Wayne County, NC - Heritage Series Reprinted with permission of the Mount Olive Tribune and cannot be reproduced without permission. A Former Slave Founded University "Our Heritage" By Claude Moore Dr. Peter W. Moore, a slave of Turkey in Sampson County, was one of the real founders of Elizabeth City State University which was chartered by the State Legislature in 1891. It was then known as the State Colored Norman School. Dr. Moore was president of the institution from 1892 to 1928. Peter W. Moore was born on a plantation three miles northeast of Turkey in 1859 & was the son of Reddick & Lexie Thomson Moore. She was a servant of Curtis Thomson & he was a servant of Mrs. Maria O. Moore. Reddick Moore could read & write & was a cabinet maker. During the War Between the States, he was sent to Warsaw to read the war news & casualty lists. Mrs. Moore was a widow & her three sons were in the Confederate Army in northern Virginia. Reddick Moore was buying his freedom & when emancipation came, he had enough gold money to become a free man. The Union Army was already in the area. He buried his money for safe keeping & the next day, he was mysteriously killed. No one ever found the gold money. Reddick & Lexie Moore had at least two other children, the Rev. George Moore, a professor at Shaw University & Winnie Moore, also a college graduate. There could have been others. The Freeman's Bureau helpd the Moore children get a formal education. After the War, Reddick Moore's widow married a man by the name of Hargrove. Peter Moore attended a school operated by the Freeman's Bureau north of Turkey. He also attended Shaw University where he graduated in 1887. One of his contemporaries said of him, "He was always courteous & polite & taught ethics to all students. He was very religious & spent lots of time teaching one how to live, be decent & clean." Peter W. Moore taught school for several years. He had joined Six Runs Baptist Church near Turkey when he was young. He may have been a Baptist minister. His biographer says of him, "He worked upon the premise that well trained individuals become better citizens. He believed that good citizens were knowledgable, refined, cultured, worthy of respect & understanding." He believed that improving the ability to think would improve one's own standard of living & that the improving of the standards of living would improve the black race. When Peter W. Moore became president of the State Colored Normal School in 1892, the role of the school was limited to preparing young people to teach. He started off with two members of the faculty & 23 students. When he retired in 1928, there were 15 faculty members & 355 students. Professor Moore received an honarary degree of LLD from Shaw University. He died in 1934. I well remember when I was young in the 1920's Dr. Peter Moore & the Rev. George Moore came to see my father & his aunt, Mrs. Sallie Moore Britt. They talked about days when they were young. Dr. Moore married but I do not have his family record. I do know that a daughter is still living in Raleigh. The Peter W. Moore School near Faison is named for him. File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Guy Potts