Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-05-11
UNCLE SAM MOORE.
VETERAN TRAVELLER
Has Sold Hardware in the Ozark
Mountains for Period Gov
ering Forty-four Years.
FRIEND AND SALESMAN TO ALL

FRIEND AND SALESMAN TO ALL
Faced any Dangers, but Carries No
Gun-Confederate Soldier and
Widely Known. ....
Mountain Home, Ark.-Among the
knights of the grip who cover territory
in the Ozark Mountains, none will go
back with the record for long service
that "Uncle SAM Moore, who travels
for 1. hardware house in Springfield,
Mo-, will carry in with him. He is the
oldest man on the road in the territory
today and is rounding out his forty.
fourth year. ...
For forty-four years he has made
monthly trip from Springfield to
Batesville, Ark, with many meander'
ings, or 600 miles. He has done his
5000 miles behind a spanking team in
an easy buggy, every year, covering a
total mileage in the Ozark Mountains,
since he has been on the road, OF
$4,000 miles. All that time he has
sold goods for one firm. He started
out with them as a salesman at q
and has never had another job. In
his long career as an overland knight
of the grip he has missed only one
trip and has been sick in bed only
twice. He has worn out eight differ.
ent teams. Uncle Sam says he is Is
years young, not old, and he looks It,
for he is still hale, rotund and hearty,
with a CHEEKY laugh and the springy
step Of youth.
When he first began to cover the ter
ritory, stores were few and far be-
tween. At nights he would hear the
howl of the wolf; venison was the
meat item on the menu at every hotel
He has seen the Ozarks develop, seen
every railroad built, seen settlements
spring up from the wilderness, seen
towns and cities grow from the settle
ments. In all the development he has
played his part. Sold the territory
hardware, and he has done It well, fol-
he is business getter.
The territory he covers is one end
less, undulating mass of mountains
valleys, plateaus and ridges. Green
and inviting in summer, somber and
forbidding in winter, but he loves it al
all seasons of the year. Loves the
quaint little hotels with their hospit
able hosts, fried eggs, both straight up
and turned over, and the good home
cooked grub and canned fruit.
He has been offered many other
more lucrative positions, but has al
ways held to his mountain territory
He knows, every cool spring by the
wayside; every whispering group Of
pines. He knows it as city salesman
knows the city. Over the territory
they know him, too. There is not g
man, farmer or merchant, between the
Arkansas and the White, or between
the Black River and the James, who
has lived in the territory for any
length of time, but who knows Uncle
Sam. Women and children and the
hound dogs and the mules know him
as we'll as the men, and they are all
his friends. He stops and chats along
the mountain highways much the same
as city man does on his way down
town with his friends on the
streets.
| Among the mountain merchants
with whom he does business, he is
more of friend than salesman. He
just goes visiting, and, incidentally
sells goods. He is a business adviser
too, and his customers come to him
with their business troubles, and he
helps them by giving them timely ad
vice. In some instances he has Gus
toners in the third generation. He is
selling some now, at the same stand
where years ago, when the country
was new, he sold their grandfathers
Sam is common name over his terri
tory, especially in those places where
he stops for the night. More babies
have been named after him than after
any other man over his route.
AS a personality he fairly beams
with congeniality. There is only one
thing that will arouse his ire, and that
is the improper care Of his team. He
fairly dotes on his team. He is as
particular about it as an engineer is
about his engine. They have to have
the best care obtainable, and conse.
quently they are the star boarders at
all the livery stables along the line
Of travel. Stablemen know this char.
acteristic of his, too, and avoid diff
Guilty by giving them just the care he
demands. He does not leave it en-.
tirely to them, however, but stays and
sees that his horses are properly cared
for before he goes into the house.
In spite of the fact that he is vet
eran of the Civil War, he has never
carried a revolver or any other kind
of weapon since he has been on the
road He has travelled during times
Of trouble, too. During the Bald Knob
Der period, and in sections that had
doubtful regulations.
He was born in Dade County, Mis-.
souri,, on Sun Creek, near Greenfield.
When Is years old he enlisted under
Capt. Tuck Smith, Confederate, in
Washington County, Ark, and fought
with him through quite period of
the war. While Is years old, he ex-