Article by Peter A. Roos
We were long-time neighbors, friends and accomplices of Julia Winifred Moseley, a Florida pioneer who passed this summer at age 101. Although her frontier was 45 minutes inland, we wrote about Julia and her “Nest” in east Hillsborough County in Paradise NEWS before and I did not wish the year to end without recognizing her passing. She offhandedly rejected numerous offers from commercial developers, even after the neighboring properties became a furniture store and a Chrysler dealer, living modestly and leaving her family’s 15-acre lakefront homestead and irreplaceable100-year-old Florida vernacular home in a trust for posterity. Julia was born on March 21, 1919, in Limona, the daughter of Ruby Davis Moseley and Hallock Moseley. Her love of nature, music, writing, and dedication to preserving the legacy of her family was central to her life. As the granddaughter of Julia Daniels Moseley and Charles Scott Moseley, she dedicated her life to preserving their family homestead, including a wealth of documents, photographs, artwork, artifacts and objects and the land and lakefront setting that makes up the National Register of Historic Places site. Julia was a beloved piano teacher, but she was also outspoken about history and the environment, voicing opposition to the rampant development and loss of habitat she witnessed in Brandon and throughout Florida during her long lifetime.
She was an advocate for ecosystem approaches during her life and founded the Timberly Trust to preserve and protect her family land and home site. She celebrated her 101st year of life in March 2020 and passed away in her beloved “Nest” on Aug. 9th, 2020. Her headstone memorial is located at the historic Limona Cemetery beside those of her family.
My wife Renee and I gave Julia one of our old Macintosh computers for her correspondence and mailing list maintenance, and two generations of Rooses became her volunteer IT department. Julia Winifred Moseley and Renee joined forces and successfully lobbied together over a number of years to keep Lakewood Drive in Brandon from being widened to five lanes or more as an eastern frontage road to I-75 between Buffalo and Brandon Blvd. They filmed a video and arranged a county commission presentation about it that filled Brandon High School auditorium on a rainy Tuesday evening. That got the message through to the county commissioners, all of whom were in attendance that night, and the following day they voted to ask that Lakewood Drive be removed from the 2010 plan for road widening.
We also helped with a brochure about the Nest and the Timberly Trust, as well as with photography for Julia’s book “Come to My Sunland.” Julia edited from letters and writings of her grandmother, Julia Daniels Moseley. USF historian Gary R. Mormino, one of the publisher’s editors for the series, has been eulogizing Julia in the Tampa Bay Times since her passing. To learn more about her preservation legacy, family and to take a virtual tour of the homestead, visit: www.dhhc.lib.usf.edu/moseley/. You can order a copy of “Come To My Sunland” online from University Press. We also have a few brand-new soft cover print editions available for sale at the Paradise NEWS office for $27.50 + $10 sales tax & shipping in the USA. Call 727-363-6888.