“Pliny (Plin) Moody was a very large man weighing over 500 lbs. He had a spy glass and used to pin up marks on the mountains & then comeback & see if he could locate the marks. He had a Canadian pony and one day he met his death as he was coming down the Luther Spring road when part of the harness broke & he, his horse and buggy plunged in the dark off the steep side of the road. His coffin had to be made especially for him and was so large that it could not be carried through the door of the old White Church but had to be left in the vestibule. Little did he think in 1802 when his plowshare turned up a track in stone on his South Hadley farm what an interest the scientific world would take in the outcome of that discovery or that the region would become the most famous locality in the world for fossil foot-marks. So strikingly did they resemble the foot prints of birds that they were popularly called ‘turkey tracks’. While some local biblical students maintained that they were made by the tired feet of Noah’s raven. Dr. Elihu Dwight bought the slab consisting of 5 tracks in a row from the boy & it is now in the Appleton Cabinet at Amherst.” ®627 He graduated from Middlebury College, Vermont in 1814, ®7808 then settled on the homestead in South Hadley. ®408, ®8 He lived in South Hadley at the time of their marriage. ®687 “He lived at the Homestead at Moody Corners in South Hadley in 1812 which he received from his father by deed of gift.” ®8 On 2 November 1816, Ebenezer Moody deeded to Pliny for $3500 “all the lands of every description of which I am seized” totalling 130 acres in South Hadley, some on the road to Amherst and some on the “road leading to the mountain.” Lois Moody also signed. ®7809 On 1 June 1840 Pliny and his wife, both age 40-50, and one man 20-30 lived in South Hadley. ®7791 On 1 June 1850 he was a 59 year old farmer in South Hadley. Living with him were Elvina [sic], 50, and Phineas [Plinius], 26, all born in Massachusetts. Three other men, (all laborers) and a married couple, Edwin T. (a 28 year old carpenter born in Massachusetts) and Susan U. Bliss (26 and born in Connecticut, lived with them. ®6757 On 1 June 1860 Pliny Moody, a 69 year old farmer and Elisa Moody, age 60, lived alone in South Hadley. They owned real estate valued at $6000 and a personal estate valued at $800. ®7790 He died at age 77. ®687 One newspaper notice of Pliny’s death says, “Mr. Pliny Moody of South Hadley, while returning, on Monday last, from his mountain lot, in his buggy, was thrown upon a rock, breaking his leg and every rib but two. He survived the accident only twelve hours.” ®7807
This cenotaph (Pliny’s) had Eliza’s inscription on one side; the face had the following inscription: Mr. John Moodie, 1633; Samuel Moodie, 1636; Capt. Ebenezer Moody, 1675; Ebenezer Moody, 1707; Sgt. Ebenezer Moody, 1747; Pliny Moody, 1790, AB 1846, Died Jun. 30, 1868; Plinius Moody, AB 1845, AM 1848, Died Apr. 4, 1856, æ 36; 1736 Dr. Matthew Moody, Son of Sgt. Ebenezer; 1812 Dexter Moody, VDM; 1846 Preston R. Moody ®73