Jesse Moore

biography

Jesse Moore.—The debt of gratitude which our country owes to her brave sons who fought heroically on many a dreadful field of battle, who suffered the untold hardships and privations of a soldier’s life, who bore sickness, wounds and neglect in camp and hospital, is one which cannot be repaid, and we turn with feelings of pride, sorrow and joy mingled, to the record of Jesse Moore, an honored veteran of the Civil war, and for years one of the representative citizens and business men of Cochranton, Crawford county.

In tracing the history of his ancestors we find that for four generations his family controlled and managed the beautiful estate of Bartley’s Green, in Ireland, the owners thereof being of the English nobility. In 1738 Samuel Moore, with his five children, came to America, and settling in the vicinity of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he dwelt there until his death. In 1763 three of his sons, John, Samuel and George, took up land in Bedford Springs, Bedford county, Pennsylvania. This was one of the English outposts at that time, and the following year George Moore was taken captive by Indians, and carried beyond the Mississippi river. It was not until nine years had elapsed that he managed to effect his escape, and shortly after his return home he died from the results of the ill treatment and privations he had endured. Samuel and John married and reared families, and Hugh, a son of the last mentioned, was the grandfather of our subject. He located on a farm near the present village of Canton, Mercer county, four miles from Cochranton, in 1808, and there reared his eight children, of whom John, born in 1809, was the eldest, and the father of Jesse Moore. When John Moore had reached his majority he settled upon a farm of his own in French Creek township, three miles from the parental home. Unto himself and wife, who had formerly been Miss Elizabeth Mumford, of Crawford county, five sons and three daughters were born, who lived to mature years.
The birth of Jesse Moore, the eldest son, occurred September 28, 1838, and until the outbreak of the Civil war his life was that of the farmer. In September, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company E, One Hundred and Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and was sent to camp at Erie, Pennsylvania, to drill and prepare for the coming campaign. He was made a sergeant and in February, 1862, he and his command were stationed on post duty in Baltimore, Maryland, under General Dix, serving there until the end of May, when they were sent to the front. It so happened that the first active engagement in which the young sergeant took part was fought at Charlestown, Virginia, on the very spot where John Brown had been hung. Their next important battle was that of Cedar Mountain, Virginia, where Mr. Moore was wounded in the head and was left on the field for dead. The bullet, however, had not penetrated the skull, and after a period of unconsciousness he recovered sufficiently to join his comrades and bravely continued to fight with them while there was need. His company was next ordered back to Washington, and on the 17th of September were participants in the battle of Antietam, Maryland. The following winter was passed in camp near Fairfax, Virginia, and the next important battle was the three days’ fight at Chancellorsville, May, I, 2, and 3. 1863, in which Mr. Moore acted in the capacity of second lieutenant, lie having been commissioned as such in March, 1863. Then he was actively engaged in the series of encounters with the enemy which terminated in the celebrated battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and on the 29th of July, 1863, he was commissioned first lieutenant. In September following his command was transferred to the Army of the Cumberland, to succor General Rosecrans, who was besieged at Chattanooga, Tennessee; October 29, at the battle of Wouhatchie, the brother of the lieutenant was killed. In the noted battle of Lookout Mountain our subject and his comrades did distinguished service, under the leadership of the famous “Fighting Joe” Hooker. To-day the traveler may see a tablet which was erected near the entrance to the hotel on the point of Lookout Mountain, in memory of the heroism of the gallant One Hundred and Eleventh Pennsylvania in this “battle above the clouds.”
In December, 1863, Lieutenant Moore’s term of service expired, but he promptly re-enlisted as a veteran and was under the command of General Slocum in the Atlanta campaign of 1864. At the battle of Peach Tree Creek, July 20, a minie ball shattered his left arm at the elbow, and five times has amputation been deemed necessary, the last operation being performed in 1875. After spending some time in the Chattanooga hospital he returned home for a brief period and in December, 1864, he reported for duty, and served in the military court at Nashville, Tennessee, until lie was placed in charge of six companies of veteran reserve troops.

The war having been closed, Lieutenant Moore found himself face to face with another conflict, none the less serious—the battle of life, which he must fight literally single-handed. During the winter of 1865 he pursued a commercial course at the Edinboro State Normal, and on the 1st of April, 1866, he embarked in business in Cochranton, as a boot and shoe merchant. In May, 1868, he was appointed postmaster of this place and continued to act as such until October, 1878, when he resigned his office and also sold his store. In the meantime he had met with deserved success in his mercantile ventures, one of which was dealing in coal, which commodity he was the first to handle here to any extent. In June, 1877, the Cochranton Savings Bank was organized with a capital stock of twenty thousand dollars, and Mr. Moore was made its cashier. Later, the capital stock of the bank was increased to fifty thousand dollars, and under the national banking laws the institution was reorganized, becoming the First National Bank of Cochranton, Mr. Moore retaining his position as cashier. In innumerable ways he has set an example as a man of public spirit, enterprise and progress; was the first to have a stone sidewalk here, erected the first gothic slate-roofed dwelling, and was the first citizen here to put plate-glass windows in his storeroom front.
On the 14th of November, 1864, Mr. Moore married Martha J. Stevens, of Mercer county, Pennsylvania. She died March 26, 1883, and the only son, Frank, followed his mother to the silent land four years later. Edith, the only daughter, lives at home. In December, 1885, Mr. Moore married Miss Belle Powell.

For more than twenty years Mr. Moore served as one of the assessors of Cochranton and has acted in the office of burgess of the borough. For almost a quarter of a century he was a member of the school board, and for a score of years was a trustee of the United Presbyterian church. Had he chosen to seek political office, he might have had about any one which is within the gift of the people of this community. He is deservedly popular, his friends being legion throughout this section of the state. With undaunted spirit he has fought the battle of life as bravely as those which he fought for his country, and though severely handicapped he has won victory and the admiration and high esteem of all.

Our county and its people: a historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania by Samuel P. Bates, 1899, pages 686-687.