Data source is the 1990 book, "Moomaw-Mumma-Mumaw-Mumaugh Genealogy" compiled by Robert Austin Moomaw (deceased).
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA AND ITS PEOPLE 1921 Vol III
GRANT L. SHUMWAY - EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES p. 196
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http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/resources/OLLibrary/hwnep/voliii/hwnartdx.htm]
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AUSTIN MOOMAW, has been a resident of the great state of Nebraska for over a half century. He was born in Pike county, Illinois, July 29, 1860. His parents were Joel and Susan (Pence) Moomaw. The father was born in Ross county, Ohio, engaged in farming all his life and died in Missouri when aged seventy-three years. The mother was born in Pennsylvania and lived to be eighty-four years old. In 1871 the family went to Missouri, but it was not until the spring of 1887 that Austin Moomaw filed on a claim and moved on the homestead in Scottsbluff county, on which he has lived ever since. The early days here were full of trial and discouragement to the hardworking settlers and almost all of them lost crops and cattle because of unseasonable storms and unusual dry weather. At that time there was not a house in sight and he lived for fifteen years in a sod house. Farseeing men may have visioned a time when the arid land might be transformed into productive farms, but if so, their ideas came to naught for many years. In the meanwhile sturdy, hopeful men like Austin Moomaw held on to their land and the time has arrived when the wildest fancies of those who believed in the country's great future have been more than realized. Mr. Moomaw owns three hundred and twenty acres of well improved, irrigated land and is successfully engaged in general farming and crop raising.
Mr. Moomaw was married to Miss Agnes Spriggs, who was born in northern Missouri, March 15, 1860, a daughter of Thomas R. and Luvenia (Carlin) Spriggs, natives of Westmoreland county, Virginia, the former of whom died on his farm when aged sixty-six years, and the latter when seventy- three years old, Mrs. Moomaw served two terms, four years, as county superintendent of schools in the early days. Mr. and Mrs. Moomaw have two children, namely: Leon and Vera, the latter of whom is the wife of Roy Walford, who is an attorney at Lincoln Nebraska; the son is married and lives in Morrill county. Both the children were given college educations. The family belongs to the Christian church. Mr. Moomaw has always voted the Democratic ticket but has never been willing to serve in pubilc (sic) office.