Pete and Aletha Moser

Biographical Sketch of Peter J. And Aletha Moser

Compiled December 1994 by David Victor Barth

Pete and Aletha did some interesting things in their lives. They never had any children of their own, but they befriended three generations of Barths. This is a vignette of a narrow slice of their story.

Pete was born in Cell um See, Austria, in 1895. The town is in the Salzburg area. When Pete was a baby, his mother took him to Innsbruck, where she saw a dentist. Pete said he remembers the dentist's office which had a bamboo rocking chair with runners that curved up to form the back of the chair.

A friend of Pete's mother was an interpreter at the local hotel in Cell um See. It was a tourist town because winter sports were becoming popular, and this town was one of the first to cater to people interested in winter sports. When Pete and his mother emigrated to the United States, the interpreter friend gave them her English dictionary to take with them.

Sometime after immigrating, Pete's mother died. His sister took care of him until, she, too, died, leaving him an orphan in his early teens. Pete felt abandoned, but he got into the printing business and was able to purchase a new house at 4525 W. 33rd Street in Denver for $5,000 in 1922.

One of Pete's many interests was radio which was still in its infancy at the time. He built crystal radio sets and sold them through ads in the newspaper. A girl by the name of Aletha answered his ad and met him at his home to purchase a radio. They became friends and were later married.

Other interests of Pete's were photography, wood working, cultivating roses, camping, and hiking. Pete and Aletha met their new neighbors who lived across the street, the Barths, when the Mosers stopped to help them with car trouble on Loveland Pass in the mid-1920s.

Of the three Barth boys, the youngest, Jack, became like a son to the Mosers, visiting them often and going on may trips with them. One of Moser's favorite destinations was the Grand Canyon, and they made 32 trips there during their lives.

In the 1930s, Pete and Aletha took up archery. Pete made the bows, strings, and arrows by hand. Since each arrow had a different characteristic, each had a different number. The archer had to remember what correction factor was required to apply to the aim to shoot accurately. Aletha won the Denver championships, and then became the second woman ever to win the regional championships. She was awarded a medal by the national archery organization in recognition of her shooting every arrow of a six-arrow set into the bulls eye.

Besides competing, the Mosers enjoyed recreational archery such as archery golf. They used an excelsior ball about eight centimeters in diameter as the target at each "hole." They used an abandoned golf course then, later, went to shoot on a rancher's land at the Black Forest, north of Colorado Springs. Pete had a brother who farmed in southern Colorado. He was killed by the blast from a spark plug hole in a tractor when the engine was turned over diring engine repair. The fuel ignited in the cylinder.

In later years, Pete and Aletha got together with the Jack Barth family each Christmas, alternating between Los Angeles and Denver every other year.

Pete had lost his mother, his sister, and his brother. Aletha was his support and they were thoroughly dedicated to each other. By the early 1980s, Pete's health was failing. He suffered from what he called "white lung" disease which he attributed to paper dust he inhaled in the print shops he worked during his life. He had smoked a pipe all his adult life. Some days, he stayed in bed most of the day. He had back problems, and usually wore a back brace.

He and Aletha talked with Jack and Polly Barth about what Aletha would do when he was gone. Aletha seem to be in excellent health. Occasionally, when she was ill, it was challenging for Pete to do the housework and meal preparation.

They enjoyed their retirement as much as possible, taking small trips until Pete curtailed his driving. Aletha died suddenly in 1984, sitting in one of their living room chairs. That morning she had complained of feeling poorly, although she did not stay in bed. She had tried to call her doctor, but he was out of town. She died quietly in the chair, and Pete, not understanding the situation, thought she was asleep. He tried to wake her to no avail.

He was devastated by her death and thought of nothing else except to be reunited with her. In no way could he cope living without her. He died that same year. Jack and Polly Barth took their ashes and sprinkled them at the Grand Canyon, exactly what the Mosers wanted.