Mary Gudger Moore 

1833-1917

"Ever since I have been afflicted, my children have desired me to write a book and in the language of Josiah Allen. I have asked them who has read your book Samantha and they say “they will read it.” 

Well, if the dear ones who have ministered to me so tenderly and patiently during my affliction – when perhaps I have been enacting and hard to please – will linger lovingly over these pages when I am gone remembering only my good qualities, I shall be amply rewarded for all the pain it cost me to write it."

So wrote Mary Gudger Moore, mother, educator and friend to all. She was a tall woman, standing over six feet and commanding in presence. Born in Buncombe County, she married in 1855 and had seven children. A teller of stories, Mary loved children and delighted in telling stories she had composed, remembered and read. Her deep love of western North Carolina  can be seen in two historical pieces she wrote. One, written for her community, "Romance of Western North Carolina" and the other written for her children and called "My Book". Both were written late in her long life and that they were written at all is a miracle. Mary Moore suffered from extreme rheumatoid arthritis. Her hands were crippled and painful instruments, but she persisted and the labored penmanship of "My Book" may be seen in the original copy in Special Collections. Known as "Aunt Mary" she lived a rich and full life as recorded in her writing. Her nephew, Charles H. Stanton, Jr. has transcribed her work and left it for all to share in the Ramsey Special Collections.  Among her papers is a document "Directions for My Funeral". In it she says

"I do not wish any elaborate sermon preached over me or any great enconium [sic] passed upon my life or character. I have lived my life in the two Hominy Valleys and hope it is an open epistle known and read of all men and needs no comment or commendation. I  trust the evil I have done will be buried with me in the tomb and the good I have done, if any, may live in the lives of others and go down through all of the ages till it touches the fartherest [sic] shores of time and my memory to be kept green and fresh in the hearts of the children I have gathered about me wherever I have been and told pretty stories."