 Thomas was the son of James
Updegraph Moore, whose father was Eli, the
emigrant of Ireland who came to Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania and married Deborah Updegraph.James, the father of
Thomas, was born on 13 September 1816 in what is
now known as Beaver, Pennsylvania. He married in
Harrison Co., Ohio, Rebecca Cook, whom James had
described in letters as being of a
"Pennsylvania Dutch" family. She was
born in 1817 in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, a
portion which later became part of Harrison
County and she seems to have been the
daughter of Martin Cook and his wife Elizabeth.
It is not exactly
known when James Moore arrived in Ohio, however,
he was there in 1836, as he married Rebecca in
Harrison County in that year on the 6th of
September and remained there for over ten years
where three of his children were born.
His first child,
Thomas, was born in a place now called
Scio, Ohio, on the 31st day of October of 1838 in
a cabin owned by a Dutchman named Malachai Jolley
who kept a store. They moved later to
Uhrichsville where his father taught school and
near where his mother's parents lived across the
river. His brother Isaac Moore, was born on the
22nd day of June in 1842. They then moved
on the stage road next to Stewart's tavern where
the stages stopped to change horses. His father,
James U. Moore, taught school in a log house,
just a little ways down the road. Their house
which was a hewed log house, no plaster, of two
rooms and an attic, and was situated on one acre
of ground extending from the Road back to
Borling's farm where Thomas went to school a
couple of winters, learning to spell when he was
seven to eight years old. It was during this
time, that his sister Cinthia, was born.
Her exact birth date being the 3rd day of March
1845.
Their father had
bought the house they were living in from Thomas'
uncle Isaac Moore who was living in Canal Dover,
about sixteen miles away. It seems to be about
this time that James was a captain of a militia
company that later went to the Mexican War.
Joe Moore, brother
of his father, was the black sheep of the family.
The family would not recognize him because he
married a lively young woman, named Jane Grubs
who danced, which was so seemingly bold to the
people who were so very religious that after his
marriage the people would have nothing to
do with him. Uncle Joe left the area and no one
knew or cared where he had gone, for he played
the fiddle at balls and parties, and much
horrified the family for it was so sinful. It was
a sin, even to laugh on Sunday, let alone do work
of any kind.
Because of this
belief, his mother Rebecca used to (as did all
the other pious folks), do her cooking on
Saturday and nothing on Sunday - but go to
church. They had no cook stoves. The people
cooked by the fireplace, except for baking pies,
bread, and roasting turkey and chickens,
they had the old-fashioned beehive bake oven out
in the yard. When they needed flour, Thomas
took a sack of wheat, a bushel or so, put one
half on each side of the horse, and took it to
Carnegie's mill. The mill was run by water, its
huge water wheels and broad paddles turned the
old-fashioned stones which ground the corn or
wheat into flour, and for the price of
milling the corn or wheat, a toll was taken out
in the balance of flour.
It was not until
after Uncle Joe Moore had been converted to a
Methodist that the family heard from him. By then
he had gone to Illinois and was now settled in
Collinsville, Madison County, Illinois, where he
carried on blacksmithing, making cow bells as
he'd found there was a great demand for them in
the new country where the stock grazed in the
open. He made them by hammering them in a crude
way, brazing them in the forge fire, and after
making a few, found that everyone wanted them,
but after awhile when his health was
failing, he was no longer able to work at the
forge and so he sent for Thomas' father James,
who had also learned the trade. James and Rebecca
responded to his request and moved their family
from Harrison Co., Ohio to Illinois. This being
in 1847.
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