[Historic Marker Application: Maud Moller House] Page: 7 of 28

                                
1827 Ball Avenue                                                     (3)
Daily News where he was also managing editor.9 R.G. Lowe's residence during the
time he owned these lots was 1623 Avenue K.1  That same year, 1890, he sold lot 2
to Mrs. Augusta Peters, and in 1892 sold lot 1 to W.F.Clayton, a real estate agent,
no relation to Galveston architect Nicholas J. Clayton. Clayton, in 1893 sold lot
1 to Joseph H. Wilson, attorney, notary public, commissioner of deeds for the state
of Louisiana.    No further information on Wilson could be found.
The present house probably was built during the time that Wilson owned the lot;
but if that is so he never occupied the house. Joseph H. Wilson's address from 1893
to 1900 was 1814 Ave. I with the Jens Moller family.12 However, he sold the property
to his daughter, Maud Josephine Hamilton Wilson Moller, for $10,000 a sum that would
indicate that there was a building of some size on the lot at that time and the deed
13
specifically states improvements.   County tax records for the years from 1894 and
1895 show that Wilson paid taxes on lot 1 in Block 258 valued at that time at $1,750.
Maud J.H. Moller paid taxes on lot 1 Block 258 valued at $4,250 in 1896.14 Building
permits for the year 1895 listed in the Galveston Daily News of January 1, 1896
show that Jens Moller, husband of Maud, was given a permit to erect a two story
frame, slate roof building on lot 1, Block 258.15 The Sanborn Fire Map of 1899
shows two houses on the lot. One house with an address on Ball Avenue faces north
with the entrance on Ball Avenue. Another house on the south portion of the lot
faces on 19th Street. Local hearsay is that both houses were built at about the
same time.
Jens Moller was born in Skagen, Denmark, April 1, 1846 the son of Peter and
Christina Moller. He had no formal education. His mother died when he was six
months old and his father when he was fourteen. After the death of his father he
went to sea, and in 1867 he was licensed as a chief officer on commercial vessels.
After serving a year in the Danish Navy he went back to the merchant marine and
shipped out as chief officer on a Danish vessel to Buenos Aires. He came to Galveston
from Buenos Aires on the Boston barkentine "Marion" that was to off load a cargo of
coffee at this port in 1870. Here he became ill and was sent to the local hospital.