Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1892-01-15
OBITUARY.

liam I. Moore, Esq, of Abbs Valley
was dead, there were many sad
hearts and tear marked faces in Teze-
well. For he was known and be.
loved by all.
His ancestry were of stock of he-
roes and heroines. First driven from
their country-they were Scotch
Irish-by Charles the First, and seek
ing freedom from church oppression,
they came to the noted Shenandoah
Valley, and later, about the year
1777, james Moore, the grandfather
of the subject of this sketch. married
Martha Poage, and accompanied by
Robert Poage, and Absalom Looney,
settled in Abbs Valley. Here they
for time enjoyed perfect immynity
from oppression; being Lovites iii
deed and truth set up Gods altar in
the home.
On the 7th September, 17S4,James
Moore, the father of William r.,
then lad of fourteen summers, was
captured by the Shawnees and car
ried off to the Scioto Valley; finally
sold to French traders and carried
inty Canada. being five years cap
tive. Nearly two yenrs later, on tho
14th day of July, 1856, the residue
of the family were killed and carried
away captives by the same tribe of
Indians. Mary Moore, a young
girl. was the only one of the captives
who escaped the tomahawk. After
three years captivity Mary and her
brother James, by the hand of God,
met and procured their release, and
travelled afoot back 70 Rockbridge
county, Va.
Mary afterwards married q Pres.
byterian minister named Brown and
settled in that county. Finally James
returned to his Abbs Valley home,
and finished out his days in the home
made desolate by the savages. Here
W. I. Moore was born, lived to the
age of ninety years and was buried
by the graves of his illustrious fore
fathers. Many were the hours pleas
antly and proftably spent by the
writer with "U ocle Billy" as he gave
an account of the family's almost
fabulous history. The brief recital
we now get of the sufferings and pri-
vations gives US no adequate idea of
the reality. But perils and hard
ships did not cause them to forget
God. They carried the testimony in
their hearts, although they had no
abiding place for the Ark of the
Covenant. William T. Moore seem
ed to have always been christian by
instinct, if this be an appropriate
term. The time never was when he
was not christian. Although all
his family mud ancestors were Pres
byterians he became devout Meth
odist. Yet there was no place for
bigotry in his noble soul. The cath
olicity of his nature give the utmost
freedom to all, and religious char
acter, wherever found, met brother
in William T.. Moore. The beautiful
White Chapel, near the scene of the
great massacre of July, Ia, 1856, the
Moore Memorial Church, stands n mon
ument to the lberality and zeal of
this servant of God. On the 18th OF
July, 1886, this scribe had the honor
of participating in the service of the
centennial of the massacre of the
Moore family at this church. 1t was
alovely day, and 1 lovely sight to
see the great number of liueal de-
scendants of this elegant stock, as
they surrounded Gods altar, in the
midst of such peace and liberty of
conscience-the result of the sacri-
fees and privations of their ancestry.
The ruddy and beaming face, and
snowy white head of Gods prophet,
w. I. Moore, was the central figure
that day. A Presbyterian minister,
Rev. M. W. Doggett, preached the
sermon, and Methodist delivered
the Grafton. That orator that day
charged the children of that man of
God-"that priest whose locks had
grown white"-to take his place in
the church. and asked God to anoint
another, who should keep the fires
still burning on that memorial altar,
and that they should teach the holy
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