Godwin Wheeler Moore (1806 - 1880)

Born 7 Nov 1806 in Mulberry Plantation, Hertford, North Carolina

Died 16 May 1880 at age 73 in Maple Grove, North Carolina

Documentation I

Of the nine children born to Godwin Cotton Moore and Julia Wheeler, the first, born October 23, 1833, and most prominent was John Wheeler Moore, author, poet, historian, and Confederate major. Like his father, John Wheeler Moore was educated at the University of North Carolina. On September 28, 1853, he married Ann James Ward (1834-1901) G4, the first graduate of Chowan College and heir to a large fortune. Since his father lived on at Mulberry Grove until 1880, John Wheeler Moore moved into his wife’s home at Maple Lawn. When their house burned down, they built the existing house at Maple Lawn. The story is told in the family that, when the original house at Maple Lawn was destroyed, Ann’s slave girl came running out of the burning building saying that she had saved one of Ann’s wedding presents, a glass jar containing small stuffed birds. Ann, who hated this present, said something like: “You stupid darky.” (The jar, which is at Maple Lawn, is still ugly). The new house must have been comfortably appointed to judge by the parlor, which continues to looks much as it did in the nineteenth century. On the walls still hang portraits of Godwin cotton Moore, Julia Wheeler Moore, John Wheeler Moore, and his wife, Ann Ward. These paintings may have been done by the well known portrait painter, Thomas Sully, whose daughter, Ellen Sully, was the second wife of Col. John Hill Wheeler. Also in the parlor are two beautiful old pianos, one of which has the strings exposed and running vertically. Only one other like it exists presumably and that is in the Smithsonian. John was admitted to the bar in 1855 and had his law offices at Maple Lawn; the law office, which was a separate building, still stands. He was not very active as a lawyer, preferring to write. He authored two novels as well as several poems.(Appendix A contains one poem.) One novel was entitled The Heirs of St. Kilda, A Story of the Southern Past (Raleigh, N.C.: Edwards, Broughton & Co., 1881). Three poems with an introduction were published in Robert A. Riddick’s Musings of a Bachelor; or, The Farmer Poet (Raleigh, N.C.: Raleigh Christian Advocate Print, 1899). He wrote a two-volume History of North Carolina; from the Earliest Discoveries to the Present Time.

Sources

Stanford University The Moore Family Chapter 3 Page 12