Tyler County, West Virginia Biography of K. C. MOORE This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the sketch subject. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 272 Tyler County K. C. MOORE started the practice of law in Tyler County twenty years ago, and his sound abilities have brought him a large practice and growing influence in the affairs of his nativ.e county. He is a resident of Middlebourne, and is a member of a family that for four or five generations has been identified with West Virginia, chiefly as farmers, and always as good substantial citizens of their respective localities. For several generations the Moores lived in Monongalia County, where the family was established by the pioneer, Alonzo Moore, who came from Maryland and was a farmer. Alonzo was the great-great-grandfather of the Middle- bourne attorney. His son, Phillip Moore, was also a native of Maryland, but spent his active life as a farmer in Monongalia County. The grandfather was William Moore, who was born in Monongalia County in 1807, was reared and married there, became a farmer, and in 1840 moved his family to Tyier County. He became the pioneer fruit grower of this county, and his orchards of cherries, apples, peaches and plums were developed to commercial propor- tions and did much to stimulate fruit growing in the county. William Moore died at Joseph's Mills in Tyier County in 1884. He was a whig and later a democrat in politics. His first wife, grandmother of the Middlebourne lawyer, was Rebecca Sine, a native of Monongalia County, who died at Joseph's Mills. By this marriage six sons and two daugh- ters grew to mature years, all now deceased. By the second marriage of William Moore there were nine children. The third wife was Mrs. Ann (Johnson) Ellinger. William Nelson Moore, a son of William and Rebecca (Sine) Moore, was born in Monongalia County August 1, 1829, and was between ten and eleven years of age when the family moved to Monongalia County and settled at Joseph's Mills. In that community he lived out his life and was a highly successful farmer. In younger years he filled the office of justice of the peace and was also a mem- ber of the County Court. In polities he was a stanch republican. He died at Joseph's Mills December 6, 1919. William N. Moore married Lucinda Sweeney, who was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, in 1832 and died at Joseph's Mills in September, 1907. She was the mother of six children: Virginia, who died at the age of fifty- nine at Shiloh in Tyier County, where her husband, Dr. David C. Smith, is a well known physician; Sarah, a resident of Pennsboro, West Virginia, widow of A. Nicholas For- dyce, who was a school teacher and later a farmer; Mar- garet A., living at the old homestead at Joseph's Mills; Mary E., who died aged fifty-six at Wilbur in Tyier County, wife of J. Wesley Stewart, now a retired farmer at Akron, Ohio; Charles, who owns and operates the old homestead farm; and K. C. Moore, who is the youngest. Mr. Moore, who was born October 16, 1874, grew up on the old homestead, had the advantages of the rural schools, spent one year in the West Liberty Normal School, and graduated Bachelor of Pedagogy in 1896 from West Virginia Wesleyan College at Buckhannon. He spent two years in West Virginia University Law School and in 1900 was admitted to the bar and began practice at Sisters- ville. A year later he moved to Middlebourne, where for twenty years he has been busily engaged in handling a civil and criminal practice, and since 1912 has been a member of the firm, Underwood & Moore, one of the best known law firms of Tyler County. Mr. Moore was prosecuting attorney of Tyler County from 1908 to 1912. He has been active in the republican party, has been a delegate to state, congressional and judicial conventions, and in recent years has seldom missed attending conventions for the nomination of judicial and congressional candidates. He is a member of the State Bar Association. During the war Mr. Moore gave precedence to ench work as he could perform for the Government, including the filling out of questionnaires for recruited men in the county and as a Four Minute Speaker in behalf of the Liberty Loan, Bed Cross and other drives. At Alma, West Virginia, in 1906, he married Miss Edna E. Conaway, daughter of Dr. Eli B. and Mary Elizabeth (Smith) Conaway. Her mother still lives at Alma, where her father was a greatly loved country physician, prac- ticing medicine forty-seven years. Mrs. Moore finished her education in West Virginia Wesleyan College at Buckhan- non. She has two children, Richard Conaway born Sep- tember 9, 1907, and Mary Virginia, born August 13, 1909.