John Philip Moser was the 3rd great-grandfather of Florence Mosier and one of fourteen children of Johann Georg Fredrich Moser and Maria Barbara Lieser. He was born on November 26, 1758 in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. The area in which he was born was first part of Bucks County and later part of Lehigh County. At the age of 4, Philip (as he was known) migrated with his parents from Pennsylvania down the Great Wagon Road to Stinking Quarter Creek in Orange County (now Alamance County), North Carolina.

Around 1780, Philip Moser married a woman named Catherine about whom nothing is known. Philip and Catherine had nine children: George (?), John (1785), Frederick (abt. 1786), Elizabeth (abt. 1787), Magdalena (?), Eve (?), Mary (abt. 1781), Sally or Sarah (?) and Catherine (abt. 1800). These children are all named in Philip's will written in 1837. It is possible, of course, that there were other children who did not reach adulthood.

On August 25, 1786, Philip paid 150 pounds and received a grant from the State of North Carolina for 112 acres of land in Orange County on the south side of the Haw River in the vicinity of Stinking Quarter Creek. This land adjoined land purchased on the same day by his brother Michael Moser and was part of the estate of Henry Eustice McCulloch that had been confiscated and sold at public venue pursuant to an act of the General Assembly.

The European methods of farming practiced by the settlers depended on acquiring new, fertile land to sustain growth. Without rotation of crops and artifical fertilizers, new land had to be cleared for cultivation every seven years. As a result, there was great pressure for new land, not only because of a rapidly expanding population, but because of the deteriorating value of land for agricultural uses.¹

Philip Moser was among the thousands of colonists from Pennsylvania to the Carolinas who were lured by the promise of rich fertile lands in the west, beyond the Appalachians. On September 6, 1805, Philip sold his 112 acres to Adam Whitsell for 500 dollars, packed up his family and household goods and made the long trek on the Wilderness Road --through the Cumberland Gap, across Kentucky, and into the Indiana Territory on the western banks of the Ohio River.

Philip Moser's arrival in Indiana is documented in History of the Ohio Falls Counties [1882].The following is included in the discussion on Georgetown Township, Floyd County:

It is assumed that Philip's wife, Catherine, died before 1837 since there is no reference to her in Philip's will. The 1840 Census for Floyd County lists Philip Mosier as the head of a household that includes 1 male 10-15 yrs old, 1 male 70-80 yrs old, and 1 female 60-70 yrs old. Philip was actually 81 years old when the 1840 census was taken. The young male who was present in the household may have been a grandson. The female may have been a relative or simply a woman hired to keep house for Philip.

Philip Moser died on November 26, 1840 at the age of 82. During his lifetime, he had traveled, probably by conestoga wagon, both the Great Wagon Road and the Wilderness Road. He had witnessed as citizen the entry of two states into the Union, North Carolina in 1789 and Indiana in 1816.