Pulaski-White-Woodruff County ArArchives Biographies.....Moore, John M. 
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Robert Sanchez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00027.html#0006574 June 7, 2009, 9:00 am

Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1922)

JOHN M. MOORE.
    Fifty years have been added to the cycle of the centuries since John M.
Moore became a member of the Little Rock bar and throughout that period he has
held to the highest professional standards, his course reflecting credit and
honor upon the history of the Arkansas bar. Moreover, he is a native of Pulaski
county and a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of the state.

    In the paternal line his ancestry is traced back to Thomas Lloyd, who came
from Montgomeryshire, Wales, to America and settled in Pennsylvania. He was
president of the legislative council and deputy governor of the Colony in 1684,
after William Penn returned to England. A daughter of Thomas Lloyd became the
wife of Samuel Preston, and their daughter married Dr. Richard Moore of
Maryland, from whom John M. Moore is a descendant in the fifth generation.

    Israel M. Moore, the father of John M. Moore, was born in Wellsboro,
Pennsylvania. December 3, 1814, and came to the southwest when a young man of
twenty-two years. He was one of the promoters of the Cairo & Fulton Railroad,
which was organized under acts of the legislatures of Missouri and Arkansas for
the purpose of building a railroad from Cairo, Illinois, to the southern part of
this state. He served on the board of directors and was largely instrumental in
securing land grants from congress to the company until it passed into the hands
of Thomas Allen of St. Louis and was reorganized as a part of the system of the
St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company. On the maternal side, his
great-grandfather came from the north of Ireland to America, and served as a
member of the patriot army in the Revolutionary war.

    John M. Moore was reared in Searcy, Arkansas, and although but a schoolboy
at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war, he joined the Third Arkansas
Cavalry and was on active duty under Generals Forrest and Wheeler. He enlisted
as a private but was promoted to a lieutenancy and was in command of his company
at the close of hostilities. With his return home Mr. Moore resumed his studies
under the direction of private tutors, and a year later began preparation for
the bar, being admitted to practice in Searcy. In 1870 he opened a law office in
Augusta, Woodruff county, and the following year removed to Little Rock, where
for half a century he has engaged in practice.  He served for six years as
reporter of the supreme court.

    In 1873 Mr. Moore wedded Miss Annie C. Turner, a daughter of Blakely D.
Turner, who was one of the pioneer members of the Arkansas bar. Mrs. Moore
departed this life January 31, 1901. Their family numbered four children: J.
Merrick, associated with his father in the practice of law. married Miss Rebecca
Read of Fort Smith; Janie, now deceased, was the wife of A. C. Miller of Little
Rock; Charlotte is the wife of M. K. Kassony of New York city; and Blake Turner
died in 1909.

    In his political views Mr. Moore has always been a supporter of democratic
principles, and for eight years he was chairman of the state central committee,
contributing much to the success and growth of the party during that period. He
never sought nor held a political office. His ambition seems to have been
centered in his profession. His high professional standing is indicated in the
fact that he was honored with the presidency of the State Bar Association. A
contemporary biographer has said o£ him: "There are those—and they are
legion—who put at the head of the legal profession in Arkansas the name of John
M. Moore. It is quite certain that no one qualified to form an opinion on the
subject but regards him as one among the very few who are the head and front of
the profession. He is one of those truly great lawyers of whom it is in no sense
flattery to say that he is deeply learned in the law. Indeed, he is,
intellectually, more than a learned lawyer; he is a man of broad scholarship.
Few men have read more widely. His private library, of works selected from time
to time through a period of many years, is one of the largest and best in the
state. The quality and scope of the collection, in which are missing few, if
any, of the outstanding contributions to knowledge of nearly every practical
sort during the last half a century, afford significant evidence of an
intellectuality of ripe and varied culture. He is, moreover, a shrewd and wise
observer of practical affairs. His personality is one of dignity and reserve. He
has won success in his profession by dint of sheer ability."


Additional Comments:
Citation:
Centennial History of Arkansas
Volume II
Chicago-Little Rock: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1922


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