Colbert County AlArchives Biographies.....Moore, Joshua Burns 1833 - living in 1893
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 16, 2004, 11:55 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    JOSHUA BURNS MOORE, a prominent member of the Colbert county bar, and indeed
of northern Alabama, was born in Franklin county, Ala., in 1833. His
grandfathers, Moses Moore and William Burgess, were from South Carolina, both
coming to Alabama during the early history of the state, locating in Franklin
county. The former died at the age of eighty-six and the latter at the age of
ninety-six. William Moore, the father of Joshua Burns Moore, was a soldier in
the war of 1812, and died in 1849. On account of poverty he was unable to
educate his children as he desired, and Joshua B. Moore received only such
education as could be acquired at an old field school, attending school when he
could not work in the fields until he was fourteen years old. He then undertook
a course of study without a teacher and when fifteen borrowed a copy of
Blackstone's commentaries, commenced the study of law and was admitted to the
bar at the age of seventeen. From the beginning of his professional career he
was unusually successful, and in later years his abilities as a criminal lawyer
have been abundantly demonstrated. His reputation in this respect is second to
that of no other lawyer in northern Alabama. His appeals to the jury are
generally effective, and his adversary in the trial of causes is nearly always
taken by surprise in the course of the argument or in the appeal that Mr. Moore
takes or makes. Mr. Moore was a state senator during the important sessions of
the legislature of 1874-75 and 1875-76, taking an active part in all the
important reforms then instituted. Previous to the war Mr. Moore took no active
part in politics, preferring to confine himself exclusively to his profession.
When the great question of the secession of Alabama came up for discussion he
together with the great proportion of the people of the northern portion of the
state opposed it; but when the war was actually begun his sympathies were then
with the people of the south. On account of ill health, however, he took no
active part in the war, but contributed in every other way to the success of the
southern cause. After the war he advised the people to acquiesce in the policy
of the government of the United States, and in September, 1865, he was a member
of the constitutional convention that met in Montgomery to revise the
constitution of the state of Alabama, to make it conform to the new condition of
the slave population, in their emancipation: The work of the convention was not
acceptable to congress, and it together with the whole of President Johnson's
policy was overthrown. Then came reconstruction measures which to a great extent
disfranchised the intelligent portion of the southern people, and placed local
goverment in the hands of a foreign element and former slaves, wholly
incompetent to rule, and in 1874, a great revolt occurred against the ignorant
and irresponsible element, and an effort was made which resulted in success to
rescue the government of the state and place it in competent and experienced
hands. During this crisis Mr. Moore abandoned his profession - took the stump
and bent all his energies to the work, the result being the election of Governor
George S. Houston and the majority of each branch of the legislature. In 1858,
Mr. Moore married Miss Thomas Ella Pearsall, daughter of Edward and Parthenia
Pearsall, by which marriage he had four daughters. In 1874, while Mr. Moore was
at Montgomery in attendance upon a session of the legislature; a tornado swept
over Tuscumbia, leveling his fine brick residence to the ground and killing his
wife and his two youngest daughters. His other two daughters are still living.
Mr. Moore is still actively engaged in his profession.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 696-697


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