From the time of Edwin Moody’s death, the Moody family struggled to cope with the loss of their breadwinner. Astonished to see his mother’s hair turn white almost overnight, Dwight knew the family barely had enough food to eat. Not only that, but they had little wood to burn in the fireplace, and it was nearly as chilly inside as out. He didn’t understand that because of the heavy mortgage on the property, creditors tried to take just about everything in the household.
One of the creditors, Richard Colton, came to the Moody home as soon as he could following the funeral and took most of the furniture, the horse and buggy, and the cows (except for one calf he did not discover). The older boys had hidden their father’s tools, and only the dower (widow’s) law of Massachusetts prevented Mr. Colton from turning the family out of the house.
A month after his father’s death, Dwight’s mother gave birth to twins, a girl, Lizzie, and a boy, Samuel. Still in bed following their birth, Betsey Moody was surprised to see another creditor, rich Ezra Purple, come into her bedroom to collect the mortgage due on the house. Worse, he wanted her to sign the house over to him! Betsey told Mr. Purple that she would get the money as soon as she could, but he didn’t want to wait. Fortunately, two of Betsey’s brothers, Charles and Cyrus Holton, were able to raise the needed mortgage funds for the rest of that year.
Dwight’s four older brothers, Isaiah, George, Edwin, and Luther, soon found employment on nearby farms and helped support the family. But then fifteen-year-old Isaiah ran away from home. No one knew where Isaiah went or why. Probably the responsibilities that dropped on his shoulders following his father’s premature death were simply too much for him.
Betsey continued to hope that her oldest son would come home. At night, she set a lantern on the west window to lure Isaiah back. Eagerly, she looked for news about him. She would send her children to the post office daily to see if he had written a letter. Dwight, his brothers, and his older sister, Cornelia, would come back and have to say, “No letter today, Mother.” When the family gathered in the evenings around the stone fireplace for Bible reading, Dwight’s mother would lift her voice in prayer for Isaiah, calling him “that wanderer.” On Thanksgiving Day she would always set a place for Isaiah, hoping it would be the day he returned.
Because of Mrs. Moody’s difficult circumstances, many of the townspeople thought she should send all her children except the twins to live elsewhere. But Dwight’s mother wouldn’t hear of it. She had already lost one son and was determined that with God’s help and hard work, the family would manage. And manage they did, although as the boys got older, some of them began working at farms that were far enough away so they had to board with the farmer and only came home occasionally.
Little Dwight loved his family, and despite their hardships, he enjoyed the many good times they had together. Even though his mother spent considerable energy and time milking cows, weaving cloth, spinning yarn, and making children’s clothes, she still found time to be with each of her children.
Dwight knew, too, that if he disobeyed his mother—or the schoolmaster or any of his elders—his mother would have him pick out a strong, green switch from the backyard birch. That was one thing he could always count on—getting a good whipping for playing pranks on people or for being disobedient. But sometimes it was hard for him to be good!
Dwight rarely suffered any guilt from his impish ways. Even though he and his family went to church regularly, it never occurred to him to call on God in his daily life. But once when he was six and herding cows to pasture, he got pinned under a fence rail. As he struggled unsuccessfully to lift the heavy rails, he began to panic and cry out: “Help me, somebody! Help!”
DWIGHT RARELY SUFFERED ANY GUILT FROM HIS IMPISH WAYS.
Nobody came. He began to think he might die. Then Dwight thought about God helping him and he said, “God, help me lift these heavy rails.” Right after his prayer, he found he could easily lift the rails.
When Dwight turned ten, his opportunity came to board and help with farmwork in Greenfield, Massachusetts. An older brother already worked in Greenfield doing chores for a farmer. This brother, who was constantly homesick, wrote frequent letters wanting Dwight to join him. And one cold day in November, he came home and announced that he had found a good place for Dwight—in Greenfield.
“Oh, how upset I was!” Dwight later wrote. “I didn’t want to leave the comfort of my home, my mother, my brothers and sisters. I said I wouldn’t go. But as mother and I sat by the fire, she said, ‘Dwight, I think you will have to go. I don’t think I shall be able to keep the family together this winter.’
“Mother’s wish was enough. I didn’t sleep much that night. I cried a great deal. The next morning after breakfast, I took my little bundle and started. About a mile from the house, my brother and I both sat down and cried. I thought I would never get back as long as I lived. We walked over the frozen ground about thirteen miles.”
After the boys arrived in Greenfield and Dwight had been introduced to the old farmer he was to work for, he felt even stranger. “I was to milk the cows, go on errands, and go to school.” But there were no children anywhere around! That afternoon, as I looked the old man over, I realized he didn’t care for boys. Even though he was kinder than I first thought, he could not sympathize with a child. Later when I met his wife and looked her over, I thought she was more cross than he was. Oh, how homesick I was!”
But as Dwight did his chores well and pleased the farmer, his homesickness began to vanish. Then someone from a nearby town gave him a brand-new penny, which was worth much more than that today. To a young boy who rarely had any money, the penny represented a fortune. He thought he was rich!
“One thing that I learned from the old man and his penny was when you give anything to anybody, always do so in the name of Christ. Better still, tell the story of the cross and a loving heavenly Father. From that time on, I felt I at least had a friend in that little town.”
After a while, Dwight was able to come back home. How happy he was to be back with those he loved, especially his mother. Although the family waged a constant struggle against poverty and sometimes lived for weeks on a diet of corn meal and milk, they were thankful. Dwight knew, too, that his mother would always find food for any poor person who stopped at their door. She taught each of her children to be generous with what they had.
Dwight’s thankfulness extended to two other people who befriended his family. One was the minister, the Reverend Edward Everett, who watched out for the family, supplying what was needed, whether food, encouragement, prayer, or perhaps money. The church people, by and large, seemed indifferent to the Moody family’s plight, so Dwight and his family were especially grateful to Pastor Everett for his concern.
Dwight’s uncle, Cyrus Holton, proved to be a great help to the Moody family, as well. Dwight knew that when the wood bin was low, his mother would tell the children to stay in bed to keep warm until school time. But then, “I would hear the sound of chips flying, and I knew someone was chopping wood in our woodshed, and that we would soon have a fire. I shall never forget Uncle Cyrus coming with what seemed the biggest pile of wood I ever saw in my life.”
Despite numerous hardships, Dwight managed to enjoy many things. Shoes and stockings were luxuries reserved for Sundays, and Dwight carried them to within sight of the church before slipping them on. He reveled in sliding barefoot on the winter ice or racing along the dusty summer road. He was too busy having fun to mind the poverty that much.
DWIGHT WAS TOO BUSY HAVING FUN TO MIND THE POVERTY THAT MUCH.
With the first snowfall, the children brought their sleds out and delighted in sliding down the many hills surrounding Northfield. One day, Dwight and his friends saw an old gentleman who looked like Santa Claus driving an old dilapidated sleigh full of boys. They were hanging on to the runners and tying on ropes until there was a long string of sleds. This hilarious sight brought tears of laughter to Dwight and his friends.
Dwight possessed a competitive and sometimes mischievous spirit. He loved practical jokes. One time, a farmer for whom he worked was seated in his wagon. He asked Dwight for a jug of cider. Dwight happily obliged, but when the farmer put the jug to his lips, Dwight threw an apple at the horses. They bolted, the farmer flipped up in the air, the jug fell, and Dwight had to look for another job.
In addition to his fun-loving, mischievous nature, Dwight liked to bargain. One day when he was home by himself, he saw a band of gypsies approaching. Here was a golden opportunity. But what could he swap? His eyes lighted on the old swayback farm horse and then on the horse they had with them. He simply could not lose. Sure enough, the gypsies were agreeable, and soon Dwight was leading home a new horse, lank, rawboned, chopped-off tail, and all.
Thrilled with his bargain, he decided to put his prize to the test. Proudly he hitched the horse to the wagon with an empty barrel for a seat. He would go to town for the weekly supply of meal. The horse obediently rose to the occasion with a start and briskly galloped down the hill, but the sudden start caused Dwight and his barrel to be tossed out by the roadside.
Mrs. Moody sent her children to school, but Dwight’s time in the classroom was limited because of his need to earn money in the fields and his impatience with book learning. In the schoolroom, the children sat in twos at their little desks, and while some baked by the nearby wood stove, others were chilled by the frigid drafts that shook the window panes and doorframe before blowing across the room.
When Dwight did attend school, his prankishness cut into his learning even more, and he received more than his share of whippings from the school-master’s “rattan” or rod. As Dwight said of him: “We had a man teacher who used the rattan on us a good deal and took us by the ears, twirled us around when we tried to do as we pleased.” The boys pondered the ideal punishment for them. The faction said that love would do more for them than the rattan failed to do while the other faction thought that the rattan was the only proper punishment. Generally, the rattan won out, especially over the good-sized schoolboys.
DWIGHT RECEIVED MORE THAN HIS SHARE OF WHIPPINGS FROM THE SCHOOLMASTER’S “RATTAN” OR ROD.
The basic skills that Dwight absorbed from school were minimal. His penmanship, nearly indecipherable, became legible by its size rather than by its neatness. From McGuffey’s Rhetorical Guide Number Five he learned the principles of elocution, which proved useful later in his life. However, two areas he failed to master were spelling and grammar. A sample letter he wrote at seventeen illustrates his lack in these skills:
I was happy to here from home every weak, but you ned not think that I am homesick…the time goes by lik a whirl wind how do the things look have you any pears yet Where I bord there is over 50 now and lots of them about my age.
Once, incredibly, Dwight even won a spelling bee! But having little time to study to master basic skills, he became increasingly impatient with school. By the sixth grade, he decided he had had enough of it and left school for good.
Of course, churchgoing tried energetic Dwight perhaps more than school did. His mother insisted that all her children be regular in church attendance. But Dwight showed his reluctance: “I used to look upon Sunday with a certain amount of dread. I don’t know that the minister even noticed me, unless it was when I was asleep in the gallery and she woke me up.” Then he adds, “It was hard to have to work in the field all the week, and then be obliged to go to church and hear a sermon I didn’t understand.”
DWIGHT MADE UP HIS MIND TO LEAVE NORTHFIELD FOR GOOD.
Between his frustration with church, school, and having to work so hard, the time was ripe for Dwight to do something different and see new sights. Since the railroad had come to Northfield when he was eleven, he began to wonder about the world that lay beyond his hometown—at the end of the railroad tracks. It was just a matter of time before the desire to find out got the best of him, and he made up his mind to leave North-field for good.