84-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 8, 1991
GAY N. BROWNLEE
Somerset Co. Correspondent
MEYERSDALE (Somerset
Co.) Brothers William W.
(Bill), and Harvey Moser, the only
sons bom to parents whose four
older children were daughters,
were delighted this spring to have
the family farm named Moser
Brothers officially designated a
Century Farm. Until 1974, the
farm was known as Ralph Moser
& Sons.
Bill says he always thought that
his ancestors purchased the farm
in 1889 until he checked the deed
and found the date was 1888.
The original farm, now the cen
tury farm, is comprised of 235
acres. Three more farms, pur
chased in succeeding years by the
brothers, have increased their land
holdings by 590 acres. Some land
is rented to other farmers, much of
it supports their own Holstein
dairy with crops of hay, com, and
oats. Some parts of it aren’t
farmed.
Excluding replacement stock,
the dairy operates with a fluctuat
ing 75 head of milking animals, of
which about one third are regis-
GAY BROWNLEE
Somerset Co. Correspondent
Somerset County cor
respondent, Gay N.
Brownlee, has been a part
time professional writer
for five years. With her six
children now fully grown,
she intends to pursue her
passion for writing much
more vigorously.
Recently, Brownlee was
made an honorary mem
ber of the Old Petersburg-
Addison Hisotrical Socie
ty, located in Addison, PA,
on the strength of a single
story she wrote telling how
the society was restoring
an abandoned cemetery,
which was buried under a
labyrinth of trees, tangled
brambles, and wild berry
vines. The cemetery’s
graves were sunken from
decayed wooden coffins
and had damaged tombs
tones from unrestrained
On Moser Brothers’ Century Farm
Life
tered. For propagation of the herd
they say that artificial insemina
tion is generally used to impre
gnate the females. Milk from their
dairy is marketed through the
Maryland-Virginia Co-op.
“We have a cash crop of pota
toes and maple syrup,’* says
Harvey. Bill adds that these crops
are comparatively small. For
instance, the market potatoes are
raised on one and a half acres.
When the Moser couples
Bill and wife Roberta, Harvey and
wife Nancy —• took time from
their busy schedules for an inter
view, it was set for the dubious
hour of 9:30 p.m. at Harvey’s
home. It had to follow a high
school musical concert demand
ing their supportive presence and
a foregone supper which normally
would have followed the comple
tion of evening milking chores.
So, after arriving home, Nancy
quickly ordered pizza from a local
shop, “So Harvey can have his
supper,” she said.
We were right on schedule, but
the two gentlemen, having already
done a good day’s work, looked
increasingly comfortable in their
easy chairs waiting for the kids to
cattle.
Besides writing, Brown
lee reads, teaches a teen
age Sunday School class,
enjoys homemaking, and
is a volunteer for the
Mountain Playhouse, a
professional summer
theatre located at Jenner
stown, Pa.
In the near future,
Brownlee has plans to
travel and to study crea
tive writing.
Shown are the Moser brothers standing by the peony flower bed with their wives.
From left, Nancy and Harvey Moser and Roberta and William W. Moser, from Meyers
dale, RD 3.
bring home the pizza. Was it real
ly a good time for an interview, I
wondered.
Initially, the questions were met
with a fair amount of cogitation
before Harvey gave one answer,
Bill gave a different one, and
finally, the wives gave the one
they knew to be correct
Harvey said he learned to milk
by hand as a young boy.
“I’ve been milking cows for
fifty years,” he said.
The previous generation used
horses for farming but slowly
machinery replaced them until the
horses weren’t used at all. The
first milking machines came to the
farm during the 1940 decade.
Bill chuckles as he tells how it
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Moser Brothers, Bill on the big John Deere tractor, and
Harvey, standing by the rear tire, are now the owners of a
Century Farm.
s^*
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