Moses Long
A Revolutionary Soldier and Some of His Family
By: G. Frank Long.
[Originally published in an ISGS publication, pre-1930]

Transcribed by ©Valerie Torp for Genealogy Trails

Moses Long, of Hopkinton, New Hampshire, soldier, was a son of Enoch Long of West Newbury, Massachusetts. He was born at West Newbury, October 16, 1760, and died at Hopkinton, New Hampshire, March 3, 1848. He enlisted in the Third Massachusetts Infantry, known as the Cape Ann Regiment, in 1777, served under General Gates until Burgoyne's surrender, and later with General Washington in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He endured the hardships of Valley Forge and was a member of Washington's bodyguard at Trenton. In 1780 his term of enlistment expired and he returned to his father's family, who during his absence had moved to Hopkinton, New Hampshire. On July 17, 1783, Moses Long was married to Lucy, youngest daughter of Captain Stephen Harriman, of that town.

Of this union thirteen children were born, six of whom became residents of Illinois, were prominent in her history and also in the service of the United States

Stephen Harriman Long, the oldest son, and perhaps the most noted, was born at Hopkinton, New Hampshire, December 30, 1784. He was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1809, and became a teacher. In December, 1814, he entered the corps of engineers of the United States Army as a second lieutenant and soon became assistant professor of mathematics at the United States Military Academy at West Point. In 1816 he was transferred to the topographical engineers with the brevet rank of Major. From 1818 to 1824, he was engaged in the exploration and surveying expeditions which made him famous. The first of these were explorations between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. One of the highest summits of these mountains was named in his honor, Long's Peak. An account of this expedition from notes of Stephen H. Long and other members of the party, compiled by Edwin James, was published in 1823. In 1823-1824, Major Long was in charge of an expedition to the sources of the Mississippi River, an account of which was published, entitled "Long's Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, Lake of the Woods, etc.," by William H. Keating at Philadelphia in 1824. In 1826 Major Long was made brevet colonel of topographical engineers. From 1827 to 1830 he was engaged in surveying the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and he became, in 1834, engineer-in-chief of the Western & Atlantic Railroad in Georgia. During this service he introduced a system of curves in the location of railroads and a new species of truss bridges, afterwards generally adopted throughout the United States, and given his name. In 1838 Major Long was made a major in the organization of topographical engineers of the United States Army, and in 1861 he became the chief of the body with the rank of colonel. He retired from active service June 1, 1863.
Colonel Long was married in Philadelphia, March 3, 1819, to Martha Hotchkiss. Their son, Henry Clay Long, became a celebrated civil engineer. A grandson, William L. Breckinridge, also attained prominence as a civil engineer. In 1829 Colonel Long published a railroad manual, which was the first original treatise of the kind published in America. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and other literary and scientific associations, and was the author of various historical and scientific articles in their transactions.
After his retirement from the army he resided at Alton, Illinois. He was a member and an official of St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Alton. He died in Alton September 4, 1864, and is buried in the city cemetery at that place.
Sarah Long, the oldest daughter of Moses Long, and sister of Colonel Stephen H. Long, married Dr. Henry Lyman, a celebrated physician of Warner, New Hampshire, whom she outlived. She visited Illinois twice, and died in Lawrence, Massachusetts. On her first visit to Illinois, about 1846, she was accompanied by her father. He was anxious to see the state which was the chosen home of so many of his sons.

Moses Long, Jr., M.D., located at Rochester, N.Y., and was eminent in his profession. He visited Illinois and St. Louis, and died at his home.

Enoch Long, Jr., captain in the War of 1812, was the first of the Long family to locate at Upper Alton (1819). He established the second Sunday school in the State. His occupations varied, being at times contractor, commercial, cooper, lumberman, and lead mining. He was chosen as captain of the Lovejoy Defenders in 1837. His last home was Sabula, Iowa.

Abigail Long, second daughter, was married to James Colby of Warner, New Hampshire, and came to Illinois in 1850, locating on a farm adjoining that of her brothers on the Grafton Road, in Madison County, where she died. Her eldest daughter, Sarah L. Colby, became an eminent teacher of Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri.

Isaac Long, the fourth son, died in Childhood at Hopkinton. Major George Washington Long, the fifth son, was graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1824. He became a resident of Madison County, Illinois, in 1830, and died there in 1880. He was a noted engineer, and did much work, especially in the south.

Dr. Benjamin F. Long graduated at Dartmouth College Medical Department in 1829. In 1839 he located in Upper Alton, where he followed his profession about twenty years after which he retired to his fruit farm in the western part of the country. From the beginning he was an earnest horticulturalist and one of the leaders in the State, at one time president of the Illinois Horticultural Society. He was an enthusiastic supporter of Hon. Newton Bateman when the public school laws were revised, and believed them to be the surest method of making good citizens. With the deepest reverence for such men as Lippincott, Blackburn, Beecher, and John M. Peck, and an intimate acquaintance and associate of the Loomises, Edwards, Bakers, Palmers, and Gillespies, he, like them, proved loyal to his State and Lincoln. At one period of his life in Illinois, before the day of railroads, he traversed the entire State on horseback, county by county, assisting in establishing local agencies for the Illinois Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of which he was chosen the first president, and which position he held for twenty-five years. He was not a politician, but always an active man. He was thoroughly devoted to the improvement of the State and its citizens, and naturally there was to his mind but one superior to Illinois: the whole country, the United States.

The following is a quotation from a letter written in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, August 2, 1826, by Moses Long to his son, Enoch, a resident of Upper Alton, Illinois:

Hopkinton, New Hampshire, August 2, 1826.
Dear Enoch:
I have not given up my plan for visiting you, in your place of business, at an early date: Going by water from Albany to Buffalo, N. Y., thence by lake to Chicago and I have no doubt that there will be some way of going by boat into the Illinois River from Chicago and the balance of the journey will be very easy, down the Illinois and Mississippi.
Your affectionate father,
Moses Long.

Grandchildren bearing the name: Thomas M. Long, eldest son of George W. Long; civil engineer, Alton, Illinois. George F. Long, youngest son of Benjamin F. Long; Civil War volunteer, Springfield, Illinois.

Great grandsons bearing family name: Stephen H. Long, grandson of G.W. Long, St. Louis, Missouri. Compton Long, grandson of G.W. Long, St. Louis, Missouri. William Long, grandson of Enoch Long, Savanna, Illinois, or Sabula, Iowa.

Great-great-grandchildren: Son of William Long, above, with whom the name stops.

There are numerous female descendants in all the branches intermarried with five historic names throughout the country.

©2007 K. Torp
Genealogy Trails