Alameda County Biographies

CAPT. JOHN MILTON MOORE

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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


  
	This worthy gentleman is the son of John and Elizabeth (Whitesides) Moore, 
and grandson of Captain James Moore, in after life a pioneer of Illinois, having 
been born in that State as long ago as the year 1750.  He was born July 15, 
1810, in the old block-house on the Moore homestead, about a mile and a half 
from the site of the present town of Waterloo, Monroe County, Illinois, where he 
received a meager early education, but the best the schools of that date could 
afford, and resided amid the scenes incidental to the early settlement of the 
far West, until the year 1831, when he made his first business speculation, his 
brother James uniting his fortunes with him in a flat boat expedition to New 
Orleans, with a cargo of hogs and corn, the trip down the river occupying a 
month.  Having realized handsomely on the venture, they returned home, and the 
following spring found them preparing to meet the dangers of the celebrated 
Black Hawk War.  At this time our subject was mustered into the service in what 
was  known as the odd battalion of the Illinois Militia, called into requisition 
by the Governor of the State, in which he was appointed color-bearer, April 28, 
1832, and remained with the corps until it was mustered out.  He then enlisted 
in the company of Captain Snyder as a private in the ranks, and served until 
this company was also mustered out of service.  On his return to the more 
peaceful avocations of life, at the close of the Black Hawk War in the autumn of 
1832, our subject was married to Miss Lucretia Stone, of Massachusetts, and a 
portion of the homestead tract being set apart to him, as was the custom in 
those days, he at once entered upon the quiet and pastoral life of a tiller of 
the soil.  In the following year, in company with his brother James and his 
uncles, Enoch, and Milton Moore, Sr., and who had each a contract for the 
surveying and running of township and section lines of Government lands 
throughout the northern part of the State, joined the surveying expedition.  
This arduous undertaking accomplished, the party returned to their respective 
homes, while Captain Moore settled down to his former avocation of farming, and 
making occasional trips to New Orleans with produce.  Upon the breaking out of 
the Mexican War, in 1846, our subject, in connection with Hon. J. E. O�Melveny, 
William Starkey, and Austin and Thomas Jones, raised a company of ninety-four, 
rank and file, and were mustered into service for the term of the duration of 
the war, on July 15, 1847, at the city of Alton, under the name of Company G, of 
the Sixth Regiment of Illinois Infantry, under command of Colonel Collins.  Mr. 
Moore was chosen Captain of the company.  We have not the space to follow our 
subject through the different scenes of the Mexican War; suffice it to say he 
was always found where duty called him, and upon the close of hostilities 
returned to his home in Illinois.  In the spring of 1853 the natural inclination 
of Captain Moore for adventure not being sated, and having, in common with many 
others, become inoculated, so to speak, by the California fever, he commenced 
the necessary preparations for a long farewell to his native State � in all 
probability a life-long one.  Disposing of his landed and personal property, and 
investing in stock, at that time valuable in the new State of California, about 
March 15, 1853, he, in company with his brother, William W. Moore, and several 
other families, bade adieu to their birthplace, relatives, and friends, and 
started on their long and arduous journey across the plains.  After a five 
months� trip he arrived in Sacramento, where, leaving his family, he made 
something of a tour through the State, and finally settled in the beautiful 
valley of San Jose, on the shores of the bay of San Francisco, and where he 
resided for nearly a quarter of a century.  In the latter part of 1876 Captain 
Moore removed to San Francisco, where, after ministering to his sick brother, 
William W. Moore, with such acts and words of love and kindness as he best knew 
how, and having seen all that was mortal of his loved brother in their last 
resting-place �neath the spreading oaks of San Lorenzo Cemetery, he cast about 
him for a new location, deciding upon the city of Oakland as his future home.  
There were born to the Captain and his wife four children, two of whom died in 
infancy, in Illinois.  Two, who accompanied him to California, the eldest, a 
daughter, died in the spring-time of her life, while the remaining son was 
called away just as he had completed his legal studies, and had the world before 
him
 
History of Alameda County, California�, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883, p. 946-947