Friday, April 3, 2009

Featured Family Friday: Harlston Perrin Moore and Martha E. “Mattie” Lewis

I am so excited to be starting a series of posts on my Moore family (and ultimately the Lewis family as well). These families are my #1 research focus – not because I love them more than my other families, but because so little research had been done on them, or at least on my particular branch in the case of the Lewises. I have recently been contacted by a 3rd cousin on the Floyd side, so I am hoping my blog posts on the Moores may produce similar results. Another element in this strategy will be to post queries on these families in the genealogy discussion boards such as GenForum and the Rootsweb boards.

Harlston Perrin Moore
b. 4 Dec 1845, Anderson Co., South Carolina
d. 12 Dec 1921, Lancaster, Dallas Co., TX
& Martha E. “Mattie” Lewis
b. 8 Nov 1848, Franklin Co., Georgia
d. 22 Sep 1930, Plano, Collin Co., Texas
m. 3 Dec 1865, Anderson Co., South Carolina
|--William H. Moore
|----b. 1869, South Carolina (probably Anderson Co.)
|----d. bef Oct 1950
|--Mary M. Moore
|----b. 1871, South Carolina (probably Anderson Co.)
|-----d. bef Oct 1950
|--Etta Marie Moore
|----b. 5 Jun 1875, South Carolina (probably Anderson Co.)
|----d. 12 Jan 1959, Garland, Dallas, Texas
|--& Lee Elmo Campbell
|----b. 21 Feb 1873, Dallas Co., Texas
|----d. 18 May 1935, Dallas Co., Texas
|----m. 1894
|--Rosalie/Rosa Lee Moore
|----b. 24 Aug 1877, South Carolina (probably Anderson Co.)
|----d. 22 Nov 1953, Kern County, California
|--& Clifton Randolph “Cliff” Brownlee
|----b. 14 Jan 1878, Lancaster, Texas
|----d. 19 Jan 1932, Lubbock Co., Texas
|----m. 1905
|--Kirby Runion Moore
|----b. 29 Apr 1880, Lancaster, Dallas Co., TX
|----d. 1 Oct 1950, Baylor County Hospital, Seymour, TX
|--& Eula Amanda Floyd
|----b. 3 Sep 1883, Lancaster, Dallas Co., TX
|----d. 9 Jun 1972, Torrance, CA
|----m. 14 Nov 1907, Oak Cliff, Texas
|--Claude Moore
|----b. 12 Nov 1882, Dallas County, TX
|----d. 24 Feb 1955, Wichita Falls, Wichita, Texas
|--& Dona Pearl Philips
|----b. 10 Apr 1887, Texas
|----d. 2 Sep 1955, California
|----m. 1906
|--Luther Lee Moore
|----b. 31 Mar 1885, Dallas County, TX
|----d. Mar 1967, 85009 Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona
|--& Ethel Clara England
|----b. Nov 1895
|----m. 1914
|--Clyde Harlston Moore
|----b. 3 Aug 1889, Dallas Co., Texas
|----d. 18 Aug 1970, Allen, Collin County, Texas
|--& UNNAMED
|----Preston Earl Moore
|--b. 24 Nov 1891, Dallas County, TX
|----d. 18 Oct 1963, McKinney, Collin County, Texas
|--& UNNAMED

From the above two-generation descendant report you can see that there are a lot of gaps, but there aren’t nearly as many as I started out with. This is my mother’s father’s family (he is the Kirby Runion Moore), and when I began, I only knew part of his father’s name: Perrin Moore. You can read about how I began finding his family in my Getting Hooked on Genealogy series of posts.

Harlston Perrin Moore was the son of William Spencer Moore and Emily Tarrant of Anderson County, South Carolina, and Martha E. Lewis was the daughter of Elisha Berry Lewis and Martha Poole of Anderson County, South Carolina. During the Civil War H. P. Moore served in Company G, 2nd Battalion, South Carolina Reserves, one of the “old men and little boys” units (he was about 17 years old when he enlisted in the unit). Most of Private Harlston Perrin Moore’s duty would have consisted of guarding Union officers who were prisoners at Camp Sorghum (described at http://www.geocities.com/cmp_csa/index.html), located outside of Columbia and so nicknamed because the main rations there consisted of cornmeal and sorghum molasses. The prison was actually “an open field, a five-acre track of cleared ground without walls, fences, buildings, a ditch, or any other facilities.” There were many escapes. Conditions were poor for both inmates and guards. The witnesses on H. P. Moore’s Confederate Pension Application state that he served through the end of the war, so he probably also saw duty when the prison camp was moved to a mental asylum in Columbia, South Carolina which came to be called Camp Asylum (also Camp Lunacy).

The date of H. P. Moore’s and Martha Lewis’ Marriage is given as 3 December 1864 (“while on furlough”) in H. P. Moore’s Confederation Pension Application; however, on the 1910 US Federal Census for Justice Precinct 5, Dallas Co., Texas (Enumeration District 94, Sheet No. 13A, 3 May 1910) H. P. and Martha indicate that they have been married 42 years, which would point to 1867 or 1868 as the year of their marriage. 1877 is the year cited in the pension application as the year they moved to Texas and this is consistent with the states of birth listed for their children in the censuses. H. P. Moore’s name appears on an 1877 map of Hopewell Township, Anderson County, South Carolina; the farm (this would have been the farm he inherited from his father William Spencer Moore) is slightly to the south of Twenty-Six Mile Creek.

The main gaps in my information for the children of H. P. Moore and Martha Lewis are for the two oldest, William H. Moore and Mary M. Moore. The 1900 census indicates that one of their nine children had died by then, and I have been unable to determine whether it was William or Mary. I am working on the possibility that a Mary M. Harvey, shown on the 1900 census for Dallas County as the wife of Thomas Harvey, may be this Mary M. Moore. The month and date given for her birth, December 1870, would be consistent with the calculated year of 1871 from the 1880 census for Dallas County, and South Carolina is given as the state of her and her parents’ birth. The October 1950 obituary for my Grandfather Kirby Moore does not list either William or Mary, so I am guessing that both had died by 1950. I would also like to find the names of the wives of Clyde Harlston Moore and Preston Earl Moore. I did not know that either of them had married until I found their death certificates on the Family Search pilot site. The informant for both death certificates was given as Mrs. Clyde Moore, and she indicated on Preston Earl Moore’s certificate that he was divorced.

If any descendant of this family or other person researching this family reads this, please contact me.

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