Throwback Thursday: Lydia Clapper Moats

Lydia Ann Clapper was born in Ohio on July 21, 1825. When she was 18 she married David Moats and by 24 she was already the mother of four children.

In 1851 the family headed west and on March 10, 1852, David received a federal land grant for 40 acres in Highland Township, Clayton County, Iowa. David and Lydia made a life for themselves in Clayton County, where David farmed and Lydia raised their four children – and give birth to 10 more.

They retired in 1899 and moved to Elgin, where David and Lydia remained active. When they celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary in 1909 a reporter from the Elgin Echo stopped by there home. He found David, 89, hauling a wheelbarrow of potatoes to the cellar and Lydia, 84, cleaning the house.

In total they would celebrate 68 years of marriage and earn the title of the longest married couple living in Fayette County. When she died in 1912 at age 86, they had had 48 grandchildren and 43 great-grandchildren.