged 104 Dead

Ben Moseby, colored, who claimed to have seen ‘the stars fall’ in 1833 when he was twelve years old, died on Wednesday at the home of Lena Cyrus, wife of John Cyrus, at Luray. Ben was a slave in Fluvanna county when the shooting meteors of Nov. 18, 1833, lit up the heavens with the brilliancy of day and struck consternation to the hearts of the people, the fright by no means being confined to those of Ben’s color. With the exception of the fall of the stars the old colored man had no first-hand recollection of historic events of importance. He belonged to Benjamin Flannagan of Culpeper county, who owned a big landed estate as well as twenty-five slaves. Charles W. Flannagan of Charlottesville, Va., a nephew of Benjamin Flannagan, is a brother-in-law of Charles S. Landram of Luray. The latter is able to verify a good many of the facts as Ben gave them.

Nobody is able to take issue with the old negro as to his great age. Until a week before he died he was able to be about and looked after the garden and other work about the house of Lena Cyrus whom he raised in his prime he was a man of powerful physique. He came to Page county about 1900 and ran the blacksmith shop at the White House, then belonging to Cletus M. Brubaker, deceased. He was a skilled workman and while a slave was employed regularly as a blacksmith, his master getting the proceeds of labor until he was freed as a result of the war. He came to Page county from Culpeper where he followed his trade for many years. Ben always bore a good character. He belonged to Bethel Baptist Church. The funeral will be held at the church on the hill by his pastor, Rev. G.W. Thomas today, the body being interred in the colored Odd Fellows cemetery near the Jake Kelly place.