Newspaper Article from Chattanooga Daily Times, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Mo nday, July 20, 1908, page 4
SINCE DAYS OF INDIANS HAS RICHARD J. MOORE LIVED IN THE COUNTY
Comes Away Impressed with Belief that Later Generations Should Organize to Perpetuate Memory of the Early Settlers
Judge Lewis Shepherd has been resticating for a few weeks, and while leisrely enjoying the inviting quiet of the more remote sections of the county, he chanced to visit the home of Richard J. Moore, in the old Eighteenth district, over 90 years of age and seventy years a resident of Hamilton County. The memory of the aged farmer is perfect, especially in relation to the early days, and Judge Shepherd, upon his return to Altamede, his own fine country home, jotted down some of the facts he gleaned while talking with Mr. Moore. He gives them to the public in the following inter esting communication:
Richard J. Moore, who lives in a comfortable, old-fashioned country home on a fine farm in the Eighteenth district of Hamilton County, is perhaps the only survivor of the first settlers of this county, and on account of his virtuous and amiable conduct throughout his long life, he deserves to be mentioned in print.
Mr. Moore is now ninety years, and four months old, and is a remarkably vigorous and well preserved man, considering his great age. His progeny, children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren, number more than a hundred souls, and it is a source of supreme happiness to him when he reflects th at they are all, without an exception, honorable upright people. Mr. Moore is a native of Bledsoe County, but when a strippling of a lad removed with his parents first to McMinnville, in Warren County, and then to this county, of which he has been a resident and citizen more than seventy years. As the Indians moved out to go to their new home in the far west, t he Moores moved in and established their home on the foot hills of the White Oak Mountains, about twelve miles east of Ross' Landing. His mother so on became a widow, but being an industrious woman, full of energy and practical sense, and endowed with the wisdom of economy, she was able to rear her children in comfort and give them such education as the facilities of the county put within her reach. One of her sons, who was afflicted with lameness, was a school teacher who achieved a considerable reputation as an instructor in the early times in which he lived.
Her son, Richard J. Moore, married Miss Margaret Pittner about sixty-five years ago, and by this marriage thirteen children, all of whom, save one who died in infancy, lived to manhood and womanhood. They are all married except one son who lives in Texas, and a daughter, Miss Virginia, who lives with and is the comfort of her father in his declining years. God, has signally blessed the old gentleman with a daughter who is willing to forego all the pleasures of her young life and to devote her life and her love. Through his long life he has been a citizen without a blemish on his character, a man of undoubted integrity in his business relations.
When a young man Mr. Moore was converted to the Christian religion under t he preaching of Rev. Hiram Douglass, one of the greatest pioneer preachers in Tennessee; he joined the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and from that time till now he has been a faithful earnest worker and elder in the denomination. He has always been honored by everybody who knew him for his pious devotion to his duties to God and his fellow men. He is and has been a Christian without reproach.
Doctor Sauls is now conducting a revival meeting near Mr. Moore's home, and he has several times attended the meetings, at which he exhorts sinne rs to repentance and encourages mourners with the same earnestness and fervor of manner that he was accustomed to when he was in the prime of his life and fim of manhood.
Some of his descendants live now in the states of Arkansas and Texas, but most of his sons and daughters and grown children live in Chattanooga and in the nearby country.
Let us not, in the hurry and bustle of these modern times, forget to honor the pioneers who laid the foundation upon which our own county and ci ty became great. Let us get up a society to perpetuate the memory or o ur prognitors, such as the Websters, the McCallies, the Hookes, the Whitesides and others.
Lewis Shepherd
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- OBITUARY Richard Jones Moore from Chattanooga Sunday Times, February 19, 1911
"Richard Jones Moore Dies at Advanced Age - Native Tennessean Born in Year, 1818 - Old and Respected Citizen Passes Away at Country Home - Sketch of His Life
Richard Jones Moore died yesterday morning at his home, in the Eighteenth civil district of Hamilton county, in the 93d year of his life. He was born in the Bledsoe County, March 25, 1818, and came to Hamilton County with his father and mother in 1835, where he has resided ever since, excepting about three years when he lived in Catoosa County, Georgia, just a few miles across the Georgia state line.
Mr. Moore was educated in the subscription schools of Bledsoe county and acquired a good ordinary common school education. He was a man who was very fond of reading, and he added materially to his store of knowledge aft er he went through the common schools of his county. In 1842 he married M ss Margaret Jane Pitner, a native of Sevier county, Tennessee, by whom he raised thirteen children, most of whom still reside in Hamilton Coun y. On his last birthday, March 25, 1910, he received from each of his 1 34 descendants a birthday card, and also numerous cards and letters from his friends.
He was a lifelong member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, of which he has been an elder since 1857. He was a democrat in politics and cast his first presidential vote for Martin Van Buren. He was a successful farmer and died the owner of 623 acres of land near the Southern Railway in the vicinity of Tyner Station. He was a member of Harrison lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, having been initiated into the mysteries of Masonry when he was quite a young man. He was present in Chattanooga lodge, No. 199, about one year ago, when a reunion of all the Masons of Chattanooga and vicinity was held. He was the oldest man and the oldest Mason present at this meeting. Mr. Moore was one of the most highly re spected citizens of this county from the day of his majority until the day of his death, and his children and grand-children are all honorable a nd highly respected citizens. He leaves behind him that priceless heritage, a good and honorable name. He will be buried today at 2 o'clock in t he graveyard of Silverdale, near his home, where a number of his relatives are buried.
Mr. Moore had many relatives Unknown in and around Chattanooga. Among them being Mrs. A. W. Duncan, of Highland Park, a daughter; Miss Virginia Moore, another daughter, who lived with her father and took care of him in his old age; a son, J. R. Moore, a prosperous farmer of the county, and a grandson, Dr. Varnell, a dentist of this city. One son, Arch Moore, who lives in Texas, is here to attend the funeral."
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