John W Moore & Ann Ward

Sally’s Great Grandparents

John Wheeler Moore 1833 – 1906 | parents
& 1853 Ann James Ward 1834 – 1901 | parents
of 1855 Anniesdale, Murfreesboro, North Carolina
of 1866 Maple Lawn, Powellsville, North Carolina

Children of Arthur, Bessie, Charles, Julia, Philip, Jack, and Godwin

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Ann James Ward daughter of James Ward of Powellsville and his wife Elizabeth Jones, was born 30 June 1834. Her father died when she was eleven.
Her mother remarried, this time the Rev. James Delke who was very much involved in establishing a new college for females in Murfreesboro.
Ann enrolled with the first students.
She was the only one in that first group to complete the four-year course of study and became the first graduate of Chowan Baptist Female Institute in July 1853.

John Wheeler Moore and Ann James Ward were married at her home Maple Lawn on the 28 September 1853. The parlor was redecorated for the occasion with new drapes and carpet which were hanging yet 100 years later.
The story told was: On his wedding day John and his father drove over to Ann’s home in their gig. As they neared the plantation they met Ann’s elderly servant who was with great ceremony doffing his cap at their approach.
Stopping the horse, John greeted him, “Morning Uncle, is there any news in these parts?”
“Why, yes, Captain! Miss Annie’s getting married today!” was the reply
“That’s so!” said John, “And who is she marrying?”
There was a pause, then the old fellow said, “Well, I don’t rightly know his name, but I hear tell he’s powerful lazy!”
John stood there dumb-founded. “Sit down, son,” said his father.

John Wheeler Moore, son of Dr. Godwin Cotten Moore and Julia Munro Wheeler, was born at Mulberry Grove. He was prepared for college by John Kimberly at Buckhorn Academy. He graduated U.N.C. at Chapel Hill in 1853.
He studied law at home after his marriage and was admitted to the bar in 1855.
John and Ann bought a beautiful tract of land just back of Chowan College overlooking Murfreesboro and built a magnificent Southern mansion called ” Anniesdale.”
a three-story white brick house.
They moved there to live in 1855
and opened his law office in Murfreesboro that same year.

The home of Augustus Bass (1806) and his wife Celia Brittain (1802) burned in 1857. [Celia Brittain was the daughter of Michael Brittain and his wife Nancy Weston (Janet Briton).] Ann Ward and John W Moore traded them the Ward place with the house for the Bass property that joined our farm Maple Lawn.
My father always referred to this land as the Bass field.
John and Ann Moore were already living in their mansion “Anniesdale” in Murfreesboro and Elizabeth and James Delk moved out to Maple Lawn as he was at that time preaching at Bethlehem.

e-mail from James – this bit of oral history on Fred Julich, the bugler for Major
Moore’s Battalion.  Paul F. Calvert, a nephew of Major Moore related this to me.
“Fred Julich’s father had come from Germany.  He was a skilled cabinetmaker and was employed by the family.  Fred had been charging up a hill at Gettysburg yelling the famous Rebel yell when his top row of teeth was shot out. Because of this, he was granted leave and returned home.  When the Yankees under Col. S.P. Spears passed through Mulberry Grove [Dr. Moore’s home] on their attempt to cut the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad, Fred Julick was there visiting. Fred hid under the office.
“Col. Spears said ‘Dr. Moore, I know there’s a Confederate soldier here somewhere because I’ve found his horse here in the yard with his army brand.’
Fred was in earshot the entire time.
 After taking all of the chickens, hogs, cows, and horses and emptying the smokehouse, the Yankees moved on. 
The Moores found another horse for Fred and told him, ‘You’d better get out of here!’  He needed no urging, and it was a long time before they saw him again.”

from Capt. Thos. D Boone’s “History of Co F 1st Reg NC Infantry,” 1895, “The Index,” Murfreesboro NC.
“Fred Julick, a young German, whose father had come to Murfreesboro as a landscape gardener and was living with Jno. W Moore, back of the Institute, was enrolled as a Musician. . . Apr 1863 – Our little German, Fred Julick, had lost his cap going through the woods. As he came into the field he spied a Zouave cap and picking it up to supply the place of the lost one, waved to me and cheered. Turning to regain his place in the ranks a rifle ball struck him in the mouth and down he went on his knees. . . . . Fred Julick, who enlisted as a Musician, came out with a shattered jaw and was living when last heard in Wilmington NC.”

Although John Moore lived in a Whig County in a Whig District,  he like his father was an ardent Democrat of the old Jeffersonian School: in 1856 John ran for state senate, lost the election, but in 1860 he served as a presidential
elector.”

Then the war came. John served in the Confederate Army as Major of the Third North Carolina Battalion, a light artillery unit consisting of three batteries — seeing service in the defense of Richmond, Goldsboro, New Bern, Wilmington, Battle of Bentonville, and surrendered at Greensboro.
Major John W Moore had come up as a rich man’s son who did no manual labor. Harvey, who had been given to him as a body servant when they both were boys, went with John to the University. As John studied law and other subjects he also taught Harvey. Harvey faithfully followed him throughout the war. When the Major and Harvey returned home, “Times were hard” and there was no money to pay their taxes or feed the family let alone personal servants. The Major advised his devoted servant Harvey to go North for there was no opportunity for him in the South. Harvey reluctantly departed with his wife who had been Ann’s lifelong devoted personal servant!
Harvey was able to become a successful lawyer in Philadelphia.
In 1866 the three-story “Anniesdale” burned–the roof caught fire from sparks from the chimney and there was no ladder available to put out the fire.

Ann and John had received as a wedding gift from John H. Wheeler a glass dome containing some stuffed birds from Central America, which Ann detested. But what should appear in the hands of one of the servants fleeing the burning house but those “ugly dead birds” as Miss Ann called them. “Oh! of all the things you could have saved! those ugly dead birds!” Ann is reported as saying. But those “ugly dead birds” occupied a place of honor on the mantle in the parlor at Maple Lawn for over 100 years, and now are enjoyed by my sister Helen’s family.
After living in the office in the corner of the yard for a few months the family moved to Maple Lawn located on the land of Ann’s ancestors, the several James Joneses.
All of Ann’s former slaves had left the place to live in Cofield.
All needed a livelihood; The Major and Ann sought out her people and offered them each a house, a mule and 40 acres to tend as their own to come back and farm the plantation.
At least three families accepted the offer and built their homes over on the road to Bethlehem on the far side of the farm, the area was and is known as Mooretown.
Some of their descendants are still there on the land.
The Major and Ann sold off many acres from the original place at 50 cents to a dollar an acre. The plantation was reduced to its present 800 acres.
They lived in poverty as did all their neighbors for agriculture was not gainful (Ashe).

Major John W Moore spent his time as a scholar and author.
He wrote “School History of North Carolina,” 1879;
“Sketches of Hertford County” which appeared in the Murfreesboro “Inquirer” 1877-1878; two volumes “History of North Carolina,” 1880;
a novel “The Heirs of St. Kilda” 1881;
he compiled “Roster of North Carolinians who served in the Confederate Army;” a devout Baptist, he spent his last years preparing a history of the Baptist Church in North Carolina–the manuscript is at Wake Forest University [tis a mystery to the family as to how it got there as it was given by my parents with the Major’s other papers to UNC at Chapel Hill.]
There are also two other unpublished novels-one on Blackbeard that my father had really enjoyed but was lost. JRM Lawrence says they are at Chapel Hill.
He taught the Men’s Bible Class at Bethlehem Baptist Church until his death–people came from a great distance to hear him.

after the war Ann Ward Moore

Ann Ward Moore had been a VERY grand lady before The War.
One day she saw that she was going to have to do something to the garden at Maple Lawn, which was fast disappearing in weeds.
She took her daughter-in-law with her.
Now Johnnie Rayner Moore had been born during the War and had never known anything but hard work.
So she was working along diligently hoeing a row of vegetables.
Miss Ann, on the other hand, struck a lick here and struck a lick there…
. not really accomplishing much of anything.
After about half an hour she straightened up and said
“Come on, Johnnie! Let’s go on back to the house!
We’re going to work ourselves to death out here
and somebody else will be enjoying the fruit of our labors!”
Ann later developed cancer of the uterus and died at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore 16 March 1901.
She was buried at the Jones’ Hole near her parents.
As “the Major” aged ” Flowers were his hobby.”
[My father said he had two greenhouses built – one large one of logs and the other a small building of brick that is still used as the pump house for the electric pump.]
My father (born 1892) became his “valet”–going for the mail, sleeping in the room with him, and keeping the fire and whatever.
The Major died at Maple Lawn 6 Dec 1906 sitting in his favorite rocking chair on the front porch with a copy of Winborne’s “History of Hertford County” on his lap.
He was buried at the Jones’ Hole beside his beloved wife Ann.

Will of John W. Moore signed 26 Nov 1906, Proved Superior Court 12 December 1906 — I hereby give to my son Arthur Cotten Moore all the personal property on the farm belonging to me excepting the oil painting portrait of my wife which I hereby give to my son John W. Moore Jr. witnesses C C Sessoms, John B Freeman

Will of Ann W. Moore signed 6 Nov 1900 –witnesses J.C. Sessoms & L.J. Picot I appoint my two sons Charles G Moore and John W Moore Jr my administrators to all my real and personal estate and my two daughters Bessie McGhee and Julia Yeates to divide and control my household goods and furniture.
I give to my husband John W. Moore the use of my real estate and all personal property with house goods and furniture during his life.
At his death I wish to divide equally between all my children Arthur C Moore, Bessie McGhee, Charles G Moore, Julia Yeates, Philip St John Moore, John W. Moore Jr and Godwin Cotten Moore all of my real and personal estate to possess during their lifetime and at death to descend to the heirs of their body of those then in possession.
I also give to each one of the aforesaid children a room in my house during their life.
I wish the same tenants namely Webster Moore, Luke Moore, and Noah Moore to continue tenants on the farm and under the same conditions as long as they act according to the same regulations heretofore required and fulfill the contract agreeably to all parties.
I give to Ellen Moore, a servant $25.
Codicil: Provided nevertheless if any of my heirs shall find it necessary to dispose of their interest in the real estate hereinbefore mentioned they are hereby empowered to sell their right title and interest and that of the heirs of their body, in fee simple to some other heir or heirs of his body and such deed shall be valid.
But this codicil must not in any count be construed to convey of sale to any other than to any one of my own children. In the event any of my heirs shall die without heirs of their body they can will their interest to brother or sister niece or nephew only.
This is my will.
Ann W. Moore.

Thanks to the terms of Ann Ward Moore’s will, my father was able to reassemble the land she owned at her death. When the banks foreclosed on the loan’s of John W. Moore, Jr. (the contract engineer) who had offered the parcels of the homeplace he had reassembled as security; the banks could only sell the land to an heir of Ann’s body.

Children of John Wheeler Moore and Ann James Ward:

Arthur Cotten Moore at age two

Yes, that place under his eye is where one of his brothers poked a reed through the portrait one day when he was mad with Arthur. This picture and the ones of his mother and father were all on one canvas. After the fire in Murfreesboro, the family moved to Maple Lawn. This house did not have the wall space for the larger picture, so the canvas was cut and framed as three pictures. In the process, Aunt Bessie who was in her mother’s lap was lost. I think the artist was that first art teacher at Chowan who painted the picture of Sir Walter Raleigh spreading his cloak for the queen using Ann as the model for her queen.

*1. Arthur Cotten Moore 28 July 1854 – 11 March 1926 Maple Lawn
married 24 Oct 1886
Johnnie F Rayner 14 Dec 1863 – 21 March 1926 Maple Lawn

2. Elizabeth Jones Moore 15 Aug 1856 Murfreesboro – 19 May 1948 Franklinton
married 12 Sept 1877 Maple Lawn
Wyatt Lemuel McGhee 11 Sept 1848 – 21 Jan 1920 Franklinton, NC

3. Charles Godwin Moore 26 Jan 1859 Murfreesboro, NC – 1941 Littleton, NC
married 3 Sept 1890
Mary Pretlow Massenburg 1868 Williamsburg, VA – 1934 Littleton, NC

4. Julia Wheeler Moore 16 Sept 1860 Murfreesboro, NC – Nov 1928 Atlanta, GA
married 16 Jan 1884
William Smith Yeates 15 Dec 1856 Murfreesboro, NC – 1908 Atlanta, GA

5. Helen Manly Moore 17 Nov 1862 – 9 May 1863 Murfreesboro, NC
this is the child that received the wrong & fatal medicine from a drunk pharmacist

6. Philip St. John Moore 12 Mar 1864 Murfreesboro, NC – 1928 Ohio
married 1st 6 Jan 1885
Lizzie Campbell 1862 Weldon, NC – 1951 New York City (div.)
married 2nd 16 Nov 1895
Myrtie Curtis 1876-dec. Ohio

7. John Wheeler Moore 29 Aug 1866 Maple Lawn – 22 Oct 1946 Franklinton, NC
married 4 Oct 1893 Davis, WV
Elizabeth Parsons 5 Jan 1873 Romney, WV – 1934 Norfolk, VA

8. Annie Ward Moore 6 Feb 1869 – 5 Oct 1871 Maple Lawn

9. James Ward Moore 23 Dec 1870 – 25 July 1872 Maple Lawn

10. Godwin Cotten Moore 12 April 1873 Maple Lawn – 20 May 1930 Sacramento, CA
married 21 Feb 1907 Irene Elizabeth Mitchell 24 April 1876 – Sept 1966 CA

11. Rutland Ward Moore 17 May 1876 – 22 May 1876 Maple Lawn

12. Isabella Campbell Moore Oct 1878 – 2 Oct 1880 Maple Lawn

Grandchildren of John and Ann 2nd page