Sacramento Valley Biographies

JAMES MOORE

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, April 2009.

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


                                          
        Into whatever portion of the world the Scotch people have gone they
have exemplified in their lives the traits of honor, integrity and thrift
that gave their home land a prestige surpassed by none. In no respect have
the members of the Moore family proved themselves alien from their race.
After many genera-tions had lived and labored in Scotland where they had
been established by Anglo-Saxon progenitors, in the early history of our
country the spirit of emigration induced members to emigrate and settle in
Pennsylvania, where for succeeding generations the name flourished. In
Brownsville, Lancaster county, in September, 1809 occurred the birth of
James Moore, whose name needs no introduction to the residents of
California, where he has been so largely identi-fied with public growth and
prosperity. He was a son of Philip Moore, also a native of Lancaster county,
whose marriage with Mary Parker united his fortunes with those of an old and
honored southern family, like himself boasting Scotch ancestry. She was born
in 1777, the youngest in a family of nine children, whose father, John
Parker, was the first resident of Parkers-burg, which town was named for
him. He was a loyal and patriotic citizen and served valiantly in the
Revolutionary war, in which he received a wound that caused his death six
months later. As early as 1814 the Moores and Parkers became pioneer farmers
of Zanesville, Ohio, where the death of Philip Moore eventually occurred.

          In a family of nine children James Moore was the seventh in order
of birth. Until he was fifteen years old he remained in Zanesville, where he
attended the common schools in pursuit of an education. Inheriting the
self-reliance and independent characteristic of his Scotch ancestry, he then
set out in the world prepared to earn his own way. He went first to
Kentucky, and later to Platte county, Mo., where he followed the trade of
the carpenter, finally entering the work of manufacturing fanning mills and
also engaged as a mill-wright. In the historic year of 1849 he prepared to
cross the plains and seek his fortune in the newly discovered Eldorado. With
his brother, Parker, he outfitted with ox-teams and set out over the Santa
Fe route for California, via Santa Fe and Tucson, a journey made
exceptionally perilous by the dread disease of cholera. At Gila Bend the
party built flatboats to carry their provisions and outfit to Yuma, Mr.
Moore being the first man that ever navigated this river. Later they sold
these boats to Lieut. Cave J. Couts, and came on overland to Los Angeles and
up the coast to Northern Mines in Eldorado county. On Estrella creek, in San
Luis Obispo county, occurred the first death in the party, being that of Mr.
Moore's brother-in-law, Alfred Grayson. In Eldorado county his brother
Parker also passed away of the disease which they had escaped on their way
to California. Mr. Moore continued his journey to Sacramento county, where
he engaged in the stock business on the Rancho del Paso, now the famous J.
B. Higgin ranch, driving cattle from southern California wherewith to begin
his work.

         Like many others of the early pioneers of the state, Mr. Moore was
compelled to remain in California for three years without his family. In
1852 he was able to return east via the Isthmus of Panama and the same year
brought his wife and children across the plains with mule-teams. He started
from Missouri with a band of ten thousand one hundred sheep, with
thirty-five hired men to assist in the labor of driving them across the
plains. It was found necessary to winter them in Salt Lake, and after having
made arrangements for their care and protection he brought his family on to
Rancho del Paso. During the excessive cold weather of 1852 and 1853 he lost
all but eighteen hundred of his sheep, and these he sold in the spring of
1853 in California for $12.50 per head, this being the first drove of
American sheep that was ever brought to California. In the fall of 1852 he
became interested in the raising and training of thoroughbred horses, owning
two which he took to San Francisco, Ada Byron and Sir Bulwer, the name of
Ada Byron being changed to Lola Montes when she won the four-mile race
against Wake-up-Jake, owned by Ike Blanton. She was the dam of the finest
thoroughbreds of today, being exceeded in quality by but one dam, and that
Marion, owned by Theodore Winters. He made a success of this work, as he had
done in all others that he had undertaken, and from this time on began the
accumulation of a large amount of property.

        In 1854 Mr. Moore became a resident of Yolo county, where his name
today is a household word through the influence of his efforts for growth
and development. One mile above Cacheville, on Cache creek, he located in
what was then known as Eden, and now as the Gardens Nursery, and began the
work of an Orchardist and farmer. He also owned a farm of twelve hundred
acres six miles from Woodland, where he afterwards built the largest and
finest residence which the county then afforded. Mr. Moore's most valuable
work in Yolo county was in the line of irrigation, his sobriquet being today
"the Father of Irrigation." Through his two hundred and fifty acres he
started and completed the first five-mile irrigating ditch, and later
extended his water ditch on to the plains, it being known as the Moore
ditch. Afterward he was employed by the state to build the canal to drain
the Yolo basin, and also to build a ditch on the north side of Cache creek
to Cacheville, which enterprises proved eminently successful. However, this
being at the time of the Civil war he was paid in greenbacks and as they so
greatly depreciated in value he found himself very greatly the loser
financially through his work. He attained the age of seventy-four years and
seven months, his death occurring April 15, 1884, at his home six miles
southwest of Woodland, where he is now buried. He left behind him a record
of good works, an unselfish manhood and a citizenship which was productive
of the best results. He was always deeply interested in all movements
pertaining to the general advancement of the county, materially, morally or
educationally, and was accounted a factor in each line of endeavor. As a
Democrat politically he sought to advance the principles he endorsed,
although never a partisan in the narrow sense of the word. All in all he was
a man much esteemed by all who knew= him, appreciated for his many native
qualities of character, the manhood he cultivated, and the honesty and
integrity of his purpose in life.

          Mr. Moore was survived by his wife, whom he married in Louisville,
Ky. In maidenhood she was Mary Dupuy Grayson, a native of Kentucky and a
daughter of George Grayson. He was a descendant of an old and distinguished
family of Virginia, in which state Grayson county received its name through
the prominence of this family. He married Sallie Ellington, a daughter of
Thomas and Mary Ellington, the father an Englishman who served in the war of
1812, and the mother a native of North Carolina, from which state she came
with Daniel Boone when he settled in Kentucky. Mr. Grayson removed to
Kentucky, where he became a prominent settler, Grayson county of that state
receiving its name from him. Later he removed to Platte county, Mo., where
he engaged as a farmer and stockman until his death. Mrs. Moore made her
home in Woodland until her death, which occurred October 12, 1898. Mr. and
Mrs. Moore were the parents of the following children: Sallie, who married
James A. Douglass and died in Woodland; Susie Blanche, the wife of John
Wolfskill, a prominent citizen of Los Angeles county; Martha, wife of Thomas
H. Washington, of Berkeley, Cal.; Robert E., of Woodland; and Georgia, the
wife of Louis Walker, of Woodland.

"History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the
Sacramento Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, The Chapman Publishing Company,
Chicago, 1906, Pages 437-438.