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Letter by Mary Gudger Moore |
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| Copy of a letter written to Mrs. Lucy Moore Gaston of Chandler, N. C. from her mother Mrs. Mary Gudger Moore, wife of William Hamilton Moore, the grand-son of William Moore. | |
| Page 1 | My Dear daughter Lucy, You have requested me to write up the history of the Moore family as related to me by your father and other members of the family. I will do so as correctly as I can, but it is all tradition, and much of it may perhaps be incorrect, as it has been handed down from father to son, and not written. The Moores were of Scotch Irish extraction and were all Presbyterians, and have kept up the teachings of their fathers. Sometime during the 15th or 16th centuries - I can't remember which - there arose a great persecution against the Presbyterians in Scotland in the reign of Queen Margaret, a sister of Henry 8th of England and during the life time of John (Knox), the great Presbyterian defender. A great many of them among others your father's ancestors fled to the North of Ireland and became incorporated with the Irish Nation. According to tradition the Moores of Scotland were the McCallum Moores, a branch of the Royal family of Scotland, but this is vague and uncertain and enveloped in the myths and shadows of that period. After they fled to Ireland they dropped the McCallum part of their name and were simply Moores. Sometime after they had been in Ireland I know not how long, one member of the family - your father's ancestor - married a daughter of the Duke of Hamilton, an Irish Nobleman, and the name Hamilton has been kept up in the family ever since. When ever you find a Moore you find a Hamilton, your father was William Hamilton Moore. This ancestor had a private secretary by the name of Anderson and the two families have been intimately associated with each other all through life. That was in Penn. and S.C. where there were descendants of both families, but no Anderson came to N.C. with William Moore. I learned this through a correspondence with a descendant of the Moores - a Mr. John Moore of Moore, S.C. He and your father corresponded for some time before his death, and I learned much, that I am writing from that source. He informed your father that Sire John Moore, who fell in the battle of Corunna in Spain was a descendant of the Moores. Wolf wrote this eligy. - "Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note." Three brothers of this branch of the family, the Moore Hamiltons - I do not know if they were sons or grandsons, came over to America sometime before the American Revolution and settles near Philadelphia, Pa. - then the seat of the U. S. Government - and they, with a large colony of Scotch Irish Presbyterians who had come to America from time to time, formed an important element in the early history of the country. They were a shrewd brainy people and exercised a great influence over the thought and sentiment of that period. The had suffered so much from the religious persecution in the old country, they determined to establish the new Nation just then struggling into birth- that they had adopted their home country, upon a broader more liberal basis. Consequently they had by their influence a clause inserted in the Bill of Rights, giving to its subjects the right of religious liberty, the right to serve God according to the dictates of their own conscience. Not far from this time, two of the Moore brothers came South, where they left a large number of descendants. One settles in S.C. and the other - William - your great Grandfather, in N.C. At that time there was a considerable colony of Scotch - Irish Presbyterians settled in Mechlenburg Co., N.C. and many of their descendants are living there today. They took an active part in the political events of the time, and tradition says your great grandfather had a hand in framing the Mechlenberg |
| Page 2 | Declaration of Independence, but his name does not
appear on the paper. her married a Miss Margaret Patton, and
there is a Mr. Patton who was on of the signers and her was perhaps,
an uncle or brother, I don't know them - and gave coloring to the
tradition. Sometime not far from the close of the Revolutionary War, your great grandfather William Moore was sent in Gen. Rutherfords command with a company of soldiers, to drive back the Cherokee Indians, who had become troublesome. At that period the whole country between the Blue Ridge Mountains on the East and the Nantahalis on the West was an unbroken wilderness - a "Happy Hunting Ground" for the fierce, warlike Cherokee Indians livings west of the Nanthahales. They often raided over the mountains into McDowell, Burke, and Rutherford counties, the Western limit of the white settlement, doing much damage. General Rutherford's command was sent to drive them back. Your great grandfather, William Moore was in that command, at the head of a company, but whether he was their Captain, I do not know - he was never called Captain Moore. They crossed the Black Mountains and came down the Swannanoa Valley, crossing the French Broad River four or five miles above where the city of Asheville is now located; and not far from where Hominy Creek empties into the river. I think there was a small island near the crossing. It was afterwards and still may be called the [?]arford. Your father once pointed it out to me as we were going on a visit to my sisters who lived on the river some distance above it. The Command then came straight up the Hominy Valley along an Indian trail, parts of which are still visable in some places, especially on the Gaston place some seven miles West of Asheville. They then went through what is now Haywood County, camping at the White Sulphur Springs one night, where the city of Waynesville if now located. Then on through what is now Jackson Co. On top of the mountain there they overtook and killed two Indians. Not finding any more Indians or any traces of them, they turned their steps and went back another route down the New Found section of country to avoid being ambushed. Your great Grandfoather William Moore was so charmed with the beauty and fertility of the Hominy Valley, called Connihanse (meaning Hominy) by the Indians that he determined if he came out of the war alive to settle here. He did so, entering p some six or eight miles up an[d] down the creek, and sending a family of negroes, Daddy Jim and Mammy Susie, to hold distance above where the present bridge crosses the creek between Dr. Gudgers and the Gaston place about seven miles from Asheville. The Indians were not hostile to the black race and the negroes were never molested. They claimed to have been de[s]cended from the African Kings, their ancestors having been kidnapped from their native land and brought to America when children and put in slavery. These negroes were superior in intelligence and a nobility of character to the other families your great grandfather brought here afterwards, and always claimed the name King. After the war settlers began to come over the mountains and soon there was a small colony established in the Swannanoa Valley. I do not know when Asheville was located or settled but perhaps somewhere near this period. There was also a small settlement in the West in what is Macon Co. now. The settlers coming across the Tennessee River from Tenn. People traveling from one section to the other found much difficulty in getting accomodations for the night. Many of them stopped with Daddy Jim and Mammy Susie and were nicely entertained. Mammy Susie kept a bed "no nigger had ever slept in", and she was glad to care for them for the pecuniary help it was to herself and family. I am sure there must have been a trading post at Asheville otherwise their money would have been of little use to them. |
| Page 3 | Sometime afterwards, I do not know how long, William
Moore came over and built a large comfortable home for his family
and cabins for his negroes, and brought them all over, white and
black. He brought the first wagon across the French Broad
River and came here from Burke Co., N.C. After he came here he
had Daddy Jim with his cabin and family moved over into the yard
with the other negroes. That cabin was always called a block
house and had port holes. Your great grandfather was said to
have been a nice gentleman and a good citizen. After his death
your grandfather, Capt. Charles Moore, his youngest son, who was
only four years old when he came here, fell heir to his father's
home property, the old gentleman having provided for his other
children. Capt. Moore was a man of fine personal appearance -
tall and portly with a dignified air and bearing and having a very
good education for that period. Hospitable to the last degree,
a man of broad mind and liberal views. Ever ready to assist in
any enterprise looking to the development and improvement of the
country. He married quite young, almost a boy, to a Miss
Margaret Penland, and had two living children by that marriage - a
son and a daughter. He educated his son, your father, William
Hamilton Moore at Green College, Tenn. and the daughter, our
Aunt Rachel, Evelina Moore at Salem, N.C. His first wife died
when he was quite a young man and he married the second time to Miss
Lucinda Killian and had a large family of sons and one daughter by
this marriage. Capt. Moore did not feel equal to educate his
large family abroad and determined to do so at home. To this
end he built a tolerably large - much so for that period -
comfortable frame building on his place - called Sand Hill Academy,
and employed a Presbyterian Minister, not long out of college, Rev.
Jacob Hood, who had some experience in teaching to teach his school.
Paying his salary and furnishing a home and many conveniences on his
place all at his own expense. The school soon became self
supporting as it was intended for the benefit of others as well as
his children and the country was ripe for education. Students
poured in from all directions especially from the Western counties
and the school did more good for that section than any taught at
that time West of Asheville. It grew so, they added another
room and had a female department. (Capt. Moore educated his
daughter by his second marriage in Spartanburg, S.C.) Many of
the first class business men and women of that period were educated
there. Lawyers, Doctors, Ministers of the Gospel, four judges
and other in the various walks of life. The young ladies may
of them taught school thus spreading the learning of education.
Capt. Moore did so much for that school and the branch church
established there by him, paying the ministers' slavery and boarding
the students at such low figures - five and six dollars a month,
some of them working it out on their plantation at off hours, with
others paying nothing - it broke him up and he died in comparative
poverty but his works will never die. He sleeps peacefully in
the Oak Forest Presbyterian Church yard built there after his death
with no monument to commemorate his deeds save a simple slab his
children erected at his grave. It seems a shame to me that
such should soil and some day, perhaps, the sons and daughters of
the men he helped will arise and do honor to his memory. After the death of Capt. Moore and the marriage and going away of his children, the property fell into the hands of Dr. D. M. Gudger. The old house consisted of twelve rooms with long verandas above and below as was the fashion of the times. There were also many comfortable out buildings. Dr. Gudger improved the old home and made of it a very comfortable, modern residence. In making some repairs, he found in a crack in a closet, an old grant, made to William Moore for land in the Lower Hominy Valley signed in clear beautiful hand writing by Richard Caswell, the first provisional Governor of N.C. and sealed by him also. Dr. Gudger still has this grant but will not part with it. He also tore down the negro cabins in the yard - negro slavery was at an end - and the stones for the foundation, and especially those of Daddy Jim's cabin and chimney were taken to Sand Hill and made the foundation for the Oak Forest Presbyterian Church, built on a lot adjoining , after Capt. Moore's death. Capt. Moore and family were the only Presbyterians in this section in his time, and he had a branch of the Asheville Church, of which he was an elder, established in the little school building he had erected - |
| Page 4 | answering for both church and school purposes.
After his death another generation took up his work and tore away
his frame building and erected in its place a very pretty brick
house where a school is regularly kept up. (Capt. Moore was a
member of the order of Free Masons and at his death was buried with
Masonic honors.) The pretty little brick church near by is no longer a branch church, but has a congregation of its own, and a pastor who regularly receives a salary, though small. Capt. Moore's remains were removed from the old burial ground on the original Moore estate that had fallen into other hands and into decay and laid to rest in the church yard after the church had been built for some time. It is said by visitors to our section, that there is an air of culture and refinement in the people here, not often found in the country. Perhaps the spirit of the sturdy old Scotch Irish Presbyterians still linger about the place he loved so in life and the place he hallowed with his memory and deeds. There are now only a few of his descendants that bear his name living here, and a limited number of others of other names. But whenever you find them, they are men and women of high ideals, and cling with true devotion to the tradition of their fathers. And now, my dear daughter, I have complied with your request, and written up your father's family history as best I could. It doubtless has many imperfections, but you can attribute them to age and it infirmities. The weight of eighty years rests upon me, dimming my memory and blunting my intellect, and it had not the charm of romance and beauty of fiction. I could perhaps have given it, had I written it when younger as often urged to do and I am sure it should have been done. The sturdy [C]hristian principles of your ancestors that would not yield to persecution - their flight from Scotland, "The Fatherland" with its beautiful lakes and mountains - their sojourn in Ireland, the home of their adoption "The Emerald Isle" with its beauty and pathos - their subsequent voyage to America, "The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave" and his life's work here - all have in it an element of romance, that might have been woven into a beautiful story if only it had been written by a more gifted pen than mine. As it is you have much to be proud of in the lives and deeds of your ancestors. To you my dear children and grandchildren and other members of the Moore family who have always treated me with all the love and consideration that could have been shown a daughter-in-law of the family I dedicate this little family history with much love and affection. I commend you to the God of your fathers and the strong faith and trust in him that was the bulwark of their characters. May the peace of God that passeth all understanding keep your minds and hearts in Christ Jesus. Amen. To you one and all everywhere Goodnight - Farewell. Mary Gudger Moore Gaston Place |