Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 794 - 797 

JAMES L. MOORE, one of the solid men of Wichita, owns ten acres of land in the western division of the city, for two blocks of which he has been offered the sum of $66,000, and twenty-three acres in the southern part of the city. It is believed that his property will schedule $100,000. He is a man of great force of character, and has accumulated his property by downright hard labor and the exercise of the good judgment and sound sense with which nature generously endowed him. He labored as a practical butcher for a number of years, and now conducts a good business as a retail and wholesale dealer in meats and groceries.

            Our subject is of English, Irish and Scotch descent. His ancestors crossed the Atlantic at a very early time in the history of this country, and located in North Carolina, where his paternal grandfather engaged as a farmer, and from which State some of the brothers of the latter enlisted and served as soldiers in the Revolutionary War. Among his sons was Jonathan, the father of our subject, who was born and reared in North Carolina, and there married Miss Sarah Patterson, of Scotch and Welsh descent. To them were born thirteen children, all of whom, with one exception, Jonathan, lived to mature years. Jonathan died when a youth of eighteen. They were named respectively: Richard, Joseph, Mabel, Robert, John, Isam, Elizabeth, Sarah, Jonathan, Hannah, Eunice, James L. (our subject) and William P.

            The parents of our subject left North Carolina about 1817, and removed to a farm which the father had purchased in Overton County, Tenn. There they remained until 1833, about which time the mother died very suddenly, and after the wagons were loaded for another removal to Livingston County, Ill. After the sad rites attendant upon this calamity were over the family proceeded on their journey. The father a few years later returned to Tennessee, and was again married, to Miss Elizabeth Wright Harp, of that State, by whom he became the father of three children -- Thomas H., Tira J. and Anderson F. This lady also died after a few years, and Mr. Moore was the third time married, to Mrs. Nancy Henthorn.

            The father of our subject, one of the earliest pioneers of the Prairie State, assisted in laying out the city of Pontiac, in Livingston County, and became prominent in local affairs. He held the office of Justice of the Peace, and was also County Commissioner. Politically, he was an "Abolition Democrat." A man of deep piety, he was a devout member of the Methodist Church, in which he officiated as local preacher and exhorter, and often traveled a distance of twenty to thirty miles in the discharge of his self-imposed duties. His property lay in Indian Grove Township. He became very successful financially, and at his death left a valuable farm of 300 acres. He passed away in the spring of 1849, amid the regrets of a community who had learned to deeply respect him on account of his moral worth and integrity. His widow, after his death, removed to McLean County.

            The subject of this history was born on his father's farm, in Overton County, Tenn., Feb. 3, 1829, and received a very limited education in Livingston County, Ill., as the schools of that section at that time were few and far between, and conducted upon a plan far from systematic. James L. was but five years of age at the time of his mother's death and when the family removed to Illinois. He was but thirteen when his father died, and was then taken into the home of his elder brother, Robert, with whom he remained two years and then began life for himself. He worked out for the people of that neighborhood until twenty years of age.

            Before reaching his twenty-first year Mr. Moore, in May, 1849, was married to Miss Mahala Bull, who was born April 5, 1827, and is the daughter of William and Esther (Fowler) Bull. They were residents of Livingston County, Ill., and are now dead. Of this union there were born thirteen children, namely: Margaret E., Jonathan W., Esther S., Eunice J., James M., John F. and Joseph W. (who died young), John A., Carrie A. (deceased), Jessie G., Hannah G., Mary E. and Julia; the three latter are deceased. Mr. Moore, after his marriage, entered 160 acres of land in Livingston County, and while carrying on the cultivation of this also engaged in the butchering business. Subsequently he purchased and conducted the Central Hotel in Pontiac for eighteen months.

            In 1860, the year Abraham Lincoln was elected President, Mr. Moore saw him and heard him speak several times. After this he removed to Fairbury, in Livingston County, Ill., where he operated a meat-market until 1865. His next removal was across the Mississippi, into Pettis County, Mo., where he engaged in the same business, in Smithtown, eight miles east of Sedalia. At the same time he also carried on a lumber-yard, engaged in the purchase and sale of grain, and was thereafter appointed Notary Public and Justice of the Peace.

            Mr. Moore landed in Wichita on the 16th of November, 1875, and re-engaging in the meat-market business, continued this in connection with the wholesale grocery trade, which he still conducts. He is quite conservative in politics, and usually votes the Republican ticket. He is a stanch Green-backer in principle, and firmly believes that the Government should issue the entire circulating medium, and that the National Banks should go out of existence as banks of issue.

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