This article was originally written by Helen Bradford.
“Often as I sit in church on Sunday mornings, I notice the beautiful stainedglass windows, especially those along the south side of the sanctuary, where Mrs. P.M. Moore’s memorial window is to be found. I have often thought that we should know something about those individuals and groups who sacrificed to provide all that beauty for us to enjoy. Finally, after all those years, I am beginning a project to learn who these people were, and a little about their private lives, as well as about their contributions to the church.
“Carl Ellis used to talk about the “saints” of our church—the people who made more than ordinary contributions to its welfare. I believe that, if we had to select a group of former members to be designated as “saints,” the name Melissa Moore would be among them. On several occasions, our UMW (United Methodist Women) has learned about women who have contributed, on the national level, to the organization of UMW. Why not study a woman who contributed on the local level to organizations which were eventually merged with other groups to become the UMW. So, today we will celebrate Mrs. Moore, whose photograph you will see in this little booklet, The Story of a Kansas Pioneer, copywrite 1924, which she authored--I’ll be telling you about that, too.
“As I have said, Melissa Moore’s name is preserved in the very structure of our church—on one of the memorial stained-glass windows that was installed, or perhaps preserved; I have heard that some of the windows were in the church before the church renovation of 1912-1913, at which time she was still living. In fact, she was one of the Ladies Aid members who worked so diligently in those years to raise money for the renovation.
“So, I’d like to tell you a little about Melissa Genett Anderson Moore, or Mrs. Phillip Marshall Moore, or Mrs. P.M. Moore (18451935). To my grandmother, Anne Latter, she was simply “Mrs. Moore.” In the early years of the century, even women who were well acquainted called each other “Mrs.” So they were “Mrs. Latter” and “Mrs. Moore,” to each other and to the other women who attended Eureka’s Methodist Church and worked in the women’s organizations there. Other “Mrs. Moore’s” lived in Eureka at that time, but Mrs. Melissa Moore was the “Mrs. Moore” of my grandmother’s vocabulary.
“She was the wife of Philip Moore, who had established his son, “Charlie” Moore in the Moore Mortgage company that operated in Eureka from 1887 until 1970. Charles (Charlie) Moore married May Morgan in 1890, and helped run the company during his lifetime. His brother Roy A. Moore, was associated with the company some of those years. When Charlie died in 1945, his son Morgan Moore took over. He had married Lucy Rockhill in 1922, and she took over the reins when Morgan died in 1967. Since Morgan and Lucy had no children, there are no surviving members of that family in this area. Lucy died in 1984, and her nephew and heir, Kenneth Rockhill, died in 1991. At some point in time the Moore’s gained possession of the entire business block which we called the Moore Block, which had been built as the Collins Block back in 1885, and which was razed to make way for the new Thriftway (now G&W) parking lot.
“In telling about Melissa Moore’s life, I will also be describing her as one of Kansas’ most interesting pioneer women, and describing some of the early Kansas scene as it appeared to these women. Melissa Anderson came to territorial Kansas in 1857, when she was twelve years of age, first to Coffey County, then Woodson, and finally to Greenwood County in 1883. Thus, her experience with Kansas began when Kansas was still a wilderness territory. The pioneers of all eastern Kansas counties suffered many of the same hardships; and although the Moore’s arrived in Eureka in 1883, more than a decade after the first arrivals, they play an important role in the development of Eureka and Greenwood County.
“The decade of the 1880s was, generally speaking, a time of development, expansion and building. Hopes ran high, especially after the coming of the first railroad in 1879. Everyone wanted to borrow money to build and expand in some fashion. Many of the old stone structures still standing along Main Street were built at that time, including the Greenwood Hotel and the Moore Block, first known as the Collins Block. P.M. Moore’s Mortgage and Loan Company did a really “land office” business (was really a?)—lending farmers and businessmen money for all the expansion and growth of the county. Later, in the 1890s, when times were harder, some of the borrowers had trouble repaying their loans, and looked on the mortgage companies as their enemies. The Moore’s took a hand in the formation of the first Building and Loan companies that were formed during the first years of the century. Charlie Moore helped organize the first building and loan association.
“Later, these organization became Saving and Loan associations, and now often just “banks” as we have seen in recent years. However, the mortgage companies were influential in the history of our area, including the Moore Mortgage Co., which later, I believe, was called the Moore Abstract Co. I believe the Title Co., 408 N. Main, (no longer there) is a kind of lineal descendant of the Moore Mortgage Company. According to its advertising, the Title Company was established in 1876, before the Moore’s came in 1883, so it appears that Moore did not start the business.
“A search through old Eureka Herald papers tells us that in 1876, Nye and Seidle had a real estate office. This company could have been the “ancestor” of the Moore Mortgage Company. The business was acquired in 1887 by Philip M. Moore. He was soon joined by his son C.E. (Charlie) Moore. In 1911, Moore’s office was at 207 N. Main Street. In 1921 came the acquisition of the business of Henry F. Rizer, son of G.M. Rizer who built the house Henry Francis lived in, on the southwest corner of Mulberry and 1st Street. In 1925, the D.C. Johnson and J.M. Smyth abstracting firm was acquired, and the office moved to 312 N. Main, north of the Greenwood Hotel. In 1944 the Greenwood Abstracting Company was purchased and for a number of years the Moore firm was the only abstracting business in Greenwood County. During the Greenwood County oil boom, the firm employed 25 workers.
“In August of 1952 Andy Hibbard started Hibbard Abstract. Andy later sold the business to Harold Henderson. In 1970, C.A. Long, of Dodge City, took over the Moore firm. When C.A. Long retired, he sold the business to Harold Henderson and he renamed the two firms “The Title Co,” (located at 3rd and Main, on the southwest corner).”
