Notes for "ALFONSO" LAFONSO MOON:
When Alphonso and Theodore's parents died they stayed with their older sister Elizabeth until her death in 1883? They then came out to California.
When Alfonse was a young lad he had almost decided to become a minister for the Baptist Church, but decided to leave and make his way west. He hitched a ride on the train and was kicked off at Kansas. He got a job working to erect a silo and was put on the top part to work. A couple of times he almost fell off due to the height, so he quit and drew his two dollars a day pay for the two days he had worked.
Oral history has it that Alphonso and Theodore worked their way out on the railroad to the Donner Pass station, and then herded sheep into the valley following the railway, and when the railroad stopped at the station in Goshen, Kings County, California, it reminded him of Goshen in southern New York State, so they stayed. Alphonso obtained a job as a ranch hand on the same ranch that Sarah was a bond servant. He told this story often to Edgar and Catherine.
After he and Sarah married they continued to work in the area around Alila or Pixley. Their first two children were born dead; their next four Alonso, Dottie, Calvin and Gideon were born in Pixley. They then decided to move to the coast, about six months after Christopher Evans, the husband of Mary Jane Byrd, one of Sarah's numerous Byrd first cousins, was convicted of murder and sentenced to prison. The Byrd family was so split between helping Christopher hide out, and helping the sheriff find him that it caused major family descension. Sarah told Edgar and Catherine only that, "There was an outlaw in the family , and it caused a lot of problems for them." A local land developer by the name of George Ballou, who owned a several large tracts of land in the Visalia area must have been looking for more land and someone to farm it for him. He bought the Montalvo farm on the Santa Clara river that Sarah and Alphonso settled on when they moved to Ventura County. Dallas Cawelti Moon records a conversation with Otto Klement as to the route they took to get to first to El Rio and then across the river to Montalvo, where they leased the farm that is still being farmed by Dorothy's husband and sons. Catherine Muzio Moon Instebo also recollects many conversations about the route.
Alphonso and Sarah bought a wagon, loaded all of their possessions, and tied their two cows to it. In July 1894 they traveled first to Bakersfield, then went over the Tehachapi's to Bishop. They decided that there were no opportunities for them there as it is a desert area, and turned back south following the mountains at the edge of the Mojave Desert, until they came to the Santa Clara River valley. Due to the heat in the desert they had to stop two to three times a days to water the stock. It took 31 days to make the trip, and the cows died en route. They had followed the Santa Clara river to El Rio, which was then known by the name New Jerusalem. They then moved across the river and on August 8, 1894 leased a 100 acre farm on river front property that had originally been part of Rancho San Miguel of the Olivas family Spanish land grant. George Ballou was in the process of buying the land, but he never farmed it himself. He eventually moved to San Bernardino and bought more land and started growing grapes. His nephew G. Hofer inherited the property in both Montalvo and San Bernardino, and the Moon's continued to farm it. Gideon and Edgar were born there in a one room Indian adobe hut. They then built a house and barns, going into the dairy business. Chester was born in the house. When they got older they moved to Bardsdale and bought an orange orchard, and built a house, which is still there. Chester was raised there. The farm in Montalvo was turned over to Edgar, who promptly got rid of the cows, as Catherine said he hated to take care of them. He then turned to dry farming, especially dry lima beans, sugar beets, and corn. After his death Dorothy's husband, Joe continued to farm this acreage until his retirement, and Joe's sons, Joe and Edgar have taken it over as part of their Terry Farms operations. In the spring of 2001 they had to move the shed and machine shop Edgar had built, as the Hofer descendents sold the last of the land to the car dealerships that had been slowly taking over the land after the Hofers had built the Brookside Winery there in the 1960's, but were unable to keep the wine tasting/sales a profitable business.
Sarah and Alphonso did not talk a lot about their childhoods, or their families, possibly because they had both been orphaned during their early teens, and there was no longer an older generation to tell them family stories. However, when Linda was little Edgar told her four stories, three of which that have proven to be true. 1) There was an outlaw in the family that caused a lot of problems (See Chris Evans/Mary Jane Byrd lineage for more information, including publications about Evans and Sontag), 2) We were the descendents of royalty. When Linda asked her grandfather about this he was unsure of the specifics, and thought we might have been Von Moon's originally. Yes, we are the descendents of royalty, but it is on Sarah's line. She is a descendent of the Lady Margaret Campbell, the daughter of the Duke of Argyll, who was married to Michael Woods, and were some of the first of the large migration from Scotland of the Presbyterian Scotsmen, to the Virginia hill country in the 1730's. 3) Sarah's mother, Molly Russell, was of Scots-Irish descent. Russell is a common Scots-Irish name, and her father Jonathon Russell, and her mother Mary were born in Virginia according to the1835 Texas census. They were residing in the Sabine district and were listed as Catholic and land owners. Molly (Mary Emily) was listed as being born in Mississippi. Who Jonathon's parents were is still unknown, and will take Linda sometime to research. 4) Edgar thought his great-grandfather, Seth Moon's father James Moon, was from New York state, and James' wife Maria/Marie was from Warren County, Pennsylvania. Marie lists her birth state in the 1850/60 census as New York, and her children's father as also from New York. However, James was the one born in Pennsylvania, albeit Bucks County. He came from a long line of Quakers from England, who had settled there in the 1640's or so. Marie was supposed to be of Dutch or Pennsylvania Dutch descent, but this has not yet been confirmed. Possibly she was born in Warren County, New York, which is on the Hudson River.
1880 Census Smithfield, Madison County, New York, page 374, lists Alfonso Moon age 16 as a servant in the Frederick Brown(?) household
1890 Great Register of Tulare County, California
Moon Alphonza 27 New York Pixley 56 18 Oct 1890
Moon Theodore 25 New York Alila 55 17 Oct 1890
More About "ALFONSO" LAFONSO MOON:
Census: 1900, Saticoy Twp., Ventura County, California SD. 6, ED. 167, Sheet 10, Line 82
Fact 1: 1939, He died at Cottage Hospital, Santa Barbara
Fact 2: 1939, He is buried at Santa Paula Cemetery
Voting Register: 1890, Pixley, Tulare County, California
1900 Census shows Alfonso's birthdate as June 1861 and Sadie's as August 1863 and that they had been married 15 years.
1910 Census Ventura, Ventura County, California, EU 217, sheet 4A
January 22, 1916, Oxnard Courier, Jury Men for 1915 Chosen By Supervisors lists Alphonso Moon in the First District.
February 9, 1917, Oxnard Courier, Personal and Local News Items, Monday, "Alphonso Moon of Montalvo called in town Saturday afternoon."
September 22, 1919 County Records published in the Oxnard Daily Courier, Alphonso Moon got a deed from Minnie Moislin, lot 12, blk F, Bardsdale.
1920 Census Ventura County, California, Bardsdale, EU 259, sheet 26A, farmer, Chester still at home
1930 Census Santa Paula, Ventura Co, CA Alphonso and Sadie own home valued at 10,000
