The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-22
THE ROMANCE OF A LIFE.
A Golden Wedding Anniversary and
Its Story of Success.
A Tale That Reads Like One of the Arabian
Nights-How John and Thomas
Moore Built Their Fortunes.

on the National road, mile east OF this city ON
Wednesday a large number of their friends and
all of their living children and grandchildren
met to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary OF their
wedding, coming to the old homestead with nu-
merous presents and hearty good wishes.
There is a spice of romance in the history of
Mr.. Moore, and little less in the history of his
cellent wife. which at least shows the possibili-
ties of life in this free country. John Moore was
born In county FERN anagh, ireland, Nov. 3,
1906 the first of family of eight, who emil
grated to America in 1924. After a voyage of
sixty-three days they landed at Philadelphia,
and spent a few weeks enjoying the hospitality
of several who had known them in Ireland, and
then pushed westward to seek some relatives in
Western Pennsylvania and Ohio. The trans
portion TO Pittsburg of the eight children, one of
whom was only eighteen months old, and the
parents was by means OF a fve-horse team
which was chartered for the occasion
by three families. under the stipulation that the
older ones were to walk up the hills. At Pitts
burg they met by wagons from Bealsville,
some forty miles south, sent by the father OF
Mrs, Moore, who had preceded them some twelve
years. and already well-tO-do farmer in
Washington county Here the father left the
family, to go on foot to GAINESVILLE o., TO visit
brother and seek employment He had been
gone but a few days when the wife and mother
sckened and died, Of which sad event he Knew
nothing until his return, after two three
weeks absence BY this calamity his plans were
greatly thwarted, but with true Irish pluck the
two boys, John and Thomas, and four OF the
girs-leaving the babe and an older girl with
the grandparents, started for tine vicinity of |
GAINESVILLE. Here they spent four or
five years, the father employing himself
III weaving for the Beighbors and teaching his
son John TO weave also, so that by the boys
IN
day, when they could get it, and the father at
the loom, for such traffic he could obtain, the
family managed to live comfortably until the |
elder Moore took a suD-eontract on the grading |
of the National road, then in process of con
struotiOn through Ohio. As part of their joint
earnings, few years before, two colts, |
which haQ now become two horses and by piece |
meal they had obtained the running gears of a |
wagon. Now working for the woodwork and
now for the ironing, IL was not difficult TO make
two carts ont of the wagon, and thus equipped, |
with two horses and two carts, they began to
work ON the road. Though subcontractor
there was money in it, and they cleared about
$500, which, however, they never got,
the contractor drew the money and /
then broke up. But, encouraged by the
success of the work, they took a contract direct
from the government, on another section of the |
road and cleared 81 600 About the same time |
the National road. in Marion county, was to be
let, and the elder Mr.. Moore came TO Indianapo- |
lis Cd horseback, in the fall of 1880, and bid for
the mile which extends eastward from the pres |
ent crossing of the Belt, east Of the city. and
in January, 1881, the family, now reunited, |
reached their future home, and, completing d
lOg-CaOiu That had been begun on lana now
known as the Graves faTm-then belonging to
Mr.. Kinder, and rendered free of rent-they |
were prepared for work, The elGer Mr.,
Moore had now become blOated CON
tractor with more than a thousand dollars cap
ital, besides oxen aud carts and wagons ptc6s, |
scrapers, shovels and spades, and he employed
from four TO six ''labOrers' to help him and his
boys. The contract was finished according to
specifications and the money received therefor.
Not so with some other sections. One, including
the fill at Grassy creek, had to be relet under
specifications, the first grade not being wide
enough or high enough, and for this the Moores
We're me contractors one OF TWO othef sec
tions, near Cumberland; had been abandoned by
the original contractors, forfeitng the reserved
20 per cent The Moores had the oxen and carts
and the pluck TO take these unfinished jobs, get
reasonable compensation and the reserved 20
per cent. besides Meanwhile, oxen and
wagons increased, and they took the
contract TO haul stone from MOoresville
and the nluffs for Gaping the
culverts, which were built with perpendicular
walls and covered with fla ggin gstOne, and when
the time for macadamizng the road came they
Eook the contract to put the broken stone on the
first mile east OF the entrance of the Rockville
| road into the National, west of Eagle creek,
head" bouders which lay profusely over all the
woods and the few fields that had been cleared,
and which were cheertully donated" for the
sake of getting rid of them. These
were hauled ana broken into proper
size no one s NJ, seeming to know that
| the very best material in the world for
/ roadDed, all ready broken to hand. In their
I line as contractors they contracted
| with James Blake, James NJ. Ray and DIR. Coe
| for removing the trees and stumps from the first
| acre and a half thar was dedicated to the old
cemetery on Kentucky avenue
AS has been said the Moores brought with
them from Ohio 81 900 OF more Their outfit for
business simple and cheap that what lit
tie of this was absorbed at first more than
replaced by the LIST of October. and they began
to look for safer place to put it than the shanty
they lived in. About this time it began to be
bruited about that tine man who had bought the
quarter section lying south OF the State road,
half mile east of the present Deaf and Dumb
asked ZOO for it, Of course no
of having real estate aspirations, and If he had,
where was the money to come from? BY listen
ing to the neighborhood gossip, the Moores
learned that it belonged to man by the name
of Kitchell, who lived at Palestine IN Crawford
county, Illinois. about thirty miles below Terre
Haute. One morning, about the first of October,
1881, the old man and his son John, then about
twenty-five years old, were missing from the
job, but no one seemed to know care where
they were. In about three DAYS, however, they
turned up at Palestine with ST. 200 about their
persons. They soon found that Mr.. Kitchell
wanted TO sell very badly, for he wanted to buy
n quarler section of prairie land near Palestine
which had frame house on it, while his Indi-
annapolis land was impenetraOe forest
of walnut, oak, poplar and other worthless tim.
Der, all of which had to be deadened and chopped
off and burned before 1t could be utilized, and
that quarter of prairie. with it's frame house
could be had for 81 200. The MoOres found in
the conversation that he owned also another
100 acres near championships quarter long
known the Yoke farm the west side of the
Shelby pike, mile south of the donation. They
feigned desire to purchase that prairie quarter
with its frame house, but finally concluded to
take the two quarters near Indianapolis for 81,
200 If Mr.. Ktchell would prefer to have thar
prairie quarter and its frame house. He prefer
red and they closed the pu rchase on the l4th
day of October, 1881. But when they came to |
count out the money there arose
difficulty longer known in
America, thanks to our better
financial system. Nearly half their money was
on OHIO banks and that was Is per cent. below
Indiana and Illinois paper, and Kitchell would |
not take it at less than that. They, however, |
assorted out the good Indiana and Illinois paper
paid that, and took contract to pay the balance
IN standard Illinois or Indiana in a given time. |
They returned to Indianapolis with the worth |
less Ohio stuff, where they found it very con- |
To nIldf n,olil,