Madison County AlArchives Biographies.....Moore, David 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 19, 2011, 5:31 am

Source: See below
Author: Smith & De Land, publishers

  DR. DAVID MOORE. The name of this influential and broad-minded gentleman
stands conspicuous in the list of prominent and useful citizens of Huntsville,
where he spent the greater part of his life. He was a leading spirit in all the
public enterprises which made it fifty years ago the most beautiful town in the
South.

  Dr. Moore was born in Brunswick County, Va., in 1879 [sic], of a Virginian
mother, whose maiden name was Rebecca Fletcher. His father, John Moore, was a
man of scholarly attainments and eminent piety from the Cape Fear region of
Carolina.

  Dr. David Moore received his education in Virginia, and was gradunated in
medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Moving to Nashville, Tenn., he
entered on his profession, was soon recognized as a man of ability, knowledge
and skill, and speedily obtained a lucrative practice. Here he married first
Miss Harriet, an accomplished daughter of Judge Haywood, a man of note in
Tennessee.

  In 1809, at the first sale of lands iu Madison County, Mississippi Territory,
Dr. Moore became a considerable purchaser. He was also selected as one of the
three trustees to whom LeRoy Pope deeded one-half of his purchase covering the
site of Huntsville, with authority to lay off, sell lots and use the proceeds
for the improvement of the projected town; and this work in the beauty of the
place is still gratefully visible, for it is well done.

  At Nashville Dr. Moore had been the family physician and attached friend of
Gen. Andrew Jackson; and in 1813-14, during the bloody war which crushed the
power of the Creek Indians iu South Alabama, he served as surgeon on the staff
of the General.

  After the finishing battle of Tohopeka, on his return home, Dr. Moore was
appointed one of five "justices of the quorum" of Madison County— an English and
Virginian method of administering law; and he served until the admission of
Alabama, as a State, into the Union.

  Under an act passed by the Territorial Legislature December 11, 1816, Dr.
David Moore was one of nine citizens authorized to open books of subscription
for "'The Planters' and Merchants' Bank," at Huntsville; and this was the first
bank established in Mississippi Territory.

  In 1820, after the admission of Alabama as a State, Dr. Moore was elected to
the Legislature, and was returned thirteen times—five times at the head of the
ticket chosen. From 1822 to 1825 he was sent to the State Senate; but, for
influence, he afterward preferred the lower house, of which, in 1841, he was
unanimously elected the Speaker.

  Among the many important measures, which he influenced, it should be stated,
that Dr. David Moore inaugurated and carried through "the woman's law," which
creates a statutory settlement for the protection of married women from the
possible vices or business misfortunes of their husbands, and generally
considered just in its provisions without humiliating the husbands — a most wise
and conservative measure, which has saved from ruin thousands of the families of
Alabama.

  Dr. Moore was eminent in his profession; but he had faith in land investments
and in cotton planting, he bought the best lands, employed the best overseers
and required them to account to him regularly. He made good crops, shipped his
cotton to Liverpool, sold it at his own time, and furnished exchange to the
people of the Tennessee Valley. He became the owner of nine choice plantations
and many negroes.

  In January, 1833, the Madison Turnpike Company was chartered under the
auspices of Dr. David Moore and six other enterprising citizens. This company
macadamized the roads ten miles south to the Tennessee River, and northward to
Conally's, and west in the direction of Athens, Limestone County.

  On the 24th of November, 1841, the Legislature of Alabama, entered on an
election of a United States Senator, to fill the seat vacated by Governor C. C.
Clay's retirement. Two ballots were taken. On the first ballot, Dr. Moore led by
one vote; on the second ballot, Bagby was elected and Moore defeated, to the
surprise of his friends, through the defection of a few men from North Alabama,
who on this occasion misrepresented their constituents.

  After losing his first wife, childless, he married in 1834 Martha L. Harrison,
a daughter of Benjamin Harrison, of Brunswick County, Va., who afterward also
moved to Madison County, Ala. By this marriage he had three daughters and three
sons; and at his death, he left his widow and four children surviving him.

  Dr. David Moore was a man of the blonde type, medium in stature, but of fine
physique: calm and dignified in his bearing, courtly in his address, he was
observant of men and careful and punctual in business. A man of affairs, he was
successful beyond his contemporaries. At the same time, he was governed by
principle, irreproachable in his habits and a Christian gentleman in the highest
sense of the word. His charities were wide and numerous. Hospitable and
public-spirited, he was liberal to the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he
was a member. He was a substantial friend of worthy young men who needed help,
and was not only generous during life to kindred, but provided in his will for
the education of those of his nephews whom he considered in need of his aid.

  Although a man full of the cares of business, his devotion to his family was
remarkable. His heart was ever at home, and his watchful, tender love for his
wife and little children was notably rare. The loss of such a guardian and guide
in their early youth was an irreparable misfortune to his sons and daughters. He
gave to his wife and children each an ample fortune, placed in the hands of
trustees for safe keeping and ultimate division.  He died in 1845.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical
Birmingham, Ala.: Smith and De Land
1888

PART IV.
MONOGRAPHS OF THE PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS IN NORTHERN AND CENTRAL ALABAMA,
TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF MANY OF THEIR REPRESENTATIVE PEOPLE.


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