James J. Moore

JAMES J. MOORE is a farmer and stockman whose operations are conducted on several farms, and he has developed a business in that line that is highly creditable to his energy and intelligence. He is also a banker, being president of the Byers State Bank, and is one of the factors having had most to do with the rapid development of Byers since it was established a few years ago.

James J. Moore has spent most of his life in Pratt County, but was born in Scotland County, Missouri, April 19, 1868. His paternal ancestors came from Scotland in colonial times. His father, James T. Moore, was born at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1842, and though reared in that city he has spent his active life as a farmer. He lived in Scotland County, Missouri, for some years, was married there, and in 1877 brought his family to Pratt County, Kansas, and homesteaded a quarter section. Later he bought another quarter section, and now owns this land, developed into a high grade farm, and located three miles east and a half mile north of Byers. His own home is in Byers.

James T. Moore is a democrat, served as a member of the Kentucky State Guard during the Civil war, and is a member of the Christian Church. He married Calista A. McCoy, who was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1850, and James J. Moore is the oldest of their children. Mary I. died when she was sixteen years old. Nannie E. is the wife of George M. Haston, a farmer at Liberal, Kansas. Alta is the wife of Charles L. Boughner, a farmer in Stafford County. Grace married Jarred Gartung, a farmer at Rising, Arkansas. Mabel is the wife of D. H. Anderson, a farmer and teacher whose home is at Byers, but during 1918 was in service with the American forces in France.

James J. Moore was nine years old when his parents came to Kansas, and he finished his education in the rural schools of Pratt County. At the age of nineteen he left his father's farm to become a farmer on his own responsibility, and considering the meager capital with which he started life his success has been a remarkable one and is almost entirely a tribute to his unbounded energy, perseverance and ripe judgment. His farms lie in Pratt County near Byers, and also in Stevens County. His holdings lack only forty acres of comprising five complete sections. Thirteen hundred and sixty acres are at Byers and 1,760 acres are in Stevens County, and his lands are devoted to grain and livestock. For a number of years Mr. Moore has raised many mules and horses, and in his region he is known as a breeder of good stock.

Mr. Moore helped establish the State Bank of Byers, which was open for business June 29, 1915, and he has since been its president, the cashier being Vance Green. The bank has a capital of $10,000 and surplus and profits of $3,000. Mr. Moore is also a stockholder in the Farmers Equity Elevator Company and in the Anthony and Northern Railway Company. He owns some business property in Byers. His home, admitted the best in the town, has all modern improvements and was built in 1915. He is a democrat in politics, is a member of the Christian Church and is affiliated with Byers Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America.

In 1887, in the community then known as Naron, now the Village of Byers, Mr. Moore married Miss Ida M. Biddle, daughter of Charles W. and Phoebe J. (Smith) Biddle. Her parents are farmers living in Fort Morgan, Colorado. Mrs. Moore died May 12, 1915. On December 31, 1918, at Kansas City, Kansas, Mr. Moore married Mrs. Maude R. (Chrisman) Anderson, a native of Kansas City, Kansas. Mr. Moore's children, seven in number, were as follows: Ida Myrtle, who died at the age of thirteen months; Free W., a farmer at Byers; Virtie, wife of Jarred L. Brush, a traveling salesman living at Greeley, Colorado; Elsie, who died when five years old; Roy R., a farmer near Byers; and Lester L. and Marvin, both still in the home circle.

Pages 2407-2408.