MOONLIGHTING

Before downsizing one’s home was popular, I bought a one-bedroom bungalow back in 1982. Its age is questionable since the city records only go back to 1925, but it is likely over 100 years old. The original owner, Dr. Walter Moonlight, moved to Eureka in 1903. His wife and he were childless, so the house likely suited them just fine--until he became town mayor in the 1940s and moved up in the world a few blocks away.

Dr. Moonlight came from a small line of Moonlights who originated in Scotland around 1650. According to the documented story, someone left a baby on a family’s doorstep, and the child was called Moonlight since he arrived during a moonlit night--thus the interesting surname.

Dr. Moonlight’s father, Thomas, (above picture), born 1833, sought adventure as a teen and took a boat to the United States in the 1850s. He ended up becoming a Union general in the Civil War, was a Kansas state senator, was appointed Governor of Wyoming territory by President Grover Cleveland, and was later appointed Minister to Bolivia. Go figure. All that hair must have impressed others.

Anyway, the Dr. Moonlight who once resided at what is now Casa de la Flaming Bore was the only surviving son of the General and, since Walter had no children, the name from that line of the family stopped with him. Get on a people search website, type in Moonlight, and you’ll find fewer than 20 listed in the United States. It’s no Smith or Brown, that’s for sure.

I keep thinking one of these days I’ll find a fortune that Dr. Moonlight hid in my home, or maybe relics from his daddy’s astute war and political history, but after living here 28 years that’s beginning to look unlikely. I’ve removed all the wallpaper and dug up all the backyard getting rid of the Bermuda grass--still nothing, other than a small amber medicine bottle and a tiny toy boy of some sort. I’m not even sure what I’ve done with them--they’re probably still somewhere out in the yard where they were found. But, may the moonlight always shine upon them.