Class of 1922

Birth: 2 Apr 1902, Cabarrus County, North Carolina, USA
Death: 8 Dec 1998, Mount Pleasant, Cabarrus County, North Carolina, USA

Parents:
William Jennings Moose (1871-1930)
Aurelia Hamilton Rose Moose (1869-1962)

Spouse: John Allison Watson, Jr. (1909-1937); Marriage: 16 Jul 1930, Dillon, South Carolina
Spouse: Ben McAllister (1891-1960); Marriage: 30 Jun 1938, Cabarrus County, North Carolina

Siblings:
Marvin Earl Moose (1893-1966)
Cramer Banks Moose (1898-1953)
William Jennings Moose (1905-1990)
Hazel Fay Rose Moose Watts (1909-1997)
Clarence Alexander Moose (1910-1999)

Burial: Saint James Reformed Cemetery, Mount Pleasant, Cabarrus County, North Carolina, USA
Source: www.findagrave.com, # 22667785.

____________

Independent Tribune (Concord, NC), 2 Apr 1932, page 5.

Coming as a surprise to their many friends here and elsewhere, was the announcement of the marriage of Miss Edith Moose and John A. Watson, of Wilson, N. C., which was solemnized at Dillon, S. C., July 16th, 1930. Mrs. Watson is the older daughter of Mrs. W. J. Moose and has been the genial postmistress of Mt. Pleasant for a number of years. Mr. Watson is a last year’s graduate of the Collegiate Institute. Both Mr. and Mrs. Watson have a wide circle of friends who wish them much happiness.

____________

Independent Tribune (Concord, NC), 30 Jun 1938, p.6.

Mrs. Edith M. Watson Weds Ben McAllister

Announcement has been made of the marriage of Mrs. Edith Moose Watson and Ben McAllister. They were married this morning at ten o’clock at St. John’s Lutheran church parsonage with Rev. L. D. Miller officiating. Only a few relatives and intimate friends were present.

Mrs. McAllister wore a navy blue chiffon dress with white accessories. She is a former postmistress of Mt. Pleasant.

Mr. McAllister is a prominent contractor in Mt. Pleasant.

After a short wedding trip through western North Carolina, the couple will make their home in Mt. Pleasant.

____________

One Hundred Years at St. James, 1894-1994: A Collection of History and Memories in Celebration of the Centennial Year, compiled by Elizabeth Swaringer, 1994, p. 18-20. https://divinityarchive.com/.

At 92, Edith Moose McAllister is the oldest native of Mt. Pleasant. More importantly, she’s the oldest member of St. James United Church of Christ. And she wouldn’t have it any other way. “I’ve gone there all my life,” she says. “It’s always meant a lot to me, and I don’t know any different.”

The daughter of a Lutheran mother and a Reformed father “from Bear Creek,” she still remembers the little white church that was St. James before the present brick structure was built in 1923. “My daddy helped build the church. It had a center aisle and a tall, round stove. On the right side were a table and two chairs where they fixed communion. The choir and organ were on the left with a banister around them. And there was the Amen Corner,’ where students from MPCI and Mont Amoena sat. We gathered around a round oil heater in the back of the church for Sunday School.

“Aunt Molly — Hoy Moose’s mother —was my teacher Every Sunday she asked us the same four questions: ‘Who made you, who made the ark, who’s the oldest man, who’s the strongest man?’ We got little cards that had a Biblical picture on the front and a lesson on the back.”

She remembers going to the auditorium over Cook &’ Foil’s Store on West Franklin Street for Sunday School and church while the new church was under construction in 1923. “There was a raised stage and curtains and a little dressing room off to the side. It was convenient and served us well.”

Catechism, or confirmation class as it’s known today, “felt like forever and a day. We had to memorize all sorts of things. And I still had my Heidelberg Catechism until I gave it to the museum a few years ago.” Miss Edith joined St. James on April 1, 1917, when Rev. Lyerly was pastor “I wore a white dress with a ruffled collar that came around and tied in the back. I stood next to Elizabeth ‘Tibs’ Foil, and we knelt at the altar rail.”

As young people, the teen-agers joined the Mission Band. Not really a band at all, it was a youth group that met late Sunday afternoons. “It wasn’t really something we looked forward to, but we went,” she recalls. “Mrs. Otha Barringer led it and she always brought something from China because her sister was a missionary there.”

Before she was 22, Edith Moose became the first post mistress of Mt. Pleasant, a political appointment she held for seven years. During that time, she married John Watson of Wilson, N.C., who died nearly seven years later of pneumonia. Following two years as a young widow, she met Ben McAllister, a bricklayer more than 10 years her senior.

‘We met in the spring and by gosh we married on June 30, but not at St. James,” she recalls. “Rev. Gerhardt, our minister was on vacation, and the Lutheran pastor was too. Rev. Miller married us at St. John’s Lutheran Church parsonage.”

In 1938, Edith and Ben moved to 1232 North College Street where she still lives today. “My house was the first Methodist church in Mt. Pleasant,” she says. “It used to be twice as big, but they sawed it in half before they sold it. The house next door is the other half.”

Being within the belfry’s shadow of St. James made it easy to get involved in church activities. “But even if I had lived further I would have still been active. In a small church like St. James there’s always plenty to do. And when you get a job it’s yours. I was chairman of the social committee for seven or eight years, and I thought I’d never get rid of it.”

And church suppers were as enticing then as they are today. “Suppers, suppers, suppers, we had them. Ethel Moose was always the head knocker, and she drew us younger folks in on it. Eb (Evelyn Dove) kept the books on who brought what. She assigned people things to bring so we always had plenty. I cooked chickens for the noodle suppers, and all the women made the noodles. Georgia (Kluttz) always said an eggshell full of water in with the yolks and flour made the difference.

“We usually held the suppers as fundraisers, like we did with the soup-and-sandwich and chili lunches after church this year to pay for new table linens. Churches don’t do it much any more, but in those days you had to have something going that you’ve got to pay for. We’d sell a bowl of noodles for 45 or 50 cents. We usually sold out and for that time, it was good money. That’s how we got money for the dossal cloth behind the altar”

But after all these years, it’s the Christmas morning traditions for which St. James is famous that really get Miss Edith excited.

“Georgia’s (Kluttz) mother was the one who insisted on those 6 a.m. Christmas morning pageants. There was always a choir and songs and speeches and candles and cards and presents under the tree. But no breakfast.

“Then, in the 1950s Hoy (Moose) started the breakfasts with donuts and coffee, and look what it’s grown to today. I enjoy Christmas morning breakfast at the church more than just about anything. And that The Eyes Of Miss Edith Christmas bag. I don’t care if I have fruit at home or if I live to be 140, I still want it. It’s something special we should never stop doing.”

Bad knees make getting around difficult, but Miss Edith walks to Sunday School and church every Sunday, just as she’s done nearly every Sunday for as long as she can remember.

“I don’t ever remember not coming to Sunday School,” she says, eyes twinkling with the excitement of a first visit to a wonderful place. “And I distinctly remember when I started coming to church. Mother didn’t go because she was home with my sick grandmother. I began slipping home after Sunday School, and finally one Sunday my mother met me at the door and said, ‘Now Edith, you’re old enough to stay for preaching, so turn around and go back.’

“I did, and I’ve been coming back ever since.”

____________

Independent Tribune (Concord, NC), 23 Jul 1995, p. 3.

She’s a walking, talking part of Mt. Pleasant Heritage

By KIMBERLY VANDERBURG
Staff Writer

Mrs. Ben McAllister, 94, has lived in Mt. Pleasant all her life. If you want to know about the history of Mt. Pleasant, she can tell you.

She was born and raised in Mt. Pleasant and has lived on North College Street for years. Her home shows her personality. You enter into the house through a screened in porch that has chairs and a swing. Plants and flowers are around her porch and yard, one of Mrs. McAllister’s hobbies.

You then enter into a den that is made of family heritage. “I like to crochet, but I knit mostly,” Mrs. McAllister said.

You see hanging on the wall above her television a plaque that is from her church, St. James United Church of Christ, for 75 years of membership. Now a member for 78 years, Mrs. McAllister is still involved with the church.

She was born on East Franklin Street, just right down the road from where she lives. “The house is still standing and I was one of five children,” Mrs. McAllister said.

Mrs. McAllister has arthritis and getting up and down out of a chair, as well as walking, can be difficult. But she doesn’t let that stop her, though: “I’m going to stay right here. I feel if I would quit doing anything I would not live.”

Mrs. McAllister graduated from Mont Amoena junior college in 1922. It was an all girls school until it closed in 1927. She received her teacher’s certificate and worked for a year teaching before she decided “it was not for me.”

She then worked for Efird’s Department Store in Concord and eventually became a postmaster in Mt. Pleasant for seven years. “At that time you lost your job if presidents changed, because if they were of a different party than you, then a new person came in.”

She married Ben McAllister, also a native of Mt. Pleasant and brick mason. A month after their marriage, the couple moved into the house she lives in now. After the death of her husband, Mrs. McAllister worked in the school cafeteria in Mt. Pleasant until she was 62 years-old.

Ever since then she has been taking care of her house, staying involved in her church, reading, doing crossword puzzles and making Afghan quilts.

“I had a garden until this year. I grew beans, corn, squash, bell peppers and tomatoes. I did the mowing up until a few years ago.

“When I was growing up, there was always something going on at the auditorium at the college, and everybody went. Not once in awhile, but all the time. That is the difference today. Not many people are going to something all the time that is going on.

“Schools are different now. This town was ahead on education, and people would come to the college from everywhere,” Mrs. McAllister said. “My tuition for one year was $50, a big difference from today. The year I taught school I received $85 a month. A penny was big back then. You could buy suckers and even an ice cream cone for that price. Also there were two stores that you could buy anything at them.”

Mrs. McAllister said that money was scarce when she was growing up. “Daddy worked to make ends meet. I picked maybe 80 pounds of cotton for 50 cents. Mother would save the money to buy material for a dress, and when shoes would wear out they would be resoled.”

When Mrs. McAllister was growing up there was always a garden and they sometimes had pigs, a cow and chickens running around. She also made lye soap, used a wash board and boiled clothes in a wash pot.

Mrs. McAllister said the fire that destroyed the first girls school and her appendix operation are two items that stick out in her mind the most. She adds that many of her fond memories are of her travel excursions, including jaunts to New Orleans, Florida, Virginia, St. Louis and Washington.

“I lived an ordinary life and I’ve been content in Mt. Pleasant. I’m the oldest living native in Mt. Pleasant and born and raised here. It’s a peaceful town. I’ve taught a Sunday School Class, sang in the choir and have helped out with activities at the church by cooking and making crafts. There’s nothing special about my life,” Mrs. McAllister said. But many other townsfolk might disagree.

____________

The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, NC. 9 Dec 1998

MOUNT PLEASANT – Mrs. Edith Moose McAllister 96, died Dec. 8, 1998. Funeral is 2 p.m. Thursday at Saint James United Church of Christ. Burial in the church cemetery. Visitation is 6-7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Gordon Funeral Home.