March of the King of Laois

Our family anthem, the March of the King Of Laois, (Ruari Og O'Mordah),  as performed by Dan Ar Braz:

eBay Finds: Hoge Davis Drug Company

While skimming through eBay I found the following item, a bottle from the Hoge Davis Drug Company, housed at one time in the E.K. Hoge Building in Wheeling, West Virginia. The comapny's founder was a distant cousin on my mother's side, part of the "Quaker" line of Hoges that immigrated from Pennsylvania to Virginia and West Virginia.

Happy Birthday, Nannie!

Today would be the 105th birthday of my paternal grandmother, Christeen Taylor Moore (1906-1993), forever known to me as "Nannie."

The Wingfields of Rutland and Tickencote

Part of my great-great grandmother Sarah Margaret Huckeba Moore's line goes back to the Wingfields, who at one time owned much of the land in Rutland emcompassing and surrounding the village of Tickencote. Below is a video of a walking tour of the Rutland Round, including views of the church in Tickencote with a stone commemorating its rebuilding in 1792 by Eliza Wingfield, a distant relation.

Sarah Margaret Huckeba

Photo of my great-great grandmother Sarah Margaret Huckeba, first wife of Rev. Thomas Moore and mother of my great-grandfather Marion Joshua Moore. At this writing I am researching her bloodline, which thus far extends to the Garlands, Wingfields, Cromwells, and Seymours. More will be posted at a later date.

Update: Her memorial page at Find A Grave, including an obituary from the Carroll County Times, may be found here.

Pellagra and the Death of Zach Kinney

A recent find, the death certificate of my great-great-grandfather Jim Kinney's brother, Zachary Taylor Kinney. cause of death was pellagra, an all too common malady in the southeast US and parts of Europe prior to World War II. It was especially common among older people who had lost their teeth at a time when dental care and dentures were not widely available, forcing them to subsist almost entirely on corn mush. Corn is rich in niacin but in a form which is not easily absorbed in its natural state. Native Americans had long ago learned the trick of washing maize in wood ash lye to release the niacin, but curiously European settlers never bothered to learn it from them.

James A. Kinney Family Photo

Here is a picture I recently found on Find A Grave of my great-great grandfather, James Arnold Kinney (17 Feb, 1851 - 16 April, 1935), with his wife and family. It was posted by Judy K. Brantley Wilson and is re-posted here with her permission. From left to right are Claude Kinney, Dumah Kinney, Dumah's wife Mattie Stallings and their daughter Erma Belle, my great-grandmother Ada Eugenia, Annie Kinney, my great-great grandmother Alice Evans Kinney, and James Arnold Kinney. This was taken at their home outside Temple, Georgia.

And here, from my brother's collection, is Jim Kinney plowing his field.

Jim Kinney is interred at Asbury Cemetery in Temple.

Colorful Relations, Chapter One

My cousin J. Craig Canada provided me with a story from the San Francisco Morning Call, dated 2 November, 1893, about our mutual relation, Colonel J.Hampton Hoge , who was to have been Grover Cleveland's ambassador to the Imperial Court of China, - that is, before drink loosened his tongue en route to San Francisco so that he made some frank but unflattering comments about the President and his economic policies to a reporter. He had also apparently assaulted a Southern Pacific Railway employee. Like Craig, I'm wondering if the phrase "nursing a small kitten" is a euphemism for the saloon he was in actually being a cat house.

I also found an obituary for Colonel Hoge in the New York Times, dated 14 Feb, 1903. He had apparently switched parties, but found even less success as a Republican. A biographical page on Colonel Hoge can be found on Craig's site.

Green N. Moore and Family

As a follow-up to the previous post about my great-grandfather, Marion Joshua Moore, here's a picture of his brother, Green N. Moore (March 1868 - 28 Dec., 1955) and his wife Minnie W. Kinney Moore (born 1870), with their daughters Lemma (born 1888) and Sarah Vera (1893 - 1910). They also had two sons,  Marion Moore, born 1906, the same year as my grandfather, and Andrew Jackson "Jack" Moore, born in 1908. Minnie was the daughter of Marion Lafayette Kinney, James A. Kinney's brother, and thus was cousin to my great-grandmother, Ada Eugenia Kinney. She and Green were married on 13 January, 1887. As mentioned in the previous post, Uncle Green and Aunt Minnie took in my grandfather and his sisters and raised them after their parents had died in the years 1912 and 1914.

The Life and Murder of Marion Joshua Moore (1869 - 1912)

Marion Joshua Moore

My great-grandfather, Marion Joshua Moore, was born 25 December, 1869 in Carrollton, Georgia, son of the Reverend Thomas Moore and Sarah Margaret Moore, maiden name Huckeba. He married Ada Eugenia Kinney, daughter of James Arnold Kinney and Alice Kinney (Evans). Ada was the granddaughter of Jesse Kinney, who had served as the first mayor of Temple, Georgia, and the great-great granddaughter of William Kinney, who family legend says fired the first shot at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse during the American Revolution.

Josh and Ada's first child, Rhudy Belk Moore, was born in 1891. Four more children followed, - Zillah "Mac" Moore (born 1894), Sarah Alice "Sadie" Moore (1897), Jewell Elizabeth Moore (1903), and my grandfather, Yancey Green Moore (1906). A sixth child, Marion Joshua Moore, Jr., was born in 1912, just a few months after his father's death. Sometime between 1906 and 1910 the Moore family relocated from Georgia to Alabama, settling in Fruithurst, where Josh became a Third Degree Master Mason.  Later he became a foreman with Southern Railway (now part of Norfolk Southern Corporation), at the Avondale yards. The family eventually returned to Georgia in Bremen, with Josh working in Avondale and returning home on his off days.

On 10 Septemeber, 1912, a Tuesday, Josh and two co-workers, W.C. Webb and F.M. Corly, were walking from their jobs down 26th Street in Birmingham to their camp car. As Josh and Mr. Webb came to the corner of 26th and Second Alley South, three men sitting on a stoop started an argument with them. The argument soon escalated into a fight. Corly fought for a while but then fled in search of police, while Josh and Webb were overpowered and held from behind by their assailants, after which Josh Moore was struck in the head with a brick bat, lacerating his scalp, pieces of which were later found adhering to the brick. Webb was stabbed in the back and hips. He would later say that when he saw Moore being struck with the brick, the blow was sufficient to break the brick in two. A police officer on patrol heard the melee and arrived to find Josh lying on the street with Webb sitting nearby, attempting to staunch the blood from his own wounds. Their attackers had dispersed, but two witnesses described what had happened. Josh Moore was rushed to Hillman Hospital with a fractured skull, from which he died the following Sunday, 15 September. His assailants, now identified as Henry Broman, Sid Smith, and Billy Whitehead, were arrested for murder and tried and convicted before Judge I.H. Benners on 30 September.

Josh Moore's remains were shipped to Bremen and interred in the Bremen City Cemetery. Ada's father paid pharmacy bills and other debts owed by Josh at the time of his death. On 20 January, 1913, Marion Joshua Moore, Jr. was born. On 15 August of that same year, Josh Jr. died from influenza. On 21 April of 1914, Ada also died from flu,. Now orphaned, her daughters and youngest surviving son, Yancey, were taken in by Josh's brother, Green Moore, and his wife Minnie.

All of Josh and Ada Moore's surviving children went on to lead relatively happy lives:

Zillah Moore with her mother, Ada 

 Zillah "Mac" Moore married twice, secondly to Bill Grey. Their daughter Doris married Bill Gordon. Mac Grey died in April 1978 and is buried in Atlanta.

Belk Moore, 1903

Belk Moore married Enola Robinson on 24 May 1910 in Fruithurst. Their children were Yuleth, born 1918, Theron (1911-1953), Grace, born 1916, Sybil, and Thaxton. Sybil married J.B. Graner. Thaxton married Mary Dixie Eady and was a Grand Master of the Odd Fellows.

Sadie Brinson 

Sadie Moore married Charles Brinson. Their daughter, Mildred, born 1919, married three times, lastly to Carl Walker. Sadie died in 1984 and she and Charles are buried in Birmingham.

Jewell in 1966

Jewell Moore married firstly Jerry Stevens 31 Dec 1921 in Short Creek, Alabama, and secondly Lang Perkins. Jewell and Jerry's son, Robert died young after 1930, while their daughter Evelyn married Sidney Parrish. Jewell and her second husband moved to Trenton, New Jersey, and after Jewell's death she was cremated and her ashes mixed with those of Lang and scattered down a highway in central Florida.

Y.G. and Christeen Moore at their 50th
wedding anniversary, 26 Aug 1973

My grandfather, Yancey Green Moore, married Christeen Taylor, daughter of John Frank Taylor (1882-1974) and Cora Belle Wages (1889-1982). They were married for 54 years and raised three children, my late father and two living aunts. Yancey followed in his father's footsteps, working for Southern Railway for many years as a surveying engineer. He passed away in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in November of 1977. Christeen followed him in April of 1993.

Profile: Little Berry Stephens (1845-1930)

Little Berry Stephens in the 1920s,
wearing the medal given him by the
Daughters of the Confederacy.

Little Berry Stephens, known as "Uncle Berry" in family lore, was my great-great-grandfather on my mother's side. He was born 17 Oct, 1845 in Centre, Cherokee County, Alabama, the third son of William A. Stephens and his wife Sarah Belinda Emilene , maiden name Harbour.  The elder Stephens was a native of Georgia, the son of James Stephens and long rumored to be the brother of Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens, though the historical record does not support this family legend. Sarah was born in Virginia, and was in fact descended from many of the oldest families of that state, including the Washingtons, Witts,  and Stranges. Together they were among the first settlers in Cherokee County.

In  March of 1861, Berry's older brother James enlisted in the Confederate Army, eventually joining Company C of the 7th Alabama Infantry, under Captain William Clare. James was among the fallen at Chickamauga and Berry came to retrieve the diary his brother had been keeping of his experiences.  This diary eventually came to be part of the Rosanna Alexander Blake Library of Confedrate History at Marshall University, and in 2003 was transcribed by Jack Dickinson and published as "If I Should fall in Battle... The Civil War Diary of James Stephens.''

Little Berry Stephens enlisted in the army soon after James' death, as did his other brother John B. Stephens. On  2 Oct, 1863, he joined Company F of the 12th Alabama Infantry, under Colonel Warren S. Reese.  On 24 December, 1863, during a skirmish at Dandridge, Tennessee between Confederate forces under Longstreet and Union forces under Burnside, Berry was wounded  when his knee was scrapped by canister shot. He was also furloughed for 30 days with rubella in June of 1864.  After being paroled at Kingston, Georgia in May of 1865, he returned to Cherokee.  In 1874 he married Lydia Ann Stinson, daughter of  John W.Stinson and Barbara Stinson (Bates). Their children were Irene (?-?), Barbara (1876- 1952), Fannie (1879-1880), and Julius Norman (1886-1954). Julius married Beulah Vesta Hoge, daughter of John F. Hoge, formerly a Captain in the Confederate Calvary, and Louisa Hoge (Cunningham).  Barbara married  William F. Hoge, Beulah's brother. The Hoges lived just a few houses down from the Stephens, as indicated by the 1900 census.

A member of the Stonewall Jackson Camp #411 of Confederate Veterans, Uncle Berry often regaled people with his experiences in the war, and was interviewed in an issue of the "Confederate Veteran" magazine in 1928. He also received a medal from the Daughters of the Confederacy, which he often wore. In 1922 he  applied for a military pension, but his status as a property owner (425 acres) disqualified him. In 1927 he marched into the office of local newspaper writer Will I. Martin to "have a squawk" with Mr. Martin about inaccuracies in his recently published account of the capture of Union raider Col. W.D. Streight in the nearby town of Cedar Bluff. Martin recounted his correction by Uncle Berry in a nostalgic piece written decades later.

Little Berry Stephens died 10 Dec 1930, having lived long enough to see the arrival of his great-granddaughter, my mother, who was born in December of 1929.  He was buried in Parker Grove Cemetery in Centre, next to his beloved Lydia, who had died five years earlier. In November of 2010, the Civil War Roots society chose Little Berry Stephens as one of the figures featured in their 2011 calendar, distributed to Civil War historical societies and libraries, with a limited number available to the public.

Four generations of the Stephens family. Little Berry Stephens
with daughter Barbara Stephens Hoge, granddaughter Lydia
Hoge Gage, and great-grandson Matthew Gage. Photo circa 1926.