The Moore Family Diaries

by

Kenneth Cole

Heritage Farm was the home of Ruth and Harold Frazier for sixty years. In July of 1993, I visited the farm to interview Mr. and Mrs. Frazier about our mutual family history. Both of the Fraziers were in their eighties and dealing with age related health problems. The following story is a compilation of family history which I have learned as a direct result of that interview.

I remember Ruth and Harold Frazier as two of my teachers while I was growing up in McKinney, Texas. The first time I remember meeting Ruth Frazier was in the fall of 1965 in her 8^th grade history class at L. A. Scott Junior High, on the campus of what had earlier been Boyd High School and what was later to become and continues to be Caldwell Elementary School. One of my fondest memories of Mrs. Frazier revolves around a time when she called me back into her room after history class. After discussing what I am sure was very important problem, long since forgotten by both of us, she informed me, "I know your mother and your father!"

I quipped back, "I bet you don't know my grandparents!"

She replied, "I know all of your grandparents, Add and Pearl Wilson, and Harrington and Thelma Cole!" I am sure that whatever mischief I was involved in at the time ended immediately after our quick little conversation.

Her story of that conversation was what began my July 1993 interview of the Fraziers. Ruth fondly reminded me about my surprised reaction to her reply. The verbal exchange had obviously left an impression on her, too. We all laughed as she told me about the startled look on my face at her quick retort to my obviously snide remark. Since I currently teach 8^th grade mathematics at Faubion Middle School in McKinney, I now fully appreciate the irony of her witty reply.

When I attended McKinney High School a few years later, I am sure that I gave Mr. Frazier no such problems. Even so, both he and Mrs. Frazier had to suffer through a year with me as a student. You see, Harold Frazier was my high school biology teacher.

I also knew Heritage Farm fairly well. Heritage Farm is approximately 5 miles (8 kilometers) north-northwest of McKinney the county seat of Collin County, Texas. I often visited the adjoining cemeteries at the southern edge of their farm where some of my ancestors and some of Ruth Frazier's ancestors are buried. On opposite sides of the little country road which passes by Heritage Farm are the rustic old pioneer family cemeteries of the Wilson and the Moore Clans. Ruth had descended directly from the Moore family to which I am distantly kin. Since my mother was a Wilson, I had descended directly from the Wilson family. Most of the families who came in the late 1840's and early 1850's to what was, at the time newly opened land were related in one way or another.

By the summer of 1993, I had become interested in finding my roots. My mother, Evelyn Wilson Cole and I began discussing our family history on a regular basis. During one of our discussions, she reminded me that Ruth probably knew much more about the old settlers than she did. So, I called Ruth. Mrs. Frazier gladly invited me to come up to Heritage Farm and hear her story. I hoped to gain some knowledge of our ancestry from an interview with her. Little did I know the plethora of information which I would obtain as a direct result of that meeting.

Even though I was very new at performing a genealogical interview, I was aware of the tools used by genealogists to insure success, but in all honesty, I had very little practice and was not very good. Fortunately, I did take a voice activated recorder which I had recently purchased. So, I recorded the entire interview. Transcribing that four year old interview remains on my "To Do List."

During that interview, the Fraziers told me about the existence of the diaries of Ruth's maternal grandfather, Charles B. Moore and those of his immediate family. Ruth had in her possession transcribed copies of many of the family's diaries, as well as all of the surviving original diaries of C. B. Moore. After the interview, she allowed me to photocopy the transcribed diaries. There is a strange story about how these transcribed copies came to be.

After the death of Uncle Gus Wilson in 1935, Ruth found the diaries while organizing things at the old Moore family home. The Moore home place belonged to Uncle Gus when he died. I am not sure how long it had been since someone had lived at the Moore homeplace itself, but I think it might had been as long as twenty years. I am sure that the place was in disrepair, but knowing Mr. and Mrs. Frazier as I do, I am sure that that condition didn't last long after their arrival. By the way, everybody referred to A.M. Wilson as "Uncle Gus." He was, however, the true uncle of my grandfather, Add G. Wilson as well as many other Wilsons. He was also one of the very last surviving early pioneers of McKinney. Uncle Gus came with his family as an infant in 1848 and died at the age of 90 in 1935.

The word of the diaries existence must have spread. Ruth was asked to loan them to a college. She did in fact loan the Moore family's diaries to a dean of the teacher's college in Denton, Texas which is now The University of North Texas. The purpose of the loan was their transcription by college staff. The dean promised that the diaries would be returned to her upon the completion of the task. Mrs. Frazier made it clear to the dean that she would only loan them to the college if he would guarantee their safe return.

However, they were not returned to her as promised. Ruth later contacted the college, but the dean was no longer there. No one at the college knew who she was. Her claim to the diaries was quickly dismissed. Ruth was very disappointed with her treatment by the college. She never recovered all of the diaries. Luckily, she did recover her grandfather's diaries.

After the decades which it took for her to regain her grandfather's diaries, she only received them after she had contacted a local politician, who in turn, asked a local legislator to contact the school on her behalf. Soon after the legislator talked to school officials, Ruth received a call from the college to come and pick up her grandfather's diaries. However, she was not allowed to reclaim the other diaries, because, she was told, she was not a direct descendent of these family members. She recalled that when she did go to the school to reclaim the diaries, a teary-eyed, broken-hearted librarian reluctantly handed over the diaries. She understood exactly how the librarian felt. She told me that she still felt sad for the librarian. She said that giving up those diaries must have been like losing a friend.

Ruth explained to me how she found the diaries in the first place. After the death of Uncle Gus, she rescued the diaries which she found in storage in the Moore's old barn. My grandfather's uncle, "Uncle Gus" Wilson, was the last of the original pioneers to live on the Wilson family home place across the road from Heritage Farm. Uncle Gus had become rather wealthy during his life. He also became well known as an early philanthropist of Collin County. Uncle Gus had bought the Moore homestead and left it to Ruth upon his death in 1935. She was the only surviving descendant of Charles Moore. Ruth and Harold were living in Farwell, Texas on the New Mexico-Texas border when Uncle Gus died. The Fraziers returned to the Moore homestead as Uncle Gus had hoped. They renamed the Moore homestead Heritage Farm and lived there for the rest of their lives. Harold died in August of 1994 and Ruth died on December 11, 1996.

After my interview with the Fraziers, Ruth allowed me to take the transcribed copies of the diaries and photocopy them. The diaries have proven to be a wealth of information on the lives of not only Charles Moore, but also, his sister Elvira Moore, and their brother Henry Moore as well as the multitudes of neighbors and relatives in both Texas and Tennessee about whom they wrote. These diaries offer a glimpse into what the lives of all of the early pioneers of this area of Texas must have been like. Although these transcribed diaries end at 1875, Charles Moore kept diaries until at least 1893. I know that because Ruth told me on that July day in 1993 that she and Harold started off each day by reading Charles's entry for the same day 100 years earlier. They were quite amused by this practice. In the interview, Harold read to me the 100 year old entry with which they had begun that day.

In one of those serendipitous moments for which genealogists are so fond, I came into possession a transcription of Elvira's diary less than a month after the interview. It came into my possession during the semi-annual Wilson Family Reunion. One of the Wilson descendants had brought a copy of the diary to the reunion. She told me that she knew very little about the author or how she came to possess it. She did tell me that it had been passed down to her by an older relative who told her that it was the diary of an old maid school teacher who had taught many of the pioneer children of the Wilson Clan.

This story, I believe, was in many ways, true, because Elvira did teach school to many of the area youngsters in both Bedford County before leaving Tennessee and for a short time in Collin County after arriving Texas. It was also true that Elvira Moore never married. However, no one previously had linked the diary to the Moore Family. It was obvious to me that it had been transcribed by the college on probably the same typewriter, and was in all likelihood a copy of one of the diaries which were denied to Ruth Frazier.

After reading Elvira's diary, I discovered that in it she described the same journey to Texas which her brother Charles had described in his diary. His diary was the one which I had just acquired from the Fraziers weeks earlier. I immediately made two photocopies of Elvira's diary, one which I kept for myself and one which I took to the Fraziers. To my surprise, the Fraziers were not surprised about my discovery. It was as if they expected it.

Both Charles Moore's 1866 diary and Elvira Moore's 1866 diary, relate the same October–November journey by horse and wagon of the Moore family from Bedford County, Tennessee to Collin County, Texas. They both describe how the travelers endured the same hardships. They both tell how the train crossed the paths of the same people and at times, give their impressions of those people. Both tell about where they made camp at night and the hospitality of those who lived nearby.

Most importantly perhaps, they discuss having the same dreams and fears about what awaited the family in Texas. All of the dates, people and places match up. The difference, of course, is in the perspective of the person who wrote about the experience.

Charles and his brother Henry had come to what later became Collin County during the decade before the Civil war and acquired land. They had followed the Wilson Clan who had arrived in the area in the late 1840's. Most of the Wilson Clan lived in Sumner County, Tennessee before moving to Texas. The oldest Wilson brother, George Wilson had visited the area in 1845 while he was in the U. S. Army during the Mexican-American War. After that war, George returned to Tennessee and gathered his family together to come to Texas. In 1848, he led a movement of a great many of the Wilson Clan to Texas. Among the families who came together in 1848 for the journey, were his parents Addison and Ann Wilson and their many children. Ann Wilson was Charles Moore's aunt. Ann and Addison Wilson came with all of their children, only the two youngest were still in childhood. Of those two, Thomas B. Wilson who was not quite 10 upon arrival was the oldest. He later wrote articles for the McKinney Courier-Gazette about these experiences. The youngest of the Wilson children was A. M. "Gus" Wilson whom we discussed earlier.

Thomas B. Wilson founded the Wilson Title Company which is the oldest business in still in existence in McKinney. George settled near Wilson's Station which was later renamed Princeton, Texas. Addison and Ann settled with most of the family at the Wilson home place across from the land which was to become the Frazier's home, Heritage Farm, near what was to become Chambersville, Texas.

From the time they first came to Texas in the 1850's, Charles and Henry Moore had planned on making a new home there for all of the Moore Clan. After looking for land as far south as Waco, Charles and Henry bought the land just north of the homestead of the family of their aunt, Ann Moore Wilson. In 1866 after the Civil War, Charles and Henry returned to Tennessee to transport the rest of the family including their father Ziza Moore and their sister Elvira Moore. Unfortunately, their younger brother Josephus Moore did not survive the war to make the journey.

The Civil War caused many hardships for the Moores, including divided loyalties. Josephus the youngest of the Moores endured the most: combat, injuries, capture, imprisonment and in the end, a slow agonizing death. Charles, whose loyalties went with the Union, imposed upon himself a form of self exile in Jerseyville, Illinois. He lived there with a former neighbor, J. C. Barr, who had moved to Illinois from Tennessee. In their writings before the war, both Elvira and Charles were very much opposed to slavery. In all of the diaries, no words are written in support of that disgusting institution.

On the other hand, Henry was swept up with rebel fever after hearing a recruitment speech made by James W. Throckmorton on the square in McKinney. He joined the Confederate unit which Throckmorton was organizing at the time. Henry served out the war in Arkansas with a unit of the Confederate Calvary. He was able to look out for their sister Sabina Moore Rucker who lived in Arkansas during the war. This too, is recorded in the diaries.

Josephus had been too young to come with Charles and Henry to Texas in the 1850's. He continued to live with his father Ziza Moore and his sister Elvira Moore in Bedford County, Tennessee. When the Civil War broke out, Josephus joined a unit of the Confederacy there. It wasn't long until he saw action. Josephus' diary of this time is part of the transcribed diaries which the Fraziers loaned to me. Josephus was captured by the North at the Battle of Fort Donaldson and was held as a prisoner of war in Illinois. Charles came to his rescue and obtained his release after Josephus had signed an oath of allegiance to the United States. Josephus never recovered his health and died soon after the end of the war. Sadly, he never made it to Texas.

Henry Moore later became a famous early citizen of Collin County due in large part to his work with astronomy. Henry owned a telescope with which he became very proficient. The Wilson boys would visit the Moore farm on starry summer nights. Henry and the boys would stay up all night gazing into the heavens with his telescope. In the 1880's he discovered a Super Nova. His discovery of the star is registered with the U. S. Naval Observatory. About five years ago there was an article in the McKinney Courier-Gazette about a historian from the Observatory inquiring about where the telescope is located today. He wanted to see that it was placed in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D. C. Unfortunately, no one knows what happened to the telescope.

Although both Elvira and Charles document the same October 1866 journey in their diaries, the differing points of view presented by the male and female members of such a tortuous journey make it seem more real and easy to understand.

I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I do. I plan on posting most of the 1866 diaries by early June. It is my presumption that these diaries are important to the local history of Collin County, Texas. That is why I am posting them on the Internet. They rightfully should continue to be the property of the Frazier family. I hope that the University of North Texas is preserving the other diaries. If anyone knows where these diaries are today, please contact me at kcole@isource.net and tell me. I would love to view them and aid in their preservation.

This story was revised on 13 April 1997 by the author, Kenneth Cole.

Document source note: Most of the above information came from an interview with Ruth and Harold Frazier in July of 1993 conducted and recorded by Kenneth Cole and the diaries of the Moore family.

Kenneth Cole
kcole@isource.net

January 13, 1997
Last updated: 25 October 1997

Celebrating the Sesquicentennial of McKinney
1848•••1998