Submitted by Descendant: John Benjamin MOODY III
Benjamin Moody, son of Samuel S. Moody and Sarah Lee, was born 15 April 1811, Telfair County, Georgia. Samuel died 1815 in Camden County, Georgia, and in 1820 Sarah and Benjamin moved to Hamilton County, Florida. There on 7 February 1833 Benjamin married Nancy Hooker, born 22 May 1811, daughter of Stephen Hooker and Elizabeth Brinton.
Benjamin served from 1836 to 1841 in a number of volunteer militias. In 1843 the family moved to Alafia, Hillsborough County where Benjamin served as a county commissioner and justice of the peace.
In March 1833 Benjamin united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was a lay leader and co-founder of the fore-runner of Riverview United Methodist Church.
Nancy Hooker Moody died 26 September 1845. Benjamin married (2) Mary E. Knight, 21 March 1849. Mary died on 17 May 1850. On 5 November 1854 Benjamin married (3) Lydia Carlton Hendry, born 4 April 1812; died 24 May 1898.
In 1869 Benjamin and Lydia moved to Homeland in Polk County. Benjamin Moody died 13 October 1896. He was eulogized as a man of superior judgment, with deep and abiding convictions, whose courage was always equal to his convictions.
Benjamin Moody was first established as a Florida Pioneer in 2001