| 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 County,
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.
Thomas' Uncle 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 County, Ohio to Illinois. This
being in 1847.
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