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OUR MOORE FAMILY IN MISSISSIPPII now attempt to write in a narrative format, some of the information we have found about our Moore family and how we came to be in Neshoba County, Mississippi. Parts of the story will be factual, and parts will be our best guess as to what really happened. No doubt there will be errors in the story, but perhaps the overall flavor will be accurate Hardin D. Moore was born about 1795 in central Kentucky, then called Madison County and now called Estill County. He was the 2nd child of 7 children born to John W. Moore and his wife Rebecca Mize. There were 6 brothers and one sister, Patsy. Patsy was born when Hardin was about 17, and despite the age difference, they were always close. Hardin’s grandfather was also named John Moore who may have been the original family immigrant to Madison County, Kentucky in the middle 1700's. We have not traced the family any further back at this time. When Hardin was about 19, his mother Rebecca died, and within a year, Hardin’s father remarried. John W. Moore’s second wife was Mary (Polly) Reed and this union produced 5 more children, the last being born when Hardin was about 35. Hardin left home before the last 3 half brothers and sisters were born, so while he knew of them, he did not know them well. The second wife, Polly, was much younger than John W. Moore. In fact, she was younger than some of John W.’s first children. The second wife, Polly did not seem to get along well with the children of the first marriage. In fact, after John W. Moore died in 1836, the children from the first marriage sued her and won judgment against Polly in court in Kentucky for improper management of John W. Moore’s estate. While it is sad that families quarrel, these lawsuits provided quite a bit of information for us now that we would not have otherwise known. We can tell that John W. Moore was a pretty prosperous farmer for the time, owning quite a bit of land. At least 2 slaves, one negro man valued at $50 and one negro woman valued at $230 by Court appraisement in February 1837 at page 76. Other records of his property are also available. As a boy growing up on a farm in central Kentucky, Hardin D. Moore saw the United States rapidly growing. It was an exciting time. When he was about 8 or 9, President Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase, almost doubling the size of the United States. Probably even more importantly to Hardin’s family, New Orleans became an American city. That meant the Moore family and their neighbors could ship farm crops and other goods down the Kentucky, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers all the way to the ocean under American jurisdiction and protection of American law. This was a real boon to economic development and growth. This in turn caused more commerce and interaction with people living in Kentucky with those people living, moving and settling downstream, all the way to Louisiana. When Hardin was about 12 years old, Robert Fulton invented the first practical steamboat. The invention of the steamboat revolutionized travel on rivers, making travel upstream almost as easy as floating downstream. When Hardin was about 19, he heard the exciting news of the great American victory under General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. No doubt this also made him proud to be an American and feel a growing historical and patriotic connection with the southern area of the United States. This battle firmly secured American control over New Orleans and the area of Louisiana . The United States had proven it could protect its citizens even in New Orleans and even against the most powerful country in the world, Great Britain. When Hardin was about 22, the State of Mississippi was formed, which meant a government was now established in new territory just opening for settlement. Mississippi was a booming place with a rapidly expanding population and economic opportunity was abundant. So, it almost appears natural that a young man with an adventuresome spirit, eager to make it on his own, would want to settle in some of the new territory of the United States, and the State of Mississippi then was the place with the reputation to make a fortune most quickly. Hardin no doubt had heard of the rich farm lands in Mississippi and how Mississippi was beginning to produce cotton in abundance, which was rapidly making the new settlers rich. So sometime, about the age of 25, Hardin D. Moore as a single young man, left his family in Kentucky, and moved to Mississippi. He most likely just floated down the river system to Natchez. The Kentucky River flows through the middle of Estill County, Kentucky where Hardin was born and reared, and the Kentucky River flowed into the Ohio River, which in turn flowed into the Mississippi River. He may have floated down in a canoe, but more likely he rode a steamboat or a flatboat ( a raft of logs, which was disassembled and sold for lumber at the end of the journey...there were an estimated 3000 flatboats per year traveling down the Ohio River to New Orleans and for many years after the 1820's the flatboat remained the chief conveyance for heavy traffic downstream). No doubt it was a memorable and poignant moment when Hardin left home, so far as we can tell, all alone, heading toward a new territory and a new life. His mother had been dead for about 6 years, but his father was still alive. And Hardin had 6 brothers and sisters in Kentucky and 5 more half brothers and sisters. So he was leaving a large and loving family, and they all knew that keeping in touch would be difficult. I imagine the family standing on the river bank waving goodbye to him, with tears in their eyes. In fact, as it turned out, it was more than 10 years, according to some letters we found, before Hardin was back in much contact with his family in Kentucky. Hardin died when he was about 50 (in about 1845) and so far as we can tell, he never saw his father again, and most likely never saw his brothers or sisters again either. But Hardin’s children did maintain contact with the extended family, and Hardin’s daughter visited with her relatives (Hardin’s cousin Isaac Mize) in Kentucky during 1850. Hardin’s brother-in-law, Col. William Benton, then living in Kentucky traveled to Mississippi after his death at a cost of $40.00, and visited Hardin's family. From letters we have, we can tell that Hardin had a close relationship with his only full sister, Patsy, and in fact, Patsy and her husband Col. Benton offered to help Hardin’s family move back to Kentucky after Hardin died. The family stayed in Mississippi however. At any rate, when Hardin left Kentucky for Mississippi in about 1820 as a young man, the family knew that they would be separated for sometime and it turned out that this separation for Hardin was probably permanent, though there was some contact through letters over the years. (Note we are speculating that Hardin traveled by river....he could also have traveled to Mississippi over the Natchez Trace, but the river was closer and seemingly easier and quicker.....but overland travel may have been cheaper. Hardin would have had to go over some mountains in Kentucky to reach Nashville, the beginning of the Natchez Trace....all in all, it seems more likely to me that he traveled by river.) The young single man, Hardin D. Moore arrived near Natchez, Mississippi in about 1820. It appears that he moved to Amite County, which is about 30 miles SE of Natchez fairly soon after arriving. On May 14, 1822, Hardin married a young girl, Sarah (Sally) Jones in Amite County, Mississippi, and they soon began a family. Their first child, John W. Moore was probably born in 1823, and soon thereafter, there were 6 more children born of this union. THE WILLIAM JONES FAMILY IN MISSISSIPPISally Jones made Hardin D. Moore a good wife. Sally too had come from pioneering stock. Sally was born in South Carolina in 1807, probably in the Barnwell District. Her parents were William Jones, Sr and Sarah (Sally) Buckley. William Jones Sr and Sally Buckley had 11 eleven children, the last 5 being born in Amite County, Mississippi. By these births, and from the Georgia passport, we can deduce that William Jones and his family arrived in Mississippi about 1809, eight years before Mississippi became a state. William Jones and his family probably traveled overland by horse and wagon through Indian country, undeveloped country, no roads and wild woods to reach Mississippi. Sally Jones was only about 3 when her family moved to Mississippi, and she most likely would not have remembered the trip to Mississippi, though the family must have talked about it often as their great adventure. Sally herself probably only would remember living in Mississippi all her life. But this means that our family has roots at the very beginning of Mississippi State history. Sally Jones Moore saw a lot of development of Mississippi (the founding of Jackson, the erection of the capitol building, the expulsion of the Choctaws in 1830, settlement of the entire state from 10 to 82 counties, telegraph, railroads etc) first hand until her death in 1860, just before the Civil War. The Courthouse in Amite County that was there when Sally Jones was alive is still there now. William Jones Sr. died before 29 October 1821. That meant that when Sally Jones married Hardin D. Moore in 1822, her father was already dead. That may have been some incentive for the marriage, (note that Sally Jones was only about 15 years old) but at this time, it was very common for girls to marry even as young as 14. I suspect that it was both culturally expected that a girl of 15 was of marriageable age and economically it was tough for a widow to support her and 6 other minor children without a father. William Jones Sr. was a reasonably successful farmer though and his will is filed in Amite County, which details some of the property he owned. Sally had family living in Mississippi near her, and her older brothers were able to help their mother manage the estate. So while there was some economic incentive to marry early, that was not the full story. There may be a real love story there too, but we, unfortunately, have no record of that....we can only imagine, that all of us Moore boys inherited our “smooth” talking ways from Hardin D. and that he swept Sally Jones off her feet. :-) At any rate, Hardin D. Moore and Sally Jones began a lifelong marriage in 1822, that so far as we can tell, was happy and productive. In due time they had the following children:
All were born in Amite County, Mississippi By the 1830 census Hardin D. Moore was listed as having 6 slaves. It appears that there were 2 adult female slaves with their children. I assume that these slaves were house servants. By the 1840 census, Hardin D. Moore was listed in the census as being employed in Manufacture and Trade. I wonder if that meant he was something like a harness maker? By this time, he had no slaves. Sometime about 1845, Hardin D. Moore died in Amite County, Mississippi. We know that he is not listed in the 1845 Amite County Tax Rolls and therefore assume he had died. He was about 50 years of age. By 1850, Sally Jones Moore was living in Amite County with 4 of her children. Her daughter Sarah was visiting Hardin’s family in Kentucky. Frederick had died before 1843, and her oldest son, John W. Moore had established his own residence. However, Hardin's Kentucky family was concerned about the Mississippi branch and Hardin's borther-in-law, William Benton, traveled from Estill County, Kentucky to Amite County, MS to check on Hardin's wife and children at a cost of $40 for the trip. By 1850, Hardin D. Moore’s real property was valued at $300. However, in 1860 his widow is listed as having $4,000 in personal property, so we should not assume the family was poor. It just appears that not much of their wealth was invested in land. About 1860, Sally Jones Moore died in Amite County. She was listed in the 1860 Mortality schedule of dying of “flux” at age 55. By this time, all of her daughters had married (she was staying with her youngest and her husband Mr. Burge) and she had numerous grandchildren close by. No doubt Sally Jones Moore had lived a full life and hopefully she was content with the descendants she left behind. THE ISAAC WELLS FAMILYAgain, we have no family records to confirm the public ones, but I believe the following to be correct. Hardin D. Moore/Sally Jones Moore’s oldest son, John W. Moore was about 22 years old when his father died. At about this same time, John W. Moore met a widow that he fell in love with. Even though this widow, Ann D. Wells Wacter, was much older than he, they married in about 1845 and moved northward about 100 miles to Scott County, Mississippi. This was more newly opened land for settlement, and land was probably cheap and a way for a couple to get started. Also, Ann D. Well’s family was living nearby, some in Scott County and some in adjacent Leake County. Ann D. Wells was a pioneer as well. Her father was Rev. Isaac Wells, a Methodist preacher who arrived in Mississippi with his family in 1812. We believe he and his family traveled down the Natchez Trace because he had a son born near Nashville, Tennessee in 1815. There was also a Methodist Church headquarters in Nashville which we believe directed Rev. Isaac Wells to Mississippi to establish Methodist Churches in the new area. Rev. Isaac Wells and his wife were from Georgia, and his daughter Ann D. was born in Georgia in 1809. The Wells family moved to several places in Mississippi over the years, with Rev Isaac Wells establishing Methodist Churches in SW Mississippi, other churches near Vicksburg on the Mississippi River, then in Madison County, and finally churches in, Scott, Leake and Attala Counties in east central Mississippi. Not only was he a founder of churches, Rev Isaac Wells was the first elected supervisor in Leake County and was active in political affairs. There are several articles written about him. He and his wife Nancy had 12 children, Ann D. being child number 3. Rev Isaac Wells when he first came to Mississippi established residence in Franklin County, which is next to Amite County. On March 6, 1826, Ann D. Wells at age 17 married her first husband William James Wacter in Franklin County. We believe there were eight children born of this marriage. Ann D. Wells Wacter did not move with Rev Isaac Wells to Vicksburg or Madison County, but in 1840, she and her husband William J. Wacter are living in Leake County next to her brother, Samuel Wells and close by her father Rev. Isaac Wells. Sometime before 1845, William J. Wacter died. We think that Ann D. Wells Wacter visited her husband’s family in Franklin County after this death with her children. Franklin County is adjacent to Amite County and if both John W. Moore and Ann D. lived close to the county line, they may have been only a few miles apart. We speculate that they may have met in the local Methodist Church. At anyrate, they did meet, and became attracted to each other, even though Ann D. was 14 years older than John W. In fact, Ann D. was only two years younger than John W.’s mother. This relationship may have caused a strain in the family, and there may not have been much communication after this marriage took place in about 1845. This could be an explanation why the family lost track of two little boys, our ancestors William Hardin Moore and John Wesley Moore who lived in Neshoba County after about 1860. About the time of their marriage, John W. and Ann D. moved to Scott County. Infact, they may have been married in Scott County, after all, Ann D.'s father was a preacher and could have married them there. We have found no record of their marriage, but are confident it took place because of the 1850 census record The Scott County Courthouse and its records were burned during the Civil War. John W. must have been a kind hearted young man. At age 22 or so, he took on a wife and two young girls in his household. Within a couple of years or so of marriage, John W. and Ann D. had a girl named Letha A. and then in 1852 a boy named John Wesley Moore and in 1853 a boy named William Hardin Moore. Sometime before 1860, and possibly around 1855, something happened to John W. and he died at the young age of about 35 or so. I wonder if there was some accident or illness that caused his untimely death. According to the census records, John W. did not have many assets, and he owned no property with his employment listed as laborer. Whatever happened, Ann D. was left a widow for a second time, this time with 2 young boys, a girl and still perhaps 2 girls from her first marriage under her care, with very little money. In 1859, Ann D.’s father, Rev Isaac Wells died in Leake County. (Though it seems to us now a little incongruous for a preacher, Rev Isaac Wells owned an elderly female slave at the time of his death, and had owned 4 slaves when he immigrated to Mississippi.) In the 1860 census, Ann D. is listed as living with her brother Samuel Wells in Leake County. In addition to his family, Samuel is taking care of his mother, Nancy Wells, his sister Ann D. Moore and her 2 young sons, John W. and Hardin. What happened to the girls is unknown. It is assumed that Letha A. has died, but perhaps the older 2 Wacter girls had married by this time. In the fall of 1860, Ann D. Wells Wacter Moore married a third time. She married Benjamin Dove in Leake County, Mississippi. Benjamin Dove was a widower, having 3 small children of his own. The couple moved to eastern Leake County, near Edinburg in late 1860, and in 1861, Benjamin Dove purchased a farm in adjacent Neshoba County, in the Hope Community, (about 7 miles from Edinburg) and the family moved there. In early 1862, Benjamin Dove joined the Confederate Army and fought in battles from before Vicksburg (he was not caught in the siege of that city but had fought against Gen. Grant in that campaign) to North Carolina for the next three years until the final surrender in 1865. This meant that Ann D. and her 2 boys, then about 10-12 had to run the farm. It must have been physically very hard on our ancestor William Hardin Moore, aged about 11 during this time. It must have been hard on Ann D. as well. Sometime before about 1868, Ann D. died leaving her two boys, John Wesley Moore and William Hardin Moore, 15 year old orphans in Neshoba County. William Hardin Moore is listed as living all alone in the 1870 census, age 16. By this time, the two boys’ grandparents on both sides were dead, and they had been living with a step-father who probably knew very little about their families anyway. Both boys were on their own by 1870 and were not living in their step-father’s home then. Their step-father Dove had re-married by then, and perhaps these two boys were unwelcome. We know that Benjamin Dove had a new 6 month old baby in 1870, so that meant his re-marriage probably took place in 1868. That would mean that Ann D. was probably dead in or before 1868, and that her children were orphans at age 15 or even younger. The last real evidence we have of Ann D. being alive is in 1861, so potentially the boys could have been orphans at age 11 or 12. At any rate, after Ann D.’s death, the two boys grew up without any other family, but they were close to each other throughout their lives and both became upstanding men of the community. Despite what must have been a hard childhood, William Hardin Moore was always known as a cheerful and kind person. As I have written histories of William Hardin Moore and his descendants, I will close this narrative at this point, and if the reader is still interested in the Moore family history, the story may be picked up at that point. It has been my pleasure to search the records attempting to find this story of our family, and I hope that the story is fundamentally correct. However, I encourage all who are interested to continue to research the story, and see what additional information may be found and corroborated or corrected. W.D. Moore, Jr. SOURCES: 1. PASSPORTS ISSUED BY GOVERNORS OF GEORGIA 1785-1809 by Mary G. Bryan Page 56 , quoting from original records of page 495, reading as follows: “ Thursday 5th October 1809 On recommendation ORDERED That a Passport through the Creek Nation be prepared for William Jones, Senr” 2. PASSPORTS ISSUED BY GOVERNORS OF GEORGIA 1810-1820 by Mary G. Bryan Page 91, quoting from original records of page 296, reading as follows: “ Mon. 3d February 1812 On application That Passports be prepared for the following persons to travel through the Indian Nations to the Western Country, to wit, One for Mr Henry Wells with his wife and six children and also two negroes. One for Mr. Isaac Wells with his wife and four children and four negroes, all from the County of Bryan in this State. Which were presented and signed.” 3. Hardin D. Moore’s marriage in Amite County, Mississippi, Marriage Record Book 2B p 89. 4. Ann D. Well’s first marriage, Franklin County, Mississippi, Marriage Book A page 61. Ann D. Well’s third marriage, Leake County, Mississippi, Marriage Book D page 26. Ann D. Well’s second marriage derived from 1850 Scott County Census. (Scott County Courthouse and records were burned during the Civil War.) 5. 1850 CENSUS: Scott County, Mississippi page 259 family 85 John W. Moore, age 27, m, laborer, no property listed, born in Mississippi Ann D. Moore, age 41, f, born in Mississippi Letha A. Moore, age 2, f, born in Mississippi Martha Wacter, age 10, f, born in Mississippi Adeliza Wacter, age 8, f, born in Mississippi 6. Letter written by Hardin D. Moore to his brothers and sisters from Liberty, Amite County, Mississippi dated 12 April 1843. Original in Estill County Kentucky Court records page 575 Quoted as follows: “He had a letter from them 4 Dec 1842 and 12 Mar 1843. Told them to to get money in their hands and hold until he could come or advise further. You asked if I am married. Yes, I was May 1822. We have 6 children, 3 boys and 3 girls. Their names are: John W., Amanda Caroline, William, Frederick P.A., Sarah A., Emily and Martha. Frederick died last summer (1841). We are all well at this writing. How are times with you? Very hard there. Are you a Whig or Democrat? Where are my brothers living and how are they all doing? Should you see any of them, give them my love and for yourself the same. Your brother, H.D. Moore.” 6. Estate records of William Jones Sr. from Amite County, Mississippi Courthouse, his Will, etc. ******************************************************************************* TEN SIMPLIFIED EVIDENCES THAT SUPPORT THE CONCLUSION THAT HARDIN D. MOORE'S SON, JOHN W. MOORE, IS ONE AND THE SAME AS "OUR" JOHN W. MOORE FROM SCOTT COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI IN 1850.REASON ONE:
REASON TWO:
REASON THREE:
REASON FOUR:
REASON FIVE:
REASON SIX:
REASON SEVEN:
REASON EIGHT:
REASON NINE:
REASON TEN:
Last Update: Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2003 Email Jared Smith | Jared's Resume | Asterisk Consultant
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