Letters of H. P. Moore to Mrs. E. Thomas Gosnold, 1966 & 1968 - Smith County, TX Submitted by Gayle Basaldu 9 July 2004 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ***************************************************************** 2550 Shirley Avenue, Fort Worth, Texas October 31, 1966 Mrs. E. Thomas Gosnold 344 Fifth Street, N. W. Hickory, North Carolina 28601 Dear Mrs. Gosnold: I am sorry that I cannot give you any information on the descendants of William S. Moore and Jane Bullen and David Moore and Sarah Bullen. Jeremiah Moore, my father's brother, who was for many years the president of Tusculum College wrote a short statement many years ago accounting for the children in this family. His statement with respect to William S. and David follow: 3. William S. Moore, born Nov 13, 1799, died Oct 4, 1834. His wife was Jane Bullen. Moved to Illinois, lost his health and returned to Tenn. Died early in life. He had three daughters who went to Missouri. 8. David Moore, born Jan 16, 1810, died July 8, 1852 in Texas. Farmer, moved to Texas in 1849 with James Moore. His wife was Sarah Bullen, a sister of Jane. They had two sons and one daughter. His descendants live in Texas. The James Moore who went to Texas with David was an older brother. James later went to Missouri and then to Arkansas. He was in the latter state at the beginning of the Civil War, so he did not stay long in Texas. My uncle in commenting on the family of his grandparents said that all marriages but one, were in the Mt. Bethel congregation. I know of no one who could give any information on the descendants of these two families. William G. Bullen born in 1848, died in 1925. He married Mary E. Ross, b. Feb 22, 1849, d. in 1913. They had no children. Mary E. Ross was born neat Greeneville, Tenn., the daughter of Joh Harvey Ross. I do not know the names of the parents of William G. Bullen, nor anything about his family. I think he was born in Greene County. They came to Boonsboro, now Canehill, Ark., in the early 1880's. He bought land there in Feb. 1885. They are buried in the Cane Hill Cemetery, Canehill, Arkansas. I wish I could help with information that would enable you to round out your family. Since Buford Reynolds is in that family it would give me much pleasure to help for his sake. This summer he gave me much information and help on the Ross family and is still helping. Yours very truly, H. P. Moore -----------------------------------------2550 Shirley Avenue Fort Worth, Texas, Nov. 14, 1968 Mrs. E. T. Gosnold 344 Fifth St., N. W. Hickory, Nor. Car., 28601 I hope this letter is not too late to get one copy of your book on the Bullen Family. Enclosed is my check for $6.75 in payment. It must be a relief to have that job finished. In reply to your inquiry as to whether I am descended from Jane Bullen who married William S. Moore, or from Sarah Bullen who married David Moore, the answer is, I am descended from neither. There is no Bullen in my ancestry. My father was Joseph Holt Moore born in Greene Co., Tenn., Aprill 15, 1843. His parents were Anthony Moore Jr., born in Greene Co., June 20, 1803, and Nancy Paxton Holt, born in Tennessee March 26, 1807. Anthony Moore Jr., had six brothers, John, James, William S., Jeremiah, David and Thomas. My mother was Martha Jane Ross, born in Greene Co., Sept. 20, 1852, the daughter of John H. Ross and Mary C. (Polly) Marsh, born Greene Co., May 14, 1822. John H. Ross born in Greene Co., Nov. 21, 1814 was the son of William Ross born Aug. 11, 1790. This William Ross was the brother of Jane Ross who married Joseph Bullen III, March 15, 1803. Anthony Moore's brothers, William S., married Jane Bullen, and David married Sarah Bullen. These sisters were the daughters of Jane Ross and Joseph Bullen III. I enjoyed your letter Nov. 5, 1966 telling of your family and the relationship to the Ross family. It was news to me that Aunt Mary and Uncle Billy Bullen were cousins. She was my mother's sister and so was Aunt Hattie. I intended to write you then telling more about the Ross family, but I was trying to round up the descendants of John Harvey Ross and Mary C. (Polly) Marsh and I put off others things. You mentioned Dr. W. A. Ross who was in missionary work in Mexico at the time Aunt Hattie visited you. as you probably know he died in Charlotte in 1960 after forty years work in Mexico. A brother, Rev. H. L. Ross crossed the Rio Grande, December 21, 1905 under appointment by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions as a missionary to Mexico. He was retired by the Board in 1953 after 47 years of service, and is now living in the Sanatorio "La Luz", the Presbyterian Hospital in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. His son Dr. J. Harvey Ross, an M. D. was in charge of that hospital from 1944 to 1966 but is now living in Nashville, Tennessee where he is Medical Secretary of the U. S. Presbyterian Board of World Missions. I think I have found some descendants of David Moore and Sarah Bullen in Texas, and will send this information soon. With all good wishes, Harris Moore ------------------------------- DAVID MOORE AND SARAH BULLEN David Moore, the son of David Moore and Elizabeth Smith was born in Greene Co., tennessee, Jan. 16, 1810. He was a farmer and moved to Texas in 1849 with an older brother, James Moore. The latter went to Missouri and finally settled in Northwest Arkansas, in Washington County. David Moore's wife was Sarah Bullen whom he married in Greene Co., Tenn. Sept. 4, 1838. Sarah was the daughter of Joseph Bullen III and his wife, Jane Ross. When David and Sarah moved to Texas in 1849 they had three children, two sons and one daughter. The 1850 Federal Census of Smith County, Texas, of which Tyler is the county seat, shows one David Moore as being 40 years of age, a farmer born in Tennessee and the head of a family consisting of wife Sarah, 34 years old, a son, Joseph 9, a daughter Lucinda M. 5, and Samuel, 3 years old. Elizabeth J. ? or I.? Moore 21 years old was also in the household. All members are shown as having been born in Tenn. The middle initial of Elizabeth Moore is I or J the handwriting of the census record is not clear. The census for 1860 shows Sarah Moore age 48 as the head of a family consisting of Joseph, 19, a farmer; Lucinda 15; Samuel 10 and Clementine 8. The latter was born in Texas. We know from other sources that David died July 8, 1852. The value of real estate owned by Sarah was reported as $1500. The post office of this family was Troup, Texas. Clementine Moore, 18 years old, born in Texas is shown in the Census for 1870 as the head of a household. Living in the house were J. Scales, 20 born in Alabama; Anderson Teague 48, born in North Carolina; Elizabeth Teague 30, born in Tenn., and Thomas Bell 60, born in Tenn. The latter showed value of real estate $750 and personal estate of $230. The post office address of the house was Troup, Tex. The census covering the city of Tyler shows a Joseph Moore, 29 years old, occupation, clerk in store, living in a hotel operated by John Wooten. Joseph's birthplace as shown in the census record appears to be Texas. The 1860 census is the last one in which were found the names of Sarah, Lucinda and Samuel Moore. Lucinda's name may have been changed by marriage, but the real estate deed of January 14, 1873, reported shows none of the three were living on that date. The Smith County deed records show on page 187 of Deed Record Book F, that on September 1, 1853, Elizabeth Brown of Nacogdoches County, Texas sold to Sarah Moore of Smith County 367 acres, more or less, of land out of the southeast corner of the Elizabeth Brown Headright for the sum of $487.33. The deed was witnessed by T. W. Bell and James Jacobs. (The present small town of Whitehouse northwest of Troup on State Highway 110 in near the center of the Elizabeth Brown Headright Survey). In Deed Book H, pages 405 and 407 is recorded the purchase on Sept. 17, 1856 by Sarah Moore from Elizabeth Brown of 273 acres of land out of the northeast quarter of the Elizabeth Brown Headright Survey, for $400, and the sale by Sarah Moore of the same land to T. W. Bell on the same date and at the same price, $400. A deed dated January 14, 1873 recorded in Deed Book S, beginning on page 505 of the deed records of Smith County shows the sale to Hiram Reaves of the 367 acres of land bought by Sarah Moore on Sept. 1, 1853 out of the Elizabeth Brown Headright, except a right of way 150 feet wide granted to the H. and G. N. Railroad Company. This deed reads in part as follows: State of Texas, County of Smith: Know all men by these presents that we, Clementine Bradford formerly Clementine Moore and her husband, William G. Bradford, who joins his said wife in this conveyance not only as her husband but also the attorney-in-fact of Thurza Moore, surviving wife of Joseph Moore, who died without children (the said Joseph and the said Clementine being the only heirs at law of Sarah Moore deceased) in consideration of the sum of $600 to us in hand paid and the further sum of $690 to be paid on Jan. 1, 1874 by Hiram Reaves x x x x x." The deed is signed by mark by Clementine Bradford and by W. G. Bradford attorney for Thurza J. Moore. This document indicates that the other two children of David and Sarah Moore, Lucinda and Samuel had both died before the death of their mother as Clementine and Joseph were her only heirs at law. The other member of the David Moore household in 1850, Elizabeth (I. or J.) Moore, has not been identified. The marriage records of Smith County for 1854 show in Volume A-1, page 94 that William Weeks and Miss Elizabeth Moore were married on September 21, 1854 by D. W. Broughton an ordained minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The house number of the Sarah Moore household in the 1860 census, in the order of visitation by the census taker, was 313. House number 318 shows the head of household as W. S. Weeks, 31 years old, a farmer born in Tenn. Others in the home were the wife, Jane Weeks, 31 years old, George W. Weeks a four year old boy, and another child, Samuel (?) listed as a girl. Also in the household was Chorlott Weeks, 60 years old. The two children were born in texas. The three adults were listed as having been born in Tennessee. No further searching of the census records has been made. One wonders if the Elizabeth Moore who was in the household of David Moore in 1850, and the Miss Elizabeth Moore who married William Weeks on September 21, 1854, are one and the same. Are W. S. Weeks who was the head of household No. 318 in the 1860 census and Jane Weeks, his wife, the same parties who were married by D. W. Broughton on Sept. 21, 1854 under the names, William Weeks and Elizabeth Moore? Elizabeth Moore may have been a daughter of William S. Moore and his wife Jane Bullen, who was a sister of Sarah Bullen who married David Moore. William S., a brother of David, married Jane Bullen on May 20, 1828. William died Oct. 4, 1834, leaving three small daughters. In a statement written in the early 1920's, probably 1922, Rev. Jeremiah Moore concerning the children and grandchildren of his grand-parents, David Moore and Elizabeth Smith Moore, he states that after the death of William S. Moore his three daughters went to Missouri. Nothing is said of William's widow, Jane Bullen, but from other sources, (G. D. Rush, Jr., Ware Shoals, S. C.) we learn that she remarried Jesse Roberts after his first wife, hannah Marsh, died. Whether and when the daughters went to Missouri or elsewhere, or returned to Tennessee, we know that William left daughters. In December, 1967 I contacted through correspondence the oldest daughter of W. G. Bradford and wife, Clementine Moore Bradford. One other daughter is living out of a family of 6 sons and 3 daughters. The one I corresponded with is Mrs. Beatrice Waldron who was born March 18, 1877. At last report she was living in Arp, Texas P.O. Box 31, zip code 75750. I have not met her, but we have corresponded. She could not tell anything about her grandparents David and Sarah Moore and very little about her mother's people. She remembers that her mother had some cousins, two girls, Mary and Harriett and a Tom Bell, but she does not know the maiden names of the two girls. She writes that "Mary married Henry Floore and Harriett married Bob Engledow. My mother taught her children to call the cousins, Uncle and Aunt but I do not know why. Uncle Bob Engledow and his family ran a hotel and my mother lived with them until she married. My mother had two brothers and one sister. Joseph, Samuel and Cindy. Mrs. Waldron writes that she has a poor memory, but thinks the Moores, Weeks, and Bells all lived in the same neighborhood west of Troup and near Whitehouse, and that they were all related in some way. She remembers the name Bullen, but that is all, just a memory. The census record shows that Thomas Bell and W. S. Weeks were born in Tennessee. The Smith County deed records shows T. W. Bell as a witness to a land purchase by Sarah Moore, and the purchase of the other land by Sarah Moore and the sale of the same tract to T. W. Bell at the purchase price. The 1870 census shows Thomas Bell 60 years old as being a member of the household of which Clementine Moore is listed as the head of the household, being then 18 years of age. It seems quite probable that the Moore, Bell and Weeks families were related. Clementine was born June 23, 1851, and her father died one year and 15 days later, July 8, 1852. We do not know when her mother died. The fact that Clementine lived with the Engledow family until she married, and that she taught her children to call cousins as Uncle and Aunt, would indicate that she was pprobably young when her mother died and had not been told by her mother of her ancestry. Without much information Clementine would not have much family history to tell her children. Mrs. Waldron had four children, two sons and two daughters. Three are now living; William C. Waldron who married Annie Mae Wood; Albert R. Waldron, married Myra Winn, and Hazel Waldron who married James Bloodworth. The daughter not living is Hallie Clementine Waldron who was born in 1900, died July 17, 1962. She married Frank Baird. We have no ABSOLUTE proof that the David Moore and his wife Sarah who migrated to Texas in 1849 from Greene County, Tennessee are the same individuals who are named in the US census records as set out in this statement. We believe however, that the names, birth places and ages which so closely agree with the census records, support our belief that Mrs. Beatrice Waldron, her children and grandchildren are descendants of the David Moore and his wife Sarah Bullen who migrated from Greene County, Tennessee in 1849. It is hoped that at some time a search can be made for the descendants of Elizabeth Moore and William Weeks. Statement prepared by H. P. Moore November 30, 1968 H. P. Moore 2550 Shirley Avenue Fort Worth, Texas 76109