Jeff Moore (pioneer)

Jeff Moore (pioneer)

Jeff Moore (22 March 1780 – 22 September 1835) was an American pioneer and founder of the town of Russell, Ky. While his pioneering was relatively late in the settlement of the Ohio River Valley area his life exploits make him a memorable if not particularly well known character in the history of the region.

Youth and Early Life

Aside from his birthdate of March 22, 1780 little else is known for fact about his birth and early life. He probably grew up somewhere in the central Pennsylvania farm lands. Known to have been a lifelong illiterate Moore claimed to have heard "wild tales" about the lands to the west he bought a Kentucky Long Rifle and left for what he called his "adventures" sometime in the late 1790's. [The Annals of Northern Kentucky 1800-1850: A Concise Yet Incomplete History 105]

Founding of Russell

After fighting for over a decade in the still ongoing Indian Wars where he claimed to have killed "at least Three Hundred Red-Skins" later retorting "and I counted women as a half, kids only a third and hell-babies was just sport.". [The Annals of Northern Kentucky 1800-1850: A Concise Yet Incomplete History 106] Moore decided to settle down. Finding the Northern Kentucky area to his liking he tried various towns and over a period of five years was run out of nearly fifteen communities over incidents attributed to his hard drinking and extreme, even for the time, Racism. [ [http://history.ky.gov/sub.php?pageid=113&sectionid=3#NA Welcome to the Kentucky Historical Society Web Site ] ]

In early 1823 while traveling through the area that is now Russell, Moore decided upon seeing the area's unique hilly features, that a town built here could be easily fortified and defended against what was his near constant and lifelong fear; "Injun Attack". [ [http://kentuckyhighlands.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=1 Fast Cars ] ] Over the next few months Moore built a large cabin on the highest hill in the area and declared this to be the center of his new town which he subsequently christened Russell-to honor a man he once mistakingly killed in a dispute over "Shine". [The Annals of Northern Kentucky 1800-1850: A Concise Yet Incomplete History 106] After these preparations Moore returned East and gathered what family he could find to return with him and convinced all others possible to join through what was referred to later as a series of "lies, subterfuge and just plain untruths" [The Annals of Northern Kentucky 1800-1850: A Concise Yet Incomplete History 107] about his new community.

Moore eventually returned to his new community in late Spring of 1824 with a group of nearly seventy settlers who with their hard work built Russell into the thriving community it is today. Moore remained in Russell for the rest of his life where he became a valued member of and leader to the town he founded. [ [http://history.ky.gov/sub.php?pageid=113&sectionid=3#NA Welcome to the Kentucky Historical Society Web Site ] ]

Death

Moore died September 22, 1835 after spending five days drifting between a delirious and near comatose state resulting from a severe head injury received September 17th. The most widely accepted explanation of his receiving this injury comes from "The Annals of Northern Kentucky 1800-1850: A Concise Yet Incomplete History"

Concerning the events that lead to the death of Russell town founder Jeff Moore local resident Biddy Harper reported the following that on or around the midnite hour of September 17th she was awakened by what she described as "A ruckus a-coming from around the back of the house" upon going to investigate she reported seeing the following scene "I first saw two men I didn't recognize yelling and carrying on with each other who I surmised from the slur of their speech and seeming little control of their movement were heavily intoxicated. I tried to yell some sense into the two but they were too heavily into the drink to notice me. I gathered from what little speech I could make out the two were fighting over a woman they both wanted to marry. Eventually one man knocked the other to the ground, then he pulled a knife and slashed the man rather deep on the arm yelling "She's mine and don't you forget" then turned to leave seeming satisfied with himself. The other man with his still good arm grabbed a loose fence post and ran up on the other beating him rather severely about the head and then running off into the night"

The "Annals" go onto report that Ms. Harper immediately summoned the town doctor who discovering the victim's identity did all he could to "remedy" the town founder. Eventually the other man was found and identified from his injured arm, he was revealed to be one Thomas Lorry a cousin of Moore and the identity of the woman in dispute was reported as fourteen year old Virginia Godfrey a cousin to both. [The Annals of Northern Kentucky 1800-1850: A Concise Yet Incomplete History 108-109]

Notes

References

*Gooding, Johnathan. "The Annals of Northern Kentucky 1800-1850: A Concise Yet Incomplete History". Originally published 1875
*http://history.ky.gov/sub.php?pageid=113&sectionid=3#NA
*http://kentuckyhighlands.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=1


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Jeff Sheridan — (b. 1948, real name Jeff Mazzio) is an American magician who started his career by specializing in street magic. Sheridan began working in New York City around 1967. He authored the 1977 book, Street Magic, An Illustrated History of Wandering… …   Wikipedia

  • Moore's law — Plot of CPU transistor counts against dates of introduction. Note the logarithmic vertical scale; the line corresponds to exponential growth with transistor count doubling every two years …   Wikipedia

  • Horace B. Carpenter — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Carpenter. Horace B. Carpenter est un acteur, réalisateur et scénariste américain né le 31 janvier 1875 à Grand Rapids, Michigan (États Unis), décédé le 21 mai 1945 à Hollywood (Californie). Sommaire …   Wikipédia en Français

  • performing arts — arts or skills that require public performance, as acting, singing, or dancing. [1945 50] * * * ▪ 2009 Introduction Music Classical.       The last vestiges of the Cold War seemed to thaw for a moment on Feb. 26, 2008, when the unfamiliar strains …   Universalium

  • List of people from Michigan — A list of notable people from the U.S. state of Michigan. Bolding indicates places in Michigan. People from Michigan are sometimes referred to as Michiganders, Michiganians, or more rarely as Michiganites. Actors, entertainers and… …   Wikipedia

  • List of Cornell University alumni — This list of Cornell University alumni includes notable graduates, non graduate former students, and current students of Cornell University, an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York. Alumni are known as Cornellians. Contents 1 Nobel… …   Wikipedia

  • List of That '70s Show episodes — The American Fox sitcom That 70s Show ran 200 episodes and four specials across eight seasons, from August 23, 1998, to May 18, 2006, spanning the years 1976 through the end of 1979. Reruns subsequently air on ABC Family, MTV, CW, NickatNite, and …   Wikipedia

  • List of Cornell University people — Cornellians are persons affiliated with Cornell University, commonly including alumni, current and former faculty members, students, and others. Here follows a list of notable Cornellians.40 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Cornell as… …   Wikipedia

  • List of University of Michigan alumni — There are more than 425,000 living alumni of the University of Michigan. Famous alumni include the father of the iPod, the founders of Sun Microsystems and Google, the father of information theory, the voice of Darth Vader, the first doctor… …   Wikipedia

  • 1958 — This article is about the year 1958. Millennium: 2nd millennium Centuries: 19th century – 20th century – 21st century Decades: 1920s  1930s  1940s  – 1950s –  1960s   …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”