BENJAMIN MOORE

MOORE

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/22/2020 at 18:58:06

BENJAMIN MOORE was born in Fleming county, Kentucky, August 28, 1821. His father, S. J. Moore, served in the war of 1812. He was a native of Pennsylvania, and was a son of Amos Moore, who was born in Scotland, and served in the Revolutionary war. The mother of our subject was Jane (Jamison) Moore, a native of Pennsylvania. Her father, Lord John Jamison, was born in Scotland, and received a collegiate education there. After coming to America he was engaged as a teacher in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, and lived to be eighty-nine years of age. His wife was before her marriage Miss Jane Wills. In 1834 Samuel J. Moore and wife left Kentucky and moved to Putnam county, Indiana, where the mother died in 1838. The father subsequently went to Rising Sun, on the Ohio river, and from there came to Marion county, Iowa, where he died at the age of eighty- three years. He was by trade a cooper and wheelwright. Of their six sons and one daughter, only the subject of our sketch and his sister are now living. The latter, Sarah Strahan, is seventy-eight years of age. One son, Robert P. Moore, was State Attorney of Kentucky. His death occurred at Cincinnati, Ohio.

Benjamin Moore was fourteen at the time of his going to Indiana, and in that State he grew to manhood. In 1840 he came to Iowa and remained one season in Des Moines county. In the fall of that year he settled in Henderson county, Illinois, where he lived until 1856, and during that time was deputy Sheriff four years. His next move was to Adams county, Iowa. He first lived in Washington township, then in Douglas, and in 1883 settled on the farm of fifty acres in Quincy township, where he now lives. His place is well improved with good buildings, and has one of the finest orchards in the county. He has 500 trees in bearing, of which seventy-five are cherry and thirty are apricot trees. He also has a large variety of small fruits.

Mr. Moore was married in Henderson county, Illinois, in 1845, to Margaret I. Spencer, a native of Bourbon county, Kentucky, daughter of Alfred and Elinor Spencer, both natives of Kentucky. Mrs. Moore, however, was reared in Knox county, Illinois. They have nine children living, viz.: Robert A., an attorney of Kearney, Nebraska; Winfield Scott, Lincoln township, this county; Sarah Ellen, wife of John Harlow, of Kingman, Kansas; Alonzo, a lawyer of Callaway, Nebraska; Ollie J., wife of L. A. Brittan, Douglas township, this county; Curtis L., also of Douglas township; Nancy A., wife of Ed. Leach, Corning, Iowa; Alfred J., a postal clerk, and Arthur E., at home. Four of their children are deceased: Benjamin, who died at the age of ten years; Monroe, who died at the age of fourteen months, and two children that died in infancy.

Few men in the county are better known than Benjamin Moore. For forty years he has acted as auctioneer, and for eight years he was Justice of the Peace. His political affiliations are with the Republican party. Ever interested in religious matters, he has served as class-leader and Sabbath-school superintendent for many years.