Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
Samuel Moore
Born July 22, 1816, on the farm which is now owned and occupied by him in Boston township, Wayne county, Samuel Moore is therefore one of the oldest living pioneers of this section. He is a really remarkable man in many ways, and now, though in his eighty-third year, he possesses more energy and general ability than many men of half his years. Though he hires assistants in the management of his homestead, he still exercises a thorough supervision of the whole and does a surprising amount of hard work himself. He belongs to that active class of agriculturists who are never ready to retire and settle down to "take life easy," which seems to be the goal ever in view to multitudes of farmers; he is not afraid of work and would not be contented to live in quiet idleness and luxury, for he realizes that work is the salvation of mankind and idleness is a curse to one's self and the community. No one can justly accuse him of not having done his share in the development of this township, and at all times he has discharged his full duty as a citizen.
Joel Moore, the father of our subject, was a native of Surry county. North Carolina, and was married in that state to Mary Tucker, of Pennsylvania. They removed to Indiana as early as 1810, and entered the land, a part of which came into the possession of Samuel Moore later. Here Joel Moore passed the rest of his life, his death taking place in 1853. He was a cooper by trade and worked at that calling to some extent and, moreover, he built a small distillery and made whisky, as many of his neighbors did at that time, for it was the one product that could be turned into ready cash in those primitive days. In the home neighborhood it commanded from fifteen to eighteen cents a gallon, and even in Cincinnati not much higher prices could be obtained for the liquor. As a boy, Samuel Moore himself worked in the distillery, helping his father. It was then considered nothing out of the common for a good church member to be employed in such manufacture and sale, and it needs cause no surprise, this being the case, when the fact is stated that Joel Moore was one of the charter members of the first Baptist church in this vicinity and that he was a zealous worker in the cause.
Samuel Moore is the only survivor of his father's large family, though they all lived to marry and have families, and, with the exception of Elizabeth and James (the latter of whom died in Cass county, Michigan, at the age of eighty-two years) all of them remained in Wayne county. John died at the age of eighty-six; Alfred when about thirty-five; William, at thirtyfive; Mary and Ruth when about thirty, and Tempe at thirty-five.
Upon starting out upon his independent career Samuel Moore was given eighty acres of the old farm by his father, who paid off the other heirs. Later Samuel Moore bought his brother William's eighty-acre farm, and in the autumn of 1858 he moved into the substantial house which he had built himself, and which for forty years has sheltered his family. As time went on, and as he prospered, he added to his original farm another tract of eighty acres, on the west, and he now owns still another place,—a quartersection of good farm land in Harrison township. Union county. He has dealt extensively in live stock and even to this day feeds and raises a large number of cattle. He follows in his father's footsteps in the matter of politics, and is a Democrat of the old Jacksonian stripe.
September 9, 1838, Samuel Moore married Miss Margaret Matilda Jones, daughter of Smith Jones. She was reared to womanhood in Union county, and her death occurred May 21, 1851. The eldest son, James William, who had continued to live with his parents on the farm, died at the age of twenty-six years; David Thomas died at thirteen years; Mary Elizabeth is Mrs. Arbuckle, of Indianapolis; Nancy Jane is Mrs. Nickson, of Alexandria, Indiana; Margaret Lorena is Mrs. Saulsbury, of Anderson, Indiana; and Sarah Kathrine, widow of William M. Starr, is now keeping house for her aged father. She became the mother of one son, Leonidas Clay Starr, who was a fine business man and electrician, and who was accidentally killed in San Francisco, California, in March, 1899, his untimely death ending a life of much promise and bringing unmitigated grief to his devoted mother and to a large circle of friends. The second marriage of Samuel Moore was celebrated October 31, 1852, his wife being Mary Butt, of Union county. She departed this life June 8, 1896, and left four children, namely: Ann Eliza, wife of Jonas Goar, of East Richmond; Lydia Alice, Mrs. Isaac Hunt, of Richmond; Jacob S., of Dunkirk, Indiana; and Minnie Agnes, wife of Harry Highley, of West Richmond.
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899