Enter the Manning Cemetery through the rusted iron gates on Cedar Street and follow the road a hundred yards past its left turn. There standing alone is a lichen covered granite shaft about forty inches high. Careful inspection will yield this inscription:

For many years it has been forgotten that beside that six year old child lies the grave of her father, Dr. Moses James Moore, Jr. soldier of the Army of The Confederate States of America. Due to some unexplained oversight, no bronze Confederate Memorial marker was ever placed on this grave, and the dust of this man who practiced medicine in Manning and owned a drugstore jointly with Dr. Huggins, and died August 4, 1874, has lain in oblivion until recently when his daughter in-law Flora Edens Moore (Mrs. Moses James Moore III and his granddaughter, Susan Moore Hamilton [Mrs. Ray Hamilton]) of Sumter have come to identify the Moore plot and erect a marker to the forgotten physician.

According to the record compiled from family Bibles by Minnie Moore, eldest child of Dr. Moses Moore and his wife Susan McCoy Moore, the subject of this sketch lived his brief life in the four decades of stress and crisis that marked the turning point in the history of his state.

FAMILY RECORD:
Moses James Moore, Jr. was the son of Moses James Moore, Sr. of Virginia, a civil engineer & surveyor, who, on a trip into South Carolina met and subsequently married Penelope Newman of Sumter County. He was born June 14, 1828 and spent his boyhood on Rocky Bluff Plantation, which was part of his mother's inheritance from her parents. He graduated from the South Carolina Medical College in March, 1857 with honors.

On April 19, 1860 he married Susan McCoy of Sumter, daughter of Mina(Minor) and Abigail McCoy of Sumter. Their names appear on the Federal Census of Clarendon County made during June-August, by Assistant Marshal R.M. Skinner.
(Note: This information was furnished by Chovine Richardson Clark Manning, whose grandfather, W.J. Clark, was also named in that census as Clerk boarding at House 401, listed as a Hotel operated by Joseph H. Stukes, Hotel
Keeper.) In this census, Moses James Moore, Jr. was listed as M.J. Moore, 28, M.D. and his wife Susan, was listed as 20.

The record does not state, but one may presume that the young couple established a home in Manning at that time. It is reasonable to suppose that Mrs. Moore stayed in Sumter with her family during the four years that her husband was in the Confederate Army.

Their eldest child, Minnie, was born April 10, 1861 and died January 13, 1936; Janie who is buried in Manning Cemetery, was born in 1864 and died in 1870. At this time it is an established fact that the family was living in Manning.
Ashby was born August 29, 1869 and died December 12, 1949; a second son Moses James Moore III was born July 20, 1872 and died in Sumter on  September 13, 1942. It is his widow and daughter who are in the process of having a memorial erected to Dr. Moore.

Taking up the practice of medicine in Manning at the close of the war, Dr. Moore built a two-story house on the corner of Church and Boyce Streets. This later became known as the Professor Brown house, and older Manning residents remember when the Professor lived in the upper part of the house and a book store occupied the basement. The house was demolished to make room for the service station now occupying that corner.

Mr. C.R. Clark confirms that a diagram of Manning of about 1875 shows a small store building used as a drug store by Dr. Huggins and Dr. Moore, located about where the Manning Times building is now. In an 1897 historical sketch of Manning, Doctors Huggins and Moore are listed as Manning's early physicians.

It is recorded that after the death of little Janie in 1870 her father, whose health had been impaired during his Army service was disconsolate. Four years later he too, was laid in the Manning Cemetery. Times were hard and there was no money to spare for a permanent marker that could come later.

The decade of the 1870s was not an easy one for South Carolinians. Small wonder that the widowed mother took her small children back to Sumter County where she could have help and comfort from relatives. Transportation was difficult in those days, and the two graves in Manning were unvisited as the years slipped by. Rearing four children took all her resources--the needs of the living were more urgent than a stone for the dead.

But the memory was kept fresh in the family and recently his daughter in law, Mrs. M.J. Moore III and her daughter, Mrs. Ray Hamilton have been to Manning City Hall to look at the records and establish the boundary lines of the old burial plot.

A letter to Miss. Minnie Moore from Thomas E. Richardson, Judge of Probate, Sumter County, dated January 25, 1917,
establishes Dr. Moore as serving in the Confederate Army.

January 25th, 1917
Miss Minnie Moore
Calhoun Street
Sumter, S.C.

My dear Miss Moore,
Partly in consequence of rush of business, and partly from incomplete information, I have refrained from sending you the paper that Mr. DuBose and I got up, when you were in my office, not long since.  Since seeing you, I have seen Dr. McLaurin, who lives here, and he knew your father well, so if you will send him this paper, he will take pleasure in certifying to it.

Another point was, when was the Holcombe Legion really organized? From original information in my possession to wit: The minutes of the survivors meeting held on October 24th, 1883. I find that Comapny "A" of the Holcombe Legion (The Old Clairmont troop) went into service in November 1861 and your father's name appears thereon.
  Trusting this information may be of service to you, I am , with great respect,
  Sincerely yours,
  Thomas E. Richardson
  Judge of Probate
  Sumter County

7th S.C. Cavalry - Col. W.P. Shingler, Lieut. A.C. Haskell, Major Edw. M. Boykin, was organized in April, 1864 by the consolidation of five companies which formed Cavalry Battalion of the Holcombe Legion, the two companies of
the squadron, Rutledge Mounted Rifles, under Capts. Trenholm and Jeffers, the latter being preceded by J.J. McGee, two companies of the squadron from Georgetown and Horry, under Capts. Tucker and W.L. Wallace, and the Boykin
Rangers from Kershaw, which on the promotion of its captain was commanded by Capt. David DuBose.
 We the undersigned do hereby certify that Dr. Moses J. Moore's name appears on the roll of Company I, 7th Regiment S.C. Volunteers. (The above named command) now in possession of Judge T.E. Richardson, Sumter, S.C. January 9th, 1917.

The Holcombe Legion was organized in November (1861 T.E.R.) for thirteen months Confederate Service in State Defense, with ten companies of infantry and four cavalry under Col. P.P. Stevens, Lieut. Col. William P. Shingler (commanding the cavalry), Majors F.J. Palmer and A.C. Garlington. Infantry Comapnies from Spartanburg, Capts. J.E. Bomar, Wm. J. Smith, J.F. Sloan, Wm. P. Bishop and W.R. Roebuck.
Cavalry Companies, Co. A, Capt. Thomas V. Walsh, Co. B, Capt. A.R. Taylor, Co. C, Capt. John R. Spearman, Co. D, Capt. J.G. McKissick.

J.D. DuBose [signed]
Member of Company I

Thomas E. Richardson [signed]
Judge of Probate