Daviess County KyArchives Biographies.....Moorman, Dorah And Della Higgs 1829 - 1894
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Cindy Courtier courtierwrites@sbcglobal.net August 9, 2021, 4:47 pm

Source: Personal research
Author: Cindy Andrews Courtier

    Dora Moorman and Della Higgs were the forebears of a family that now numbers in
the hundreds, if not the thousands.  
   Most of what we know about them comes from census records, the death records of
their twelve known children, from other family histories and, more recently, from
DNA testing which proves conclusively that Dora is the grandson of James Haden
Moorman and his second wife, Nancy Ann Owen, most probably through their son, Silas
Mercer Moorman.  
    The Moorman family farm where Dorah was born into slavery was located in the
Planters Hall area of Breckinridge County, Kentucky, about seven miles due south and
a little west of Hardinsburg.
    The first currently known record of Dora and Della shows them living in Daviess
County in 1870 with six children.  An 1876 plat map of Daviess County, shows the
family living in the southwest section of Murrays Precinct.  All totaled, Dorah and
Della purchased 451 acres in Daviess county. Much of the lad was given to their
children before Dorah's death as reflected in notices in the Owensboro Messenger in
1893 and 1894:  3 acres to Henry E Moorman for $1;                                  
                                                                                    
                                                                                    
             
63 ¾ acres to Thomas Moorman “for love and affection”; 63 ¾ acres to Luke A Moorman
“for love and affection”.
    Dorah died in August of 1894 and is buried in the Bethlehem Baptist Church
Cemetery in Utica. Della, sometimes called "Dolly" was the daughter of of Luke
Higgs, Sr. and Judith.   She was still living in in 1900, but had moved from Murrays
to Vanover and was heading a household comprised of her son, Fortune, his wife
Georgie, their daughter Jannette and another granddaughter, Lucy. 	
    Dorah and Della's known children included Henry 1853, Jonathan c 1858, Sarah
"Sallie" 1860-62, Judith "Juda" 1865, Lafayette Faith 1866, Dora 1869, Thomas
Preston 1872, Luke 1873, James c 1875, Vitalis "Tal" 1878, and Fortune Natus 1880. 
Several of the children intermarried with neighbors from the surrounding farms, and
continued to live in Daviess County.
    This reminiscence of Dora and Della was written by their granddaughter,
Henrietta Pope Davis Jackson, and taken from a booklet, The History of the Moorman &
Pope Family by Myrtle Ann Pope.
    “My grandfather, Dora Moorman, died before I was born.  I heard a lot of good
things about him, but I never knew him personally.  I was about six years old when
Grandmother Della died.  I remember all of us rushing over to the house the evening
she became ill.  We stayed with her until her death.  From what I heard about
Grandmother Della, she was a very staunch Christian, a wonderful neighbor and a
compassionate friend to all who knew her.  Grandfather and Grandmother were both
slaves.  During his life time he acquire a large amount of land which enabled him to
give each of his children a farm and other necessities need to operate the farm.  He
owned most of Buckhorn, extending from the Calhoun Road, West to Livermore Road,
East*.  They all owned farms connecting to each other.  They also shared in the
bringing up of their children.  There were all prosperous farmers and gardeners. 
They were all devoted Christian people.  I remember when I was a very small child,
how they would be at church on Sunday’s, shouting and rejoicing.  They would meet at
the little school on Wednesday nights for prayer meetings because the schoolhouse
was closer than the Church.  There always seemed to be a tie that kept the family
together.  My father was a teacher and he would have the literary society at the
school house once a week.  Everyone would go and have debates and spelling bees. 
That was out greatest entertainment in those days.  My father would pass out
peppermint candy after the meetings.  That was fun for the old as well as the
young.”


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