James Moore (1806 - 1881)

Born 14 Feb 1806 in Georgia [uncertain]

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 3 Jan 1881 at age 74 in Holmes County MS

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Biography

James Moore was born on 14 Feb 1806 and died on 3 Jan 1881 according to his relocated headstone. He and his wife were buried in the Methodist Church Cemetery at Rocky Springs in Claiborne County Mississippi. When this community became a ghost town, the markers were moved to the Oddfellows Cemetery in Lexington Holmes County Mississippi on May 11, 1981. Either their son Martin who died at the age of 8 or William Edgar who was at least 21 was the first of the family buried at Rocky Springs during the year 1860. James was the last to be buried at Rocky Springs in 1881. Sara and James may have once lived and married there. James appears in 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 Federal Censuses all in Holmes County Mississippi. He also possibly appears in the 1830 Federal Census in Mississippi. He owned 11 slaves in 1850 and 18 slaves in 1860. Thirteen of his slaves in 1860 were children under 16 years of age. His family in the 1840 census is quite different from the later census records. In 1840 he has a large family of 10 people in Holmes County and no slaves with 1m 5-9, 1m 10-14, 3f under 5, 2f 10-14. James and his wife are aged 30-39. But his only known wife was age 26 in 1840. Also, he appears to have been married for at least 14 years in 1840 because he has 3 children in the age bracket 10-14. Note that 14 years earlier in 1826 his only known wife was only 12 years old. So there are 2 issues in 1840 with his only known wife and his first children. It looks like (from census data) that he married Sarah Norman after 1840 as a second wife. In 1840 his oldest children are 1 male child and 2 females 10 to 14 years old. He also has 3 female children under 5 years old (1 is Amanda), 1 male and 1 female child 5 to 9 (Mary), and one male 10 to 14 years old (William).

In the 1850 and 1860 censuses, Sarah is shown to be born in 1814 and a year later in the 1870 census. In 1850 they have no children older than 15 so his 3 oldest children and 2 of his younger children from the 1840 census (family of 10) died or moved away and he has only 3 children old enough to be alive in the 1840 census. In the 1850 census, the oldest child is Mary born in January 1835 in Mississippi. So he might appear in Mississippi in the 1830 census. But in 1830 there are 7 heads of households named James Moore in Mississippi. Four of these were in Claiborne County, but in all these cases the oldest male is born before 1800. In one of the James Moore families in Claiborne County, there is a male and a female 20-29 and a male 5-9, and a girl under 5. This would be the closest match except that there are also 2 older males 30-39 living with the family and you would expect that one of these would be head of household. Another issue is a missing female child under 5 years old (from the 1840 census). This family of 6 has 1 slave.

Living with the James Moore family in 1850 is James Baldwin born in 1819 in Tennessee working as a brick mason. James’s wife Sallie Norman (1814-1877) came to Mississippi by 1818 when she was 4 years old. We know this because her younger sister Rebecca was born on 4 April 1818 in Mississippi. So James and Sarah had to be married in Mississippi. James consistently reports his birth to be in Georgia up to the 1880 census. Here he reports his birth in Tennessee along with both of his parents. James has a younger sister connected only by DNA named Mary Ann (1811-1880) who in 1850, 1860, and 1870 reports she was born in Tennessee in 1812 five or six years after James was born. Mary in 1880 reports that both of her parents were from North Carolina. From these census records and associations, it would seem likely that James was born in Georgia but moved to Tennessee by 1811 where his sister Mary Ann was born. Maybe in Tennessee, he knew his future father-in-law, Thomas Norman, and James Baldwin the brick mason. James and his father William must have lived in Tennessee for about 14 years until about 1825. In that year his sister Mary Ann had her first child with Thomas Gunter. Little is known about the mother of James and Mary Ann but she was most likely born in South Carolina or Georgia. She may have had the same first name as Mary Ann. In 1826 James’s second sister was born in Calhoun County Alabama after James’s father (William Moore 1783-1848) married Priscilla Roe Gibbs (1804-1881). James at that time is 19 years old and may have moved to Mississippi.

In the 1860 census, we find James’s birth year to be 1806 born in Georgia and his wife Sara to be born in 1814 in Tennessee. Their oldest son William was born in 1839 in Mississippi. In the 1870 census, the James Moore family is living in Durant in Holmes County. This record shows that his wife Sarah b 1815 in Tennessee and James b.1806 in Georgia living with his sons James L b.1850 in Mississippi and Albert b. 1856 in Mississippi living with Charles Reaves age 12 and Zachary Reaves age 8 both born in Mississippi. In the 1880 Census James claims he was born in Tennessee and that both of his parents were from Tennessee. He is living with Albert G Moore his son who claims his father is from Tennessee and correctly claims his mother was born in Mississippi. In the 1880 Census James and Albert are living next door to the Cagle family. Here Sara Cagle b. 1849 (a daughter of Ervin McCellan) has remarried Washington Ammons. Josephus in this census claims that both his parents are from Mississippi. But in 1900 he says his father is from Georgia. So initially James' birth location by his sons Albert and Josephus seem to support the idea that James could have been born in Georgia but moved to Tennessee at an early age. This changes in the 1900 and the 1910 census when Albert claims his father is from South Carolina and his mother is from Mississippi. In the 1910 Census, Josephus claims both parents are from Mississippi. In the 1920 census, Albert claims both of his parents are from Mississippi and Josephus claims his father is from Georgia.

It is interesting that Albert reports that his father was born in South Carolina in the 1900 and 1910 censuses because that is where his DNA great-grandfather, Isham Moore (1750-1809) lived and died. So South Carolina had to be the birthplace of his grandfather William Moore (1783-1848) who died in Winston County Mississippi. James is tied to this family through DNA matches with 5 sisters, namely Mary Ann Moore (1811-1880), Jane V Moore (1827-1880), Sarah Jane Moore (1829-1884), Mary Sarah Moore (1829-1884), and Miranda Roe Moore (1839-1922). James probably had the same mother as Mary Ann. The mother of the other children was Pricilla Roe Gibbs.

Sources

• Pedigree Chart made by Sara Maxwell his great granddaughter