Pocahontas County History Preservation, Digitization, Community

Levi Moore, p. 284, Historical Sketches of Pocahontas County by William T. Price (1901)

One hundred years ago, one of the most widely known citizens in the region now embraced by Pocahontas and Bath counties, was Levi Moore, Senior, a native of Wales. He was the pioneer of Frost, and came to there some time previous to the Revolution, and was among the first to make a permanent settlement. The lands he settled now owned by the Gibsons, Sharps and others. His wife was Susannah Crist and he first settled in Pennsylvania, where he lived until his family, two sons and two daughters were born and the older ones nearly grown.

Hannah Moore was married to Robert Gay, the ancestor of the Gay relationship, so frequently alluded to in these papers. From Mrs John Simmons and Mrs Mary Jane Moore we learn the following particulars:

Sally Moore became Mrs John Smith, one of the first permanent settlers of the Edray district, near the head of Stony Creek, of whom special mention is made.

George Moore was at the notable wedding when Jacob Slaven and Miss Eleanor Lockridge were married near Driscol. The tradition is that a practical joke was played by one James Brindley, at which the horse took fright, ran off, and the rider's head struck a projecting fence stake and was instantly killed. George Moore lived a while on the land now held by Abram:n Sharp, but sold to John Sharp and went to Kentucky. He was back on a visit when his sudden death occurred as just mentioned.

Levi Moore, Junior, was a person of marked prominence in county affairs. In person he was six feet eleven inches in height, and well proportioned. He was a member of the Virginia legislature and was on the commission to locate the court-house, and selected a site near where George Baxter, county surveyor, now lives. His first marriage was with Miss Nancy Sharp, daughter of William Sharp, the Huntersville pioneer, and lived on the Moore homestead. In reference to their children the following items are recorded:

Rebecca Moore was married to Leonard Irvine, on Back Creek, and lived at the brick house where the road to Frost leases the Back Creek road. Levi Irvine was killed in an accident; Lizzie Irvine was married to Henry Coffee, of Augusta County, Va.; Cornelia Irvine was married to William Gardner and settled in Webster County; Wilton Irvine married Kate McCarty, daughter of George McCarty, and settled on Little Back Creek; Susannah Irvine was married to Cyrus Kelley on Little Creek; and there is a son, Herron Irvine.

Margaret Moore was married to Eli McCarty and lived near Laurel Run. Her daughter, Margaret McCarty, married the late John Simmons and lived on the homestead. Her brother, Paul, died in the west.

Martha Moore, another daughter of Hon Levi Moore, Junior, was married to the late Rev John Waugh, of Indian Draft. Her children were Levi, Beverly, John, Samuel, Miriam, Ann and Eveline. Joseph B. McNeel, on Bucks Run; Rev John W. McNeel, a minister of the Baltimore Conference, are her grand-children.

Andrew Moore married Rebecca Waugh, daughter of Samuel Waugh, in the Hills, and settled on Knapps Creek, thence moved to the head of Stony Creek, and finally located in Jackson County. H e was noted for his skill in forecasting the seasons and weather.

Levi Moore, the third, went to Nebraska where it is reported he amassed a large fortune in the fur trade. Having no family of his own, he adopted his nephew, John Moore one of Andrew's sons.

The Hon Levi Moore's second marriage was with Mary McCarty, daughter of Timothy McCarty, a Revolutionary veteran, and the ancestor of the widely extended McCarty relationship in our county.

Rachel Moore, a daughter of this marriage, became the wife of James Sharp, on Thorny Creek, and migrated to Iowa.

Susannah Crist Moore, another daughter, was married to Stephen Hadden, and also went to Iowa.

Mrs Mary Jane Moore, the third daughter, makes her home with her daughter, Mrs Matilda Moore, near Mt Zion Church.

George Moore, the youngest son, was about as tall as his father. He spent some years in the west. He returned to Pocahontas about 1841, and was a pupil at the first session taught in the Pocahontas Academy, at Hillsboro, in 1842. The Rev Joseph Brown was Principal. He had the profession of medicine in view and was studious to a fault in his efforts to qualify himself. Mr Brown took much interest in the quiet and exemplary student, so intensely anxious for intellectual improvement. After all his hard labor, the young man was seized with pulmonary disease, aggravated by his close application to books, and died at the home of his sister, Mrs Rebecca Irvine, on Back Creek. The writer remembers him well, and he feels the pathos of " the Epitaph'' in Gray's "Elegy of a Country Churchyard."

Levi Moore, Senior, located 575 acres of a "British survey on the headwaters of Knapps Creek. After the Revolution new requirements were made in order to secure permanent possession. It was to pay a requisite fee, a warrant would be laid, and a patent granted by the federal government. The new papers are dated 1798, and attested by Henry Grimes and Allen Poage, and signed by James Madison, Governor of Virginia.

Previous to this survey George Poage had laid a warrant on two thousand acres, which would have included the 575 acres claimed by the Moores. At first the Moores contested for the British right, but when they found such was not valid they then availed themselves of the provision authorizing exchange of warrants. Levi Moore, Junior, appears in this new arrangement as assignee of Levi Moore, Senior, for lands adjoining the lands of Aaron Moore, who was living at that time on the Herold place. So when a warrant held elsewhere was exchanged for the warrant on the land adjoining Aaron Moore, was agreed upon by Poage and Levi Moore, it came about that when the patent was applied for, George Poage stated the fact that there had been an exchange of warrants, and at Poage's request the title for 575 acres was vested in Levi Moore, Junior, as assignee of Levi Moore, Sr.

This transaction is interesting and instructive, as showing the spirit of the times, and how business men acted on the principles of an enlightened and pure conscience. So far as the letter of the law went, Poage could have held the 575 acres, with all the improvements and good qualities of the laud; yet within his breast there was the higher law of a conscience void of offense toward God and man, and he keeps his fellow citizen from suffering from the mistake he made when he relied on the validity of British right, which had been declared null and void by the results of the Revolution. At the time, the warrant elsewhere bore no comparison, in real value, to the warrant for the lands adjoining the lands of Aaron Moore.

The golden rule comes in, and an enlightened conscience decides the matter. The spirit did right when the letter of the law would have been a shield for robbery. It makes us feel proud of our pioneer people to catch glimpses of what manner of men they were.

It is a sad day for any generation or family relationship to have it said of them that, like potatoes, the "best parts of them are in the ground." The record of this transaction is carefully preserved, and may be consulted time and again in the future as a testimony of what it is to be fair and square.