Historian Tad Moses, 76, Dies In Burnet Hospital

BURNET – Dayton (Tad) Moses, Jr. known to many Burnet County residents in recent years for his work with the Burnet Historical Society in bringing to light much of the County’s history, died last Saturday at Shepperd Memorial Hospital. He was 76.

Moses, born in Burnet May 22, 1898, was the son of Dayton Moses, Sr., one time Burnet County District Attorney who became a noted Fort Worth lawyer, and Daisy Moses, nee Fisher.

Moses attended school in Burnet before going to Texas A&M College in 1916. While in high school, he was captain of the football team. Since his return, he sometimes referred jokingly to the fact that he was the oldest living Burnet football captain.

He attended A&M for two years but before he could finish, World War I was on and he joined Reserve Officers Training, then known as Student Army Training. He was commissioned in September 1918, two months before the Armistice was signed.

Following his discharge, Moses worked in Fort Worth as a Livestock Sanitary Commission inspector. He remained with the Commission for four years, two years as an Inspector and two as chief clerk, before joining the staff of the Texas and Southwest Cattle Raisers Association (CRA) in 1922. He worked "as a kind of office manager" until the 1924 CRA convention when he was made Assistant Secretary under E.B. Spiller. Soon after, Spiller asked Moses if he knew anything about running a magazine. When Moses replied "no," Spiller reportedly told him to do so "mighty quick" and put him in charge of the Texas Cattlemen’s Magazine. Moses became editor of the magazine with a circulation of 4,000.

In 1928, Moses married Mary Jo Buchham of Fort Worth, whom he had hired as a stenographer for the Livestock Sanitary Commission in 1920. When he left the Commission she succeeded him as chief clerk.

As editor, Moses recounted in a 1970 autobiographical account, he did everything "but sweep out the office and keep the books," including research, writing, editing, lay-out. In addition, he often represented the CRA at conventions. Eventually, the magazine grew so large, that it demanded his full time attention.

After 21 years with the CRA he decided, in 1943, to leave and go on to something else.

The years Moses spent as editor gave him an appreciation of accuracy which was to serve him well when he later turned his attention to Burnet County history. His association with the CRA added to his admiration of cattlemen of whom he later wrote: "They sat tall in the saddle and they cast shadows that were long and wide. They were the kind of men with whom you like to shake hands."

After leaving the CRA, Moses gave more than 50 talks to civic clubs, historical groups, Texas A&M classes and women’s clubs on the "Development of the Texas Cattle Business."

He accepted a position with Texas A&M as the Assistant Director of Information and in 1945 became editor for the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. He became Agriculture Editor when the Station combined with the Agricul [MISSING TEXT].