Hugh Mosher was born at Perry, Lake county, Ohio, January twenty-ninth, 1819, and died at Brighton, Ohio, August fifteenth, 1892. His father served in the War of 1812, and his grandfather had served in the Revolutionary War. He himself enlisted for the Civil War, and became a fifer in Company H, Forty-third Infantry Regiment, Ohio Volunteers. He never fully recovered from the effects of his army hardships. He was a tall and well built man, over six feet in height. In appearance he suggested a typical frontiersman of the Daniel Boone or Simon Girty type. Hugh Mosher (or Mosier as it is sometimes wrongly spelled) who posed as the fifer, spent most of his life in Wellington, Ohio. Returning from the Civil War, he again took up his farmwork. He was a celebrated performer on the fife, and his fame had spread throughout the surrounding country. He was probably the best fifer in northern Ohio. It is said of him that he would rather fife than eat. He carried this little instrument with him wherever he went and delighted to play whenever chance offered. No patriotic gathering in or near Wellington was considered complete without Mosher and his fife. He was intensely patriotic, and even in his last illness deeply regretted being unable to attend the celebration of the Fourth of July in his home town of Wellington. He spent considerable time posing for Mr. Willard, and many photographs of him were taken by Mr. William F. Sawtelle, a photographer of Wellington, for use in Willard’s painting. Willard, however, could not get satisfactory photographs of Hugh Mosher. This was before the day of the quick-acting shutter. The cap of the camera could not be operated quickly enough to get satisfactory expression. For this reason, poor Hugh Mosher had to go to Willard’s studio and pose. In order to get the proper expression, Mosher not only had to pose, but had to continue fifing all the time he was posing. Willard had a habit of calling attention to the peculiar way in which Mosher held his fife--with the thumb out. The rumor is that after Willard had made his many and individual studies of Mosher, that Mosher was unable to get to Cleveland to see the finished canvas of “The Spirit of ’76.” He did not see it until he visited the Centennial. At the Centennial there was always a crowd around the painting. Mosher joined the crowd. While he thus stood before the picture, someone in the crowd recognized him, and he was immediately given an ovation. One of the original sketches for the fifer, I believe, still exists. It was in existence and exhibited in Cleveland, November, 1912. At the same time also was exhibited a marble figure of the old drummer, Willard’s father. The Drummer Boy [Illustration: HENRY KELSEY DEVEREUX who posed for the drummer boy. From an original portrait taken about 1878] The Drummer Boy--H. K. D.