The Moody Family of Pittsfield, Maine

William Henry Moody, Sr. (1842-1920) was an architech and home builder born in Cornville Maine, and died in Pittsfield, Maine.  He married first to Mary S. Kittredge (1848-1883), and had four children:

1. Orra Elizabeth Moody (1875-1897), died of dysentery in Waterville at age 21.  The 1880 Census record and her death record misgendered her as male.  In the Somerset Independent Reporter, 8/27/1896, she appeared in the correspondence section thusly:  "Miss Orra Moody, of Cornville, is visiting at her uncle's, Mr. Oakman Moody's."

Orra Elizabeth Moody (about 1890)

2. William Henry Moody, Jr. (1879-1924), fought in WWI, worked as a carpenter, and moved to  Florida, Georgia, and then finally Alabama with his wife Nellie.  They had five children.

William Moody, Jr. (about 1900)

3. Aquila Emery Moody (1881-1967) also fought in WWI like his brother, and worked as a steam fitter and lived in Portland with his wife Lucinda and five children, one of whom he named after his dear sister, Orra, and another, Roscoe, who died while fighting the Japanese in the Pacific in WWII.

Aquila Emery Moody (about 1910)

4. Benjamin Earl Moody (1883-1884), died at five months of age. 

Mary died just a few months after Benjamin was born.  After Benjamin died an infant, William married Lydia Osborn Fuller, my 2nd great grandmother, who had been widowed from her first husband Charles Fuller in Ottumwa, Iowa in 1878.  Lydia had to wait quite a long time in Iowa, with five kids of her own, until Charles' Will was settled. The lawyer had lost the documents in a storm and it was necessary to get depositions from the original witnesses who were still in Maine. It took almost two years to do this.  Then she and her children returned to Fairfield, Maine. Lydia's father Timothy Osborn sent her the money to come home to Fairfield, as she was penniless, after waiting so long in Iowa with her children. 

Lydia & William Moody (after 1884)

It's unclear how Lydia met William Moody.  They married in 1884 and joined households.  By this time, all but her youngest daughter, Edith, and William's three eldest children, were the only kids to move in together in Pittsfield.

Stepsiblings (1887)
Edith Fuller at top, then, clockwise,
William Moody, Jr., Aquila Moody, and Orra Moody

Below is a picture I uncovered from Family Search, which was tagged with many wrong names.  It's clear to me that the boy at the far left is Aquila, and at his feet is his sister Orra.  I do not now who the other four children in the photo are, but perhaps they are cousins.  I think this is from about 1897, just before Orra died.  Given that William Jr. doesn't appear here, and he waas 18 at the time would likely have already been at college, is my guess.