ALEXANDER MOORE, the prominent citizen of Buck Horn township, whose biography it is our pleasure to present to our readers, was born in Harrison county, Ohio, December 23, 1821, son of Alexander and Sarah (Smith) Moore. Alexander Moore Sr., was born in Maryland, but came to Ohio with his parents, when very young, settling in Harrison county. He was one of eight children, and learned the millwright and carpenter trade, but following farming principally, and ran a horse-power mill for many years. He and his parents took up land in Ohio, that was wild and unimproved, and here he lived in a log cabin all his days, dying on the first farm taken up of Government land, in that section, aged eighty-five years. His wife died on the same place when about eighty-eight, she being a native of Tennessee. The subject's father on the father's side of the family was Alexander Moore, who married, and spent his last days in Ohio, dying when full of years. The father of our subject was a Justice of the Peace, and an old Andrew Jackson Democrat, and filled the different township offices, and was active in church and other good work at an early day. He helped to build the first church in that part of Ohio, a Methodist house of worship, and his family were members of it to the close of their lives. There is a record that some of the ancestors of Mr. Moore were on the way to join in the war of 1812, but peace was declared before they reached their destination. The father of Mr. Moore started out as a fifer, and his uncle as a drummer.
Our subject remained at home until he was seventeen years old, worked summers, and attended school winters, in the old log temples of learning of that day, which were erected within a bit of clearing. At the age of fourteen he went to learn the cabinet-maker trade, and served three years for his board and clothes. At the age of twenty he commenced work at the lucrative trade of a carpenter, and continued at this for fifteen years.
Our subject was married November 30, 1841 (sic), to Elizabeth P. Johnson, who was born in the same place as was her husband, and was the daughter of Nathan and Jane (Aul) Johnson, who were natives of Maryland, and spent their last days in Ohio; the mother died at the age of thirty-five years. Mr. Moore, of this notice, was one of five children, but one of whom is yet living. The first wife of our subject died where he now lives, aged forty-four years, and left five living of her twelve children. They are as follows: Martin L. has five children; Margaret J. has five children; Amanda has but two little ones, as also has Lizzie; John C. is unmarried. Our subject was married a second time in November 18__, to Mrs. Mary E. (Gregory) Ayers, who was born in Pike county, Illinois, November 23, 1842, and was the daughter of John. J. and Samantha (Barrett) Gregory. He was born in Tennessee, in 1814, and came to Illinois at a very early day, and died in Pike county, aged forty-seven years. His wife also died in the same county, about forty-four years of age. Mrs. Moore's first marriage was November 7, 1858, to Francis M. Ayers, who was born in Ohio, and enlisted in the early part of the war, and died from wounds received at Hartsville, Missouri. He was thirty-five years old when he died, and was a member of Company B, Captain Mathews. She drew a pension from the Government until her marriage. She had three children, one of whom is William A., who has a family of three children.
After his first marriage our subject first followed the carpenter trade until 1856, when he sold his houses and lots and went to Kansas, but the next year he returned to Ohio, and that fall came back to Illinois, and bought eighty acres of land where he now lives. He first built a log house, and then built a permanent dwelling.
Mr. Moore has been a Republican ever since the formation of the party, and always votes that ticket. He was a Free Soiler until 1856. He and his wife attend the Methodist Episcopal Church, where they hold their membership. This large and prosperous family are much respected in the neighborhood.