Search billions of records on Ancestry.com
   

Rock County, Wisconsin

Biographies

"Ambrose Moore"

AMBROSE MOORE, the fourth child of Phila (WRIGHT) MOORE and her husband William
Moore, was born in the town of Durham, Greene County, New York on March 1, 1815. He was a boy who always made the best of his opportunities. He was a boy who devoted his leisure moments in thoroughly learning the various sciences, with the result that in many instances would today make ashamed many college bred young men and women who had far greater learning opportunities. Ambrose MOORE was a man that needed only the knowledge that an advanced education gives to have placed him among the leaders of the great movements that engross the minds of our statesmen and philanthropists. As it was, the man stood foremost among his associates and commanded the respect and admiration of all his acquaintances.
When he was twenty-one years old in 1836, Ambrose moved with his uncle Ezra WRIGHT to
Wisconsin, traveling all the way from Greene County, New York to Rock County, Wisconsin with an ox team. Mr. MOORE selected a farm in Magnolia Township near Evansville, Wisconsin (at that time called "The Grove") and his uncle selected one at Beaver Dam, in Dodge County, Wisconsin.
Mr. MOORE served twice in the war for the Union. At its beginning, he enlisted in the 3rd
Minnesota Volunteers, in which he served for about one year, when his company was taken prisoner at Hurfreesboro, Tennessee. Being paroled, Ambrose was sent back to Minnesota to fight the Indians. There he was discharged for physical disability, caused by incipient cataract.
Before the war, Mr. MOORE had rented his farm in Wisconsin and moved with his family to
Winnebago, Minnesota, near which place he preempted another far. On that farm there stood a church known as "The Busy Church." Selling this farm, he returned to his farm in Wisconsin, when he again enlisted (with his eldest son) in the 42nd Wisconsin Volunteers, serving as Corporal until the close of the war.
Mr. MOORE made another pioneering venture. This time he took his son Milton MOORE and
went to Kansas, where he located his son upon a farm and returned to his home in Wisconsin where he lived until his death, which occurred March 21, 1877. His loss was keenly felt by all who knew him, being regarded in all the enterprises of the town where he so long had made his home, as their leader, and as one whose integrity was without blemish, whose unselfishness as a neighbor and friend was almost without parallel. His patriotism could not be questioned, as he and his son, whom he took with him in the army, were not included within the limits of age, and although his permanent physical disability was contracted during his service, and the fine residence he had built for the home of his family was destroyed by fire while he was away at the front, he never applied for a pension. At the time of his death, he was engaged in making extensive preparations for the breeding of fine stock. Ambrose Moore is buried at Maple Grove Cemetery, West Magnolia, Wisconsin.
His actions in life were guided by Christian convictions, but he never was connected with any
church organizations. His restless, intrepid nature made him a good instance of that class of heroic men who pioneered the great West and paved the way for the millions who now make it their home.
Ambrose MOORE was married twice. In 1840 he married Lucy Ann PUTNAM, by whom he
had four children, namely:
  • Milton MOORE, who married Elizabeth NORMAN
  • John MOORE
  • Phila MOORE
  • Marie MOORE who married Albert DILLREE
 
In 1857 Mrs. Moore died, and about one year later, Ambrose married Sarah C. Cole, by whom he had nine children:
 
  • Belle MOORE, who first married Henry CASFORD, and who second married C. W. BROOKS
  • Amelia MOORE, who married James D. HARVEY
  • Adelaide MOORE
  • Elizabeth MOORE, who married F. S. WOOD
  • William MOORE, who married Alice FOX
  • Effie MOORE, who married William CARLSON
  • Charles E. MOORE, who married Emma CAMPBELL
  • Maude MOORE, who married Harvey WOOD
  • Clara L. MOORE
 
A photograph of Ambrose MOORE can be found in the book "There Stands Old Rock" by Thomas Walterman (on the back cover and on p. 296).
 
Courtesy of Donald Moore

This page last updated October 26, 2002
 
©2002 WIBiographies-Rock County
 
Comments? Suggestions? Submissions?
E-mail the Rock County Coordinator, Lori Niemuth