Moore Home at Ashby
 

Capt. Wm. E. Moore Dead

With profound sorrow, our people heard on June 5th that Capt. Wm. E. Moore had died very suddenly at his home at Ashby, a little while after arising for the day. His son, Ex Sheriff Moore, and wife, his daughter, Mrs. Hugh Phillips, and his nephew, J. D. Moore, left immediately, taking Rev. C. N. Morton and Wm. Walker, undertaker, with them. Capt. Moore's brother, D. P. Moore, was just ready to go with them, when his wife became alarmingly ill and he had to remain with her. However, she was so much improved next morning that Mr. Moore went over to the funeral.

Capt. Moore was one of the county's oldest, most useful and best loved citizens, and his death will be universally regretted. Upon the organization of the White Man's Union he was elected the first president and was re-elected till failing health compelled him to decline. He was a good man, foremost in all good works, and we shall not soon look upon his like again. He was one of our dearest friends, and we feel a keen sense of personal loss in his death and most deeply sympathize with the bereaved family. May God comfort them as none other can!

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Mr. W. E. Moore died last Thursday morning at his home at Ashby, Matagorda county, aged about 65 years. Mr. Moore was a prominent and highly respected business man. He was one of the directors of the First National bank of Port Lavaca, and had many friends in Calhoun county. He had recently bought, or bargained for, Mrs. C. W. Sterry's fine residence at this place, for $3000, intending to move here with his family. Having sold his property at Ashby, it is likely the family will come to live in Port Lavaca. The deceased had been a sufferer from Bright's disease the past few years, and this was probably the cause of his death.

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W. E. Moore passed away at his home at Ashby, Texas, Thursday morning, June 5th, at 6 o'clock. The deceased had been in bad health for several years and lately went to a health resort for his health, but did not improve any and so he returned early.

Lately he had been feeling a great deal better and was up early walking around the morning of his death. Death resulted from heart failure.

Mr. Moore was about 65 years of age and leaves a great many near relatives, both in Bay City and Matagorda county to mourn his death.

He was a good man, was highly respected by all and will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

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MOORE--William E. Moore died June 5, 1902. Rev. Morton, of Bay City, performed the funeral service at Ashby Chapel, after which the Masons buried him according to their beautiful custom. He had been in bad health for over two years, but had never been confined to his bed. His mind was clear and active up to the very last. He was born in Rahway, N. J., October 26, 1837, but came with his parents to Texas immediately after annexation, and lived for a number of years at Indianola. During the war he was a member of Terry's Texas Rangers, and was dangerously wounded at Murfreesboro, Tenn. It was a great pleasure to him to attend the reunions of his regiment and meet again the remnant of his old comrades. He, with his wife, joined the M. E. Church August 11, 1873, at a camp-meeting near Elliott's Ferry, on the Colorado, under the ministry of Rev. St. Johns Phair and others. He lived at Ashby for over thirty years, and during that time all the Methodist preachers found a welcome at his home. He was a man of unflinching courage and integrity of purpose, and was not afraid to die, for he had perfect trust in his Savior. He leaves a wife and six children, besides other near and dear relatives and friends, to feel the loneliness of life without him. HIS SISTER.

[These obits were taken from a scrapbook and the dates and newspaper names were not included.]

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W. E. MOORE, TEXAS RANGER.

William E. Moore died at his home at Ashby, Matagordo County. Tex., June 5, 1902. He was a Confederate veteran, having left his home at Indianola, Tex., August, 1861, in company with James and Joseph Collins, Hays P. Yarrington, John Collins, and Daniel Hoffman, expecting to go to the front in Virginia. At Houston, however, they enlisted in the Eighth Texas Cavalry, better known as Terry's Texas Rangers, and were sent to Bowling Green, Ky., where the regiment was fully organized. A braver set of men never lived. When Gen. Zollicoffer was killed, at Fishing Creek. W. E. Moore was one of the party sent under flag of truce to recover his body. Three horses were killed under him during the war. One of them held a very high head, which fact saved his rider's life. He was dangerously wounded at Murfreesboro, shot through the body, and was taken to a plantation and left for some time in charge of an old negro man. He was afterwards moved to the home of a kind family in the neighborhood. When convalescing the lady of the family sent him some of her husband's clothes to wear. He was so impatient to rejoin his command that he left before his wound was thoroughly healed, and it broke out afresh. He declined a discharge from the army on account of his severe wounds.

His old comrade Yarrington writes of him: "We went out and served together until my capture, which occurred near Nashville three weeks before the war ended. He was dangerously shot in the thickest of the fight near Murfreesboro, on July 13. I got him to a place of safety. The tide of battle turned against us, and we moved from there to McMinnville, via Woodbury. . . . He was a brave and efficient soldier, and very popular with his regiment. The few of our noble band left now are feeble and old, past taking part in the active struggles of life."

From the Confederate Veteran Magazine. September 1902. Volume 10, number 9. Page 418.
 

Mary E. Moore
In Memoriam.

Died at her home at Ashby Sunday morning about 6 o'clock, after a short illness, Mrs. Mary E. Moore, aged 84 years. Her remains were interred in the Ashby cemetery Monday at 11 o'clock, in the presence of a large number of relatives and friends, who gathered to pay their last respects to one who was universally loved.

Deceased was one of the pioneers of the coast country, coming to Indianola with her husband, Robert Baxter Moore, many years ago from New Jersey , where she was born January 12th, 1812, and from which place she moved to Ashby, this county, shortly after the storm of 1875, in which she lost her husband and where she has since resided with her daughter, Miss Dora Moore, who together with three brothers, Capt. W. E. Moore, of Ashby, H. E. Moore, of Deming's Bridge, and D. P. Moore of Bay City survive her.

Last Christmas day a dinner was given in her honor by her son, Capt. W. E. Moore, at which all of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren were present and though she had long since passed the allotted time, she was hale and hearty, and none of greater cheer and higher spirit than she. Only a few short months, and those who gathered around her then, folded gently the wrinkled hands, pressed one farewell kiss on the now speechless lips and gently deposited her in the narrow confines of the grave, and there 'neath the whispering grass rests all that is mortal of Grandma Moore.

Though the summons came sudden, without a warning, she was ready, having often spoken of the final call of which she stood not in dread, and peacefully as the slumbers of a babe, she passed the portals of this earthly world into the Heaven of ever lasting peace and happiness, leaving us only the sweet memory of a life, which everyone should try to imitate. A Christian from the time she reached womanhood, she ever attempted to follow the teachings of the lowly Nazarene showing those about her the ways of His footsteps, and the reward awaiting those who faithfully follow them.

Newspaper unknown, April 12, 1896
 

Eudora's first private school was in 1865. The whole system of education was disrupted during the War Between the States and the most difficult Reconstruction Days that followed. She taught at home in a one-room building her father had erected for his boys, separate from the house. Her pupils were her brother Ed, a Mr. Fromme's son, a drayman's little boy, and Henry, Frank, Willie, and Ben Harrison who lived on the other side of the lake and crossed in a skiff.

After the 1875 storm, the Moore family moved to Matagorda County to make their home. Her next school was for a family at Live Oak Grove on the Tres Palacios River.

Catherine Augusta "Kate" Seaman Moore
By Mary Belle Ingram

Kate Seaman Moore was born on May 9, 1853, in Clinton, Louisiana. Her father had come from New York and her mother from Mississippi. Kate married Spencer Cone Moore on May 24, 1871. He was a brother of William Erastus Moore, Kate's second husband. Spencer and Kate were married eight years before he died on January 18, 1879, of yellow fever. they had four children, Selkirk Seaman, Oce Anna, David Lewis and Addie May. William E. was born on October 26, 1838, in New Jersey. He had married Mary C. Swift who had died in 1878. He also had four children by this marriage; they were Margaret "Maggie" and Inez and two who died in infancy. On June 15, 1881, William E. and Kate married in Indianola. Their children were Hamilton Cecil, Vera, William Ashby, Winifred and Gladys.

Captain William E. and Kate Moore lived in Ashby, Texas, Matagorda County where the entire family was quite active in the Ashby Methodist Church. He owned a store and served also as the postmaster. Additionally, he owned and managed a fifteen hundred acre farm which was well stocked with cattle.

After Captain Moore's death in 1902, Kate moved to Bay City where she built a home in 1908, in the 2800 block of Avenue G, two blocks south of the MOPAC depot. She lived there until 1920, when she sold her home to G. P. Hardy Sr. Two of her daughters, Addie and Oce, who lived in the same block, made a home for Kate with them due to her failing health. She lived the remainder of her life with her daughters, sometime with the Bay City daughters and sometimes with Gladys, who lived in Ozona, Texas.

In 1896, two years after Bay City was founded, the Moore family was worshipping in the first church ever built in Bay City. On July 9, 1896, the Bay City Breeze reported the organization of the Epworth League which was for young people. Oce was elected president, Inez, secretary, Eudora, treasurer. Addie Moore played the reed organ at the small wooden church.

After moving to Bay City in 1907, the Moore family saw that the beautiful two story home on Avenue G was the scene of many parties for young people, and provided a lovely place for teas and special programs for the Woman's Home Missionary Society. There are records of various homes in the year 1910, having teas to raise money for the early church. The Daily Tribune reported on one of the meetings of the Women's Home Missionary Society, dated 1910:

"The recent social session of the W. H. M. S. met with Mrs. Kate Moore Wednesday evening at the usual hour with nineteen present. As the guests assembled they were seated in the beautiful reception hall of the handsome Moore residence and a short business session was held, presided over by the first vice president, Kate Moore, the matter of importance being the election of delegates to the district meeting of the W. H. M. S. which convenes at Crockett from May 2nd to 7th. The delegates elected were Mrs. Amos Lee, Mrs. A. S. Whitehurst and Mrs. N. M. Vogelsang.

After the business was laid aside, the ladies spent the remaining hours in delightful discourse until five tables with a bouquet of fragrant flowers on each were ushered in from some mysterious corner and placed before the guests. One table contained a vase of handsome sweet peas, another of violets, another of California poppies, one of roses and one of carnations.

Following the artistic picture were Mrs. S. S. Moore, Mrs. Hugh (Ada) Phillips, Misses Vara and Gladys Moore, bearing waiters (trays) containing a salad course consisting of iced tea, oysters, nut salad and their accompaniments served on handsome china. This tempting repast was relished by each one and was proven by the empty dishes that were taken away. The evening closed with delightful instrumental music by Miss Gladys Moore."

Grandchildren who remember Kate more, tell of her love for them; of her being a wonderful cook and how they were always welcome in her home. As we look back to life in the 1880s and 1890s and realize that Kate had 11 children to nurture and care for, yet still had time to be active in the church, as well as see that all her children were in attendance at Sunday services, one marvels at her and the other women of that time for all that they gave that was good and lasting.

Kate Moore's children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have all been active and devoted members of this First United Methodist Church. Mrs. Bitsie Barrett is a granddaughter of this wonderful Christian woman and is active in this church in its Centennial year, one hundred years after Kate Moore involved her young children in this same church.

Kate Moore died April 27, 1941, and was buried in the Ashby Cemetery beside her husband, William Erastus Moore.

Recognized Women of First United Methodist Church, Before 1894 to 1940, Bay City, Texas
 

Family photos courtesy of Marshal Kuykendall. Ashby cemetery pictures courtesy of Matagorda County Museum.