Part 2 of 2 Submitted by Mike Pitko “We have strayed a long way from the story of Melissa Moore. During all this business activity, however, Melissa and Philip Moore were dedicated members of the Eureka Methodist Episcopal Church. When they came to Eureka, he was 48 and she was 38 years of age. At first, they lived on a farm near Eureka. Soon after their arrival, it was announced that their son Charles was enrolled as a student at Baker University. When he graduated in 1887, the Moore’s purchased the office in Eureka. Presumably, they moved to Eureka at that time. At one time, according to an old church record, the Moore’s lived at Fourth and Elm, possibly in the house that was directly east of the NAPA store today, (no longer there). Let’s now look back at the experiences of Melissa and Philip on the frontier of Eastern Kansas, before they came to Eureka.
“She was born May 20, 1845, in Randolph County, Indiana to Watson and Beulah Anderson. In 1857 she moved to Kansas, to a Coffey County farm, not far from LeRoy. The Anderson group that came from Indiana included a young man, the son of a small-town merchant. When the young man was teased about Harriet, Melissa’s older sister, he said he’d rather have “the little one,” meaning Melissa, who was then only twelve years of age. The group came to the present site of Kansas City by way of the Missouri River. There they were reunited with Melissa’s father and uncle, who had gone on ahead to prepare their Kansas home. They met the families with two yoke of oxen and an ox wagon. The older travelers, including Melissa, walked the hundred miles to the Neosho Valley, since the small children and the household goods occupied the wagon.
“While in the new territory preparing the way for his family, Melissa’s father had gone to Missouri to buy the oxen and wagon, for all the timber for improvements had to be hauled from the Neosho River three miles away. Then the uncle had gone back to Indiana for the two families, leaving Melissa’s father to get the timber cut and the logs hauled for a house. The neighbors helped with the house raising, but work went slowly because of the “ague” (an illness marked by chills, fever and sweating); nearly everybody on the frontier suffered from that ailment. When the families arrived, the cabin was still not completed, and they lived first in a tent and then with some neighbors. Soon the cabin was finished and the families moved in, making most of their furniture from packing cases and split logs. They cooked at the mud-chinked fireplace. At first fifteen occupied the little cabin; then the uncle’s family moved out, leaving Melissa’s family of eight.
“Many days, Melissa remembered later, they had only bread to eat, and coffee, without cream or sugar. The second year was easier, even though the dry season caused the garden and the potato patch to wither and die. This year, they had cows, at least. Le-Roy now had a saw mill, and they could have a floor in the cabin.
“Melissa walked the five miles to LeRoy more than once to get her father a plug of tobacco.
“Melissa recalled that when the second winter found the children without shoes, her mother found a way to supply them. All the men wore boots, which they would discard when the feet wore out. She ripped up the old boot tops, soaked them soft, and pounded them out flat. Then she made every child a pair of shoes, using a last (a mechanical form shaped like a human foot) which she made herself, and using wooden pegs to hold the shoes together. The children had shoes that winter, while some of the neighbor children went barefoot.
“The young man who had traveled with them from Indiana, Philip Marshall Moore, had settled near the Andersons. In 1859, when Melissa was 14 and he was 24, they became engaged. In that same year, Melissa’s family moved to another claim, in Allen County, between Iola and Humboldt, and Philip gave Melissa a year in which to find another or to decide to accept his proposal. After the year had passed, and Melissa had found no one she liked better than Philip, they were married, in 1860, when she was 15 years old.
“The wedding took place August 12, 1860, and the young couple established their claim, which was situated in the timber along the Neosho River in the northeast part of Woodson County. This claim was two and a half miles from Neosho Falls. As a later writer put it, “Bravely and courageously they faced the times of the early days in Kansas—when all material was brought to the new country in the farm wagon and where luxuries were unknown and actual necessities were not too plentiful.”
“The young pioneers believed in education; it was through their efforts that the first schoolhouse was built on their section, and it was one of the first in Woodson County. It was built by subscription, and it was known as the Phil Moore schoolhouse. School was maintained during the week days and religious services were conducted almost every Sabbath. All denominations were welcome.
“After the morning services, neighbors often went home with others for Sunday dinner, and the hospitable home of the Moore’s often found large numbers of neighbors there. “It was in this way that the early settlers became acquainted and developed the wonderful spirit of the pioneers of the state,” Mrs. Moore wrote later.
“In 1861, Kansas became a free state, the Civil War began, and Melissa’s first child, Viola, was born. Phil Moore went to fight for the North, with a local company. They served all winter without pay or uniform. There was much more conflict in the area where they lived between southern and northern sympathizers than ever took place in Greenwood County. Many Oklahoma Indians who were northern sympathizers were moved to the Le-Roy area during the war, and they were neighbors to the Moore’s. Melissa’s father lost his health during his war service and before he died, he moved his family to Woodson County near the Moore’s.
“During the war, the Osage Indians, who took the side of the North, lived south of the Moore’s. They were a great protection to them against the murderous bands who infested the border south of them. The Osage insisted that when an Indian shot a man and cut off his head, he was really dead.
“The Moore’s lived on their claim for 23 years. Their oldest children, Viola, Charles, Effie and Asa, were all born in their log home. Pearl died as an infant. Arthur was born in 1878 in Greenwood County. Viola married, but died at the age of 18.
“Melissa thought the grasshoppers first visited them in the 1860s—she did not remember the exact year. She remembered how the sun dimmed, one afternoon, with the low flying insects. Before the settlers could think, the grasshoppers were devouring everything green. Then, after they had eaten everything in sight, they flew away. On their second visit, in 1774, she thought, the insects stayed longer. First, they stripped the orchard of all foliage. Later, they destroyed two plantings of crops, and a third planting was so late that the frost got it. Those were hard times, but Melissa also remembered being often contented, and enjoying the few conveniences they had. Especially she enjoyed her 1869 sewing machine, which she shared with all her neighbors. It was small and had to be fastened to the table with clamps.
“When son Charles was seven years old, his father took him to town and ordered a tailor-made suit: coat, vest, and long trousers. He also was fitted with some red-topped boots. But the boots did not last long. He had seen men oil their boots, so of course his must be oiled. Taking a cup of coon oil, he began the task, pouring the oil on them and holding them in the fire. Suddenly Melissa heard the oil sputtering and frying, and the boots were burned up.
“In 1876 the Moore’s went over near the Missouri border to visit a brother of Phil Moore. They saw a new house that had wire screen on the windows and doors. Phil Moore examined the house carefully and soon after they got home, their house was the wonder of the neighborhood, all screened in. It did not seem possible that flies could be kept out. What a pest they used to be. In the evenings the ceilings would be black with them, and in the early mornings such a buzzing as they would make! There was no napping after they began. Whenever we began to set the table, someone had to take a brush to keep them off. But the fly had been conquered. If one gets into the house today, it is so lonely it cannot sing, but sits ready for the swatter.
“The Moore’s moved to Greenwood County in 1883. Their son Arthur died that year and is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery. Their youngest son, Roy, was born on the farm about one mile from Eureka, and son Charles was soon a student at the Methodist Baker University.
“The Moore family came to Eureka during the pastorate of the Reverend H.J. Coker (1883-1884), and immediately identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church. Later, Mrs. Moore remembered extensive repairs to the church in 1883. At that time, the interior of the stone church, which had not been completely finished in 1879, was now completed according to the original plans. The tower was finished and a bell procured. The Eureka Herald editor thought that the new 1,000-pound bell reminded the people, “Now is the time for salvation.” Times were better in the 1880s than they had been in the 1870s, and one Sunday in late August of 1883, the Methodists raised $1,980, enough to liquidate the church debt and leave a balance in the treasury.
“In the 1880s, the Moore Abstract Company seemed to prosper. In 1893, C.E. Moore, Attorney at Law and Abstracter, advertised that he had a complete set of abstract books of Greenwood County. His office was then opposite the northeast corner of the court house block.
“Meanwhile the Moore’s had become leaders in the Methodist Church. We know that Melissa was active in the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society, for we read that the group met with Mrs. P.M. Moore on Friday, August 18, 1883 at 3 o’clock.
“Another Eureka Herald item, this one of 1894, tells us of another organization dear to Melissa Moore’s heart. The Children’s Missionary Band, specifically the Band of Hope, which was organized by Mrs. Moore, gave an Ice Cream Social in the court house yard on the afternoon of Saturday, May 5, 1894.
“From some of the old papers preserved in the Methodist Church library, we know that in 1912, Mrs. Moore was the teacher of the Naomi Sunday School Class, and names of 20 members were listed.
“Also, in 1912, C.A. or Charlie Moore served on the executive committee to look after construction of the extensive remodeling to the church that was about to begin in that year. Melissa’s husband, Philip M. Moore, had been an invalid since an illness in 1901. He lived until 1920, after nearly twenty years of invalidism, which he was said to have endured with great patience.
“In 1924, Melissa Moore published a little book, The Story of a Kansas Pioneer, telling of her early days in Kansas. She tells one story of her childhood that illustrates her early religious faith: “When I was a small child, I fully believed I could ask God for anything and he would give it to me. I had lost my knife, so I asked him to help me find it. I hunted for a while in the grass without results. Finally, I prayed in great earnestness with tears in my eyes. I got up and went directly to my knife—I can see it yet, yes, a white handle in the grass.”
“This little incident, she said, was the beginning of a faith in God which had never been diminished. At another point in the book, Melissa expressed her faith more fully: “Since we came to Kansas in 1857, we have seen many changes— there have been many joys as well as the many sorrows. Many burdens have been too heavy for human strength, but we early learned to cast our care on the One who cares for us— Our Great Burden Bearer.”
“In 1928, when she became too feeble to do for herself, Melissa went to Augusta to make her home with her daughter, Mrs. Effie Swegle. She often said she didn’t believe in living in one place with your church home at another, so she placed her church letter in the Augusta Methodist Church and was faithful in Church and Sunday School as long as her health would permit.
“When Melissa died in 1935, her obituary summarized her interests: “Mother Moore, as she was called, had been a member of the M.E. Church since early childhood, for more than three quarters of a century, and was especially interested in the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society. She helped organize the first Missionary Society of Eureka and served as its president for twenty years.
“Mrs. Moore was the last member of her family to go. Two of her brothers had been Methodist ministers in the Southern Methodist Conference, and another brother had been a noted surgeon of San Francisco.
“Helen Bradford ended this article with the conclusion of Melissa’s little autobiography: And surely, we have lived in the greatest age the world has ever known. (Remember this was 1923) My grandfather cut his wheat with a sickle, my father cut his with a cradle, my husband had a McCormick reaper. What is used now, I do not know, for it has been forty years since I lived on a farm or saw a field of wheat harvested. Instead of the ox, we have the automobile. Doubtless our grandchildren will think that is too slow. They will ride in airships. Instead of shearing the sheep. Carding the wool, spinning yarn, weaving cloth and then making clothes, we can buy our clothes ready to wear. We have gone from the tallow candle to the electric light. Our grandmothers had no washboards and rubbed their clothes with their hands. We have the electric washing machine. We once considered it wonderful to have the little melodeon. Today we sit in our homes and enjoy concerts from far and near through the invention of the radio.
“The next time you notice the name Mrs. P.M. Moore on the window in the south part of the Methodist Church sanctuary you will know a little more about the life and experiences of a remarkable woman.”
