Mrs. Marcelinn Cote Adams, a professional family history researcher, was hired to research Alfred Mossman Landon's family history during the time he was running for President of the United States in the 1930's. Her grandson contacted me in March of 2008 and asked if I would like the documents his grandmother had saved in her files concerning her extensive research of Alf Landon's family. I will try and post everything online, but it will take months to transcribe this vast amount of documents.
The following is an article she wrote, which is the actual text:

GOVERNOR LANDON - THE PENNSYLVANIAN

It would not be possible for me to join one of the numerous "I knew him when", LANDON Clubs for I have never even seen the Governor of Kansas and the Republican candidate for President. Alfred Mossman LANDON. On the other hand, I suppose I know more about him that he himself does, for in the compilation of a family history one sees the influences that have produced certain traits of character.


There is no hard and fast rule in the study of a man's family history, called 'Genealogy', that would determine the exact influence of any one strain of blood. It is possible, however, from such study, to create a picture of his forebears and from their history to understand many things about a man, what he does and why he does it. In a family tree, one finds that starting with an individual, there are two parents, and going back another generation that each of those parents had two parents, making four ancestors. It follows, therefore, that in the next generation there would be eight and in the next sixteen, and so on.
Many family histories show gaps where generations cannot be completed, but in the case of Governor Landon's family line it is interesting to note that for several generations, no gaps appear, and the record of every forebear can be verified as to dates and pieces of residents.


Beginning with Alfred Mossman LANDON, we find he was born in Pennsylvania. His father, John LANDON and his mother, Annie Mossman were both born in Pennsylvania. This brings us to the third generation and we find that John Landon's father, Manuel LANDON, was born in central New York and came as a child in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. The mother, Mary Fetterman, was born in Pennsylvania. The grandparents, on the maternal side. Reverend William Herdman Mossman and Sarah Helen Dumars were both born in Pennsylvania. In the fourth generation of eight great-grandparents, we find that Robert Gillis Mossman and his wife, Margaret Christy, were both born in Pennsylvania. Thomas Stewart Dumars and Hannah Ann Limber were both born in Pennsylvania. Thomas LANDON was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. James Fetterman and Betsy McDowell were also born in Pennsylvania. Thomas Landon's wife was Luamy Jones and it is probably that she was born in Pennsylvania. At any rate, she lived in Pennsylvania.


Following this family line back another generation the great-great grandparents, we find that Sarah Huston, who married Thomas Limber, was born in Pennsylvania. Thomas was also born in Pennslyvania. The Dumars of this generation both lived in Pennsylvania. Andrew Christy, a Colonel in the War of 1812 and his wife, Susan Williamson, were born in Pennsylvania. The Fetterman and McDowell ancestors of this generation were born in Pennsylvania. William Herdman Mossman was born in Ireland. His wife, Sarah Gillis, was born in Maryland. Thomas LANDON, a Revolutionary soldier, was born in New Jersey. This family line of LANDON goes back to New England and has been traced back of the pioneer to America to the England and France of several hundred years ago.


On the Mossman line, we find that John of the sixth generation came with sons and daughters from Ireland, landing generation, came with sons and daughters from Ireland, landing in Delaware. The Mossman family has been traced back to 1475 in Scotland and with this Scotch background; there is much of romance in its story. The record of this branch takes them across the water from Scotland into the north of Ireland and brings the Reverend James Mossman, a Presbyterian minister, to America many years before the rest of the family. His death changed the family plans for removing to America. John Mossman of the sixth generation, descendant of this long line of Scottish forebears, was eighty years old when he started for America. His children were grown and his wife had died, but John Mossman did not feel he was too old to make this venture. He, also, lived in Pennsylvania, for, after several years in Maryland, he made the trip out to Western Pennsylvania and at the age of ninety moved with part of his family from Fayette County to the newly opened land of Mercer County, where he died at the age of ninety-three.


Of this same generation, there are other Pennsylvania forebears, for John Christy, father of Colonel Andrew Christy, moved from Westmoreland into Mercer County as soon as the land was available. Lt. James Williamson, an officer in the Revolutionary War, born in central Pennsylvania, moved west from Carlisle, Cumberland County, to Mercer before 1800. He had married Jane McEwen. Both were born in Pennsylvania.


Another interesting ancestor of this generation is Lt. Adjutant William Huston, an officer of the Revolutionary War and a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. William Huston was born in Scotland and during the war was on Washington's staff. He lived in Pennsylvania and served in Pennsylvania regiments during the war. His wife, Susanna Woodruff was a Pennsylvanian and after Lt. Huston's death, towards the close of the war, she remained a widow for some few years. Her second marriage was to the Reverend John Taylor, who was called as the first rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. Susanna Huston Taylor is buried in the old graveyard of Trinity Cathedral in downtown Pittsburgh, where she made her home and raised an interesting family. She died at the age of seventy-five years.
This brings us to the seventh generation and we find great-great-great-great grandparents of Governor Landon's again natives of Pennsylvania for Samuel Williamson and his wife, Susanna, both lived at Shippensburg, in the days when the Indian wars made life most difficult. Samuel was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the son of John Williamson and Mary Davison. Both were from the north of Ireland but Mary had come to this country as a very small child and lived all her life in Pennsylvania.


An interesting member of the Williamson family is the famous Hugh Williamson, one of the framers of the Constitution of the United States. Hugh Williamson represented North Carolina at this time, since he was living there, but he was born in Pennsylvania and received much of his education in Pennsylvania schools and colleges. He was the brother of Samuel and therefore, the great-great-great-great uncle of Governor LANDON.


Much has been said of the influence of his Pennsylvania German ancestry as shown by certain traits of character that Governor LANDON possesses. In addition to this strain of Pennsylvania German blood, there must be taken into consideration the fact that the Scotch have never been a weak race. Their intellectual capacity is well know and in addition, there is a persistent streak that is akin to what has been called 'the stubborn Pennsylvania Dutch'. The Scotch, with its allied north of Ireland strain is perhaps more dominant than has been credited for the Mossmans had been Scotchmen for several hundreds of years before they became Americans. The Hustons also are of a Scotch strain and so we might go on.


The story of these Pennsylvania forebears of Governor LANDON is the story of the settlement of this great state, since so many branches moved westward following the tide of homebuilders who had cleared farms and whose children moved onward in turn to clear their farms. We find the descendants of these pioneers scattered throughout the western counties and spreading over across the border into Ohio. Many of them are living today on land their ancestors cleared. Others know well their family history and speak with pride of the part their forebears played in the settling of Mercer and Crawford counties. These early people cleared the land along the Shenango River that flows throughout the western part of Mercer County, sometimes sweeping over into Ohio and coming back again into Pennsylvania. Others came into Crawford County from New York State in that tide of emigration that brought so many of the best families of New England to this section.



Their land and the way it was obtained is again the history of western Pennsylvania, for some settled on Donation land given for soldier service in the Revolutionary War. Others took up the new lands opened by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to new settlers. However, these lands were acquired, in every case it meant the clearing of the forest with which this western region was covered, the building of homes in a primitive wilderness, and as years went on the developing of the wonderful farms that spread throughout Mercer and Crawford Counties.



There are old cemeteries in Western Pennsylvania where lie buried many of these Pennsylvania forebears of Governor LANDON. In Pittsburgh one may see the tombstone of Susanna Huston Taylor; near Mercer, in Mercer County, lie buried the Limbers and nearby kin; while in the old Salem graveyard, just outside of Greenville, one may see flags over the graves of soldier ancestors, Lt. James Williamson, who fought in the Revolutionary War and Colonel Andrew Christy, who served in the War of 1812. In this cemetery are buried many of the Dumars family. Here also are other kin-folk such as Beattys, Linns, Simms, Ormsby. These are the descendants of those who intermarried with relatives of Governor LANDON.



That these pioneers were of a God-fearing generation is shown in their efforts to secure religious services. Many of the old churches in Western Pennsylvania were established because such men as James Williamson and Andrew Christy wanted a church. They were both trustees of the Old Salem Presbyterian Church. There was an old United Presbyterian Church where the Beattys, the Mossmans and the Linns were leaders. It is said that the Dumars family were Huguenot refugees from France to Ireland, from whence they came to America. The great-great-great-grandmother, Susanna Taylor, buried in Pittsburg, of course, was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church. In later generations, the Methodist Church claimed the Mossmans and the Landons and we find throughout these northwestern counties a splendid record of the service in congregation after congregation of the Rev. William Herdman Mossman.



It is quite certain that when this transplanted son of Pennsylvania makes the first speech of his campaign at West Middlesex, there will be in the gathering, many people who are related to him through the ties of Pennsylvania ancestry. They will come from many sections of Crawford and Mercer County and from over the line in Ohio. From Allegheny and Fayette County they will gather. Drawn by the ties of kinship, they also are proud of the Pennsylvania ancestry which Alfred Mossman LANDON can claim his heritage.



Mrs. Marcellin Cote Adams

5836 Fifth Avenue

Pittsburgh, Penn.



Compiler of family records of Alfred Mossman LANDON.