Evangeline Charity Moran Mooney - Part 1.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Great Influenza of 1918, the flu pandemic that killed 50 million or more people worldwide. Not by coincidence, this year is also the 100th anniversary of the death of Evangeline Charity Moran Mooney, who died from complications of the flu on December 15, 1918, two days before her 34th birthday, at her home in Lakewood, Ohio.

Angie (as she was known to friends and family) left behind her husband, William (Capt. Bill) Mooney, and their four children: Bill (who was 3 days shy of his 8th birthday), Eileen (who had just turned 5), Dorothy (3 years and 2 months old), and Tom (age 5 months).

This is some of her story ....

That's Evangeline above. On the back of a different photo, she's described as having blue eyes and light brown hair. In formal pictures, she usually looks pretty serious.

In the few candid and informal photos of her that survive, she's far more likely to be smiling — as in the one on the right showing her with her two older children, Bill and Eileen. 

The basic facts ...

• Evangeline Charity Moran was born December 17, 1884, in Bolivar, NY, the sixth child (fifth daughter) of John & Mary Jane McDevitt Moran (Grandma Moran). The Morans had come from Canada in the 1870s, first to Pennsylvania and then to Bolivar, in pursuit of oil. Their efforts were a success, and the Morans' strike at the Richburg well in 1881 set off the western New York oil boom.


• Angie grew up in Bolivar. She was a member of a well-to-do family in a prosperous town, but it was still a small town. The community notes in the Bolivar Breeze capture a part of her early years, noting, for example, her progress (with others) through school as she knocked off the various New York State Regents exams one by one.

• The earliest surviving picture of Angie shows her and her siblings at a well-shooting in 1893.

Oil Well Shooting, 1893.

Angie Moran is the fourth from the left, her face partially obscured by the shoulder of the boy standing in front of her.

Also in the picture: her uncle, Martin Moran (John Moran's brother), standing directly behind Angie; her sisters, Evelyn (far left), Aileen (second from left), Genevieve (behind the ladder with only half her face visible), Philomena (fourth from the right, next to the ladder), and Olive (the child in the right foreground next to the ladder); and her brother Erman (second from the right, behind Philomena).

The photo is on display at the Pioneer Oil Museum in Bolivar, NY.

• Angie lost her older brother Erman in 1902 and her father in 1904. John Moran had been in ill health for a few years before his death, and had regularly spent extended periods in Toronto and Buffalo seeking treatment. Erman died unexpectedly (from a burst bile duct) just two weeks after his 22nd birthday while John was under treatment in Toronto. John died of a stroke a year and a half later, two weeks short of his 68th birthday. He had spent some time walking in the yard, and he collapsed while sitting in the kitchen and talking with his family. Angie was 19 years old.


• Evangeline Moran and William Mooney were married on January 26, 1910, at St. Mary's Church in Bolivar. According to the Bolivar Breeze, the bride wore a blue traveling suit with a white hat, and she carried a white prayer book. (The groom's attire went unremarked.) Winter marriages were common among the Mooneys because Capt. Bill (like his father Ed Mooney before him) was on the Great Lakes during the shipping season from April to November. The newlyweds honeymooned in New York City before settling in the Cleveland area.

• Angie and Capt. Bill had 4 children: William E. (born December 18, 1910); Eileen (November 24, 1913); Dorothy Jane (October 14, 1915); and Thomas Leo (July 8, 1918).


• Angie died on December 15, 1918, at the family's home in Lakewood, Ohio, two days before her 34th birthday. The cause of death was pneumonia as a complication of influenza. Her remains were transferred to Bolivar, and she was buried there on December 18.

St. Mary's Cemetery, Bolivar, New York.

What was she like ...?

• We have some clues about the kind of person she was. After high school, Angie worked for some time at the Bolivar post office (where her son Tom would become postmaster in the 1960s). There, according to the Bolivar Breeze, “by her courteous manner and sunny disposition she was very popular.”


• In the story covering her death and funeral, the Breeze said:

Bolivar Breeze, Dec. 19, 1918, p. 1.
(Image from fultonhistory.com.)

• Another clue to Angie's character — especially the "happiest when helping others" part —can be found in the events leading up to her death. More about that later.

Angie and Capt. Bill ...

• We can infer from the Bolivar Breeze that Capt. Bill had competition in Bolivar: the Breeze's community notes include a suspiciously large number of entries recording the repeated arrivals of a young man by the name of John Hifler of Pittsburgh who was in town "visiting Miss Angie Moran." The visits tapered off in the spring and summer of 1909, although there was one more in December of that year, less than two months before Angie and Capt. Bill tied the knot. If Mr. Hifler was there to make one last courting try, he was too late. By then, Hifler was history.

• Here's a question: How did Angie and Capt. Bill even meet? She was from an oil-drilling family in rural western New York; he was from Rockport, outside Cleveland, Ohio, and he came from a family of sailors (also storekeepers and gentlemen-farmers). Speculations on this topic — possibly even informed speculations — are coming up in Part 2!


• At the time of the marriage, Capt. Bill was master of the Great Lakes steam freighter Andaste, a position he held through the 1913 shipping season. He was master of the Pontiac in 1914 and 1915, of the Marquette in 1916, and of the Grand Island from 1917 to 1920. As master, Capt. Bill was entitled to take family members with him on the ship's voyages, and he sometimes did so. One of the most endearing photos of Angie that survives shows her laughing delightedly with her son young Bill on the deck of the Andaste.

Above: Angie & young Bill at a Canadian port with an unidentified crew member of the Andaste.

Right: Angie & young Bill on the deck of the Andaste.

Below: The Andaste, fully loaded and low in the water. The picture was taken in 1910, the second year of Capt. Bill's tenure as the ship's master. (Image courtesy of wikipedia and the Library of Congress.)

• The Andaste collided with another freighter in 1912 near Sault Ste. Marie. Capt. Bill was forced to ground his ship to prevent her from sinking. It's unclear whether this somewhat unfortunate event put a crimp in the Lake-faring travels of Angie and the kids.

End of Evangeline - Part 1. Go here for Part 2.