His father early in life was a prominent and successful shipowner but as the trade between New England and the East declined, he turned to banking and for the forty years preceding his death was president of two banks of Newburyport.
At the age of sixteen he shipped to Africa and India as a sailor before the mast on one of his father's vessels.
The son first attended private schools, and later the public high school, though he did not graduate.
The voyage was a miserable experience and he returned at the end of a year, wasted and racked by Asiatic dysentery.
After the enactment of the Interstate Commerce Act, Moseley applied for an appointment as one of the commissioners.
The commissioners elected him at their first meeting on Apr. 19, 1887.
His work took him into the courts, before congressional committees, into conferences with politicians, railroad executives, labor unions, and lawyers.
He also wrote numerous articles and pamphlets setting forth detailed arguments in support of his position.
The only unpleasant incident that marred Moseley's long tenure of office occurred in 1904 when charges of misconduct in office were made against him.
At once he laid aside his duties and absented himself for six months, giving the investigators free access to all private and official records.
He was completely exonerated.
[Sources include: Jas.
Cleveland had determined to appoint the commissioners in accordance with a geographical plan which did not admit of the appointment of a Democrat from the New England States, but he suggested Moseley's appointment to the secretaryship.
One of his three children survived him.
Moseley, Edward Augustus, (Mar. 23, 1846 - Apr. 18, 1911), Massachusetts 1846 1911 Male Lawyer Public Official lawyer and public official, was born in Newburyport, Massachussets, the eldest child of Edward Strong and Charlotte Augusta (Chapman) Moseley.
On Apr. 13, 1869, he married Kate Montague Prescott, the daughter of Joseph Newmarch and Sarah (Bridges) Prescott.
His maternal grandfather was George T. Chapman, an Episcopal clergyman, who was born in Devonshire, England.
On Apr. 13, 1869, he married Kate Montague Prescott, the daughter of Joseph Newmarch and Sarah (Bridges) Prescott.
