THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
John
Andrew Moore and Rev. John Ferry Moore
(Moore Family, part 5)
Last week we traced some of the
family of
Christopher Columbus Moore (known as “Lum”) and his wife Mary Elizabeth
Swanson
Moore. You will recall that this account
of the Moore
family began with early settlers to Union County,
Albert and Sarah
McClure Moore. These meager accounts in
no way cover all the spreading branches of the Moore descendants.
This entry centers on two, John Andrew, the
fourth child of Christopher Columbus Moore, and a son of John Andrew,
the Rev.
John Ferry Moore. Perhaps these five views of the Moore family will prove a springboard
for
further research for descendants who might not have known some of the
facts
given in these articles about these hardy settlers to our mountain
region of North Georgia.
John Andrew Moore was born on December 25, 1871, a fine
Christmas present for his father and mother, Christopher Columbus Moore
and
Elizabeth Swanson Moore. At the time of
the new baby’s birth, he had older siblings James, Hanibal and Lavada
to
welcome his birth. Later, four more
children
were born to Lum and Mary Elizabeth:
Lillie, Lola, George and Arthur.
Focusing on John Andrew Moore, he met
and married shortly after his eighteenth birthday (date of marriage January 5, 1890)
the very
young not quite fifteen-year old, Emily Estalee Teem of Rabun County, Georgia.
To this couple were born Forrest Columbus (b.
May 7, 1891), Gretchen Manassas (b. March 26, 1894), Gaither Grayson
(b. April
17, 1897), Noel Arvis (b. February 21,
1901), Hazel Prudence (June 1, 1902), John Ferry (b. September 14,
1905),
Doctor Garland (b. October 1, 1907), Prince Hodson (b. December 7,
1912), and
Lady Rhea (b. May 19, 1918). It was a
happy day for John Andrew and Emily Teem Moore when they moved by wagon
from Rabun
County, Georgia back to Towns County in 1919 where John A. could be
near his
aging parents at Woods Grove. For
twenty-two years they were happy farming and entering into the life of
the
“home” community at Woods Grove. But
progress (as the world terms it) moved in, and John Andrew Moore had to
sell
his acreage for the building of Lake Chatuge
as the Tennessee
Valley Authority opened a series of dams and power plants for the
production of
electricity.
John Andrew and Emily Teem Moore
relocated to Habersham County,
Georgia. There John died June 20, 1950 and Emily died February 12, 1966. They were interred in the Hazel Creek
Baptist Church Cemetery,
in Habersham
County.
Their sixth of nine children was John
Ferry Moore, born September
14, 1905 in Rabun
County, Georgia. He married Esther Tatham of Towns County
on November 2, 1929. She was born April 16, 1909. They
lived happily in Towns
County
until 1941 when their land in the Woods Grove community was purchased
by
Tennessee Valley Authority for the building of Lake Chatuge. They relocated to a good farm purchased in Habersham County, Georgia.
Children born to John Ferry Moore and
Esther Tatham Moore were son Lynn Tatham Moore (1930), Barbara Jeane
Moore
(1934) and Frances Esther Moore (1947).
Then in 1948, after much soul-searching, John Ferry Moore
surrendered to
the call to gospel ministry and was ordained a Baptist preacher. Lower
Hightower Baptist Church
in Towns
County
was his very first church to serve as pastor which he accepted in June,
1949. The next ten years found him
faithfully
serving churches in the mountains in Towns, Rabun, Stephens and
Habersham
counties. He was known as a good and
solid Bible preacher and one who cooperated in the work of Baptist
associations
in each of the counties where churches he pastored were located.
In 1959 he accepted the call to a
church in Coffee County,
Georgia. Then in 1966 he and Ester moved back north to
Hall County, Georgia where he accepted
the
pastorate of Springway
Baptist Church. The
last three years of his ministry before
retirement were spent back in south Georgia, Randolph County,
at Vilulah
Baptist Church.
In retirement, he and Esther
moved back to Habersham
County to live His previous record as a good preacher put
him in line for engagements in several churches as pulpit supply and
interim
pastor. One of his very happy
appointments was back at Lower
Hightower Baptist Church
in Towns
County
in 1981, the very first church he pastored
when he began his long career as a Baptist preacher in 1949.
<>
This five-part view of the Moore
family of Union, Towns and surrounding counties barely scratches the
surface of
the contributions this family and its descendants have made in the
building up
and strengthening of the way of life that has evolved since the first
Moore
cabins were erected in these mountains prior to 1840.
For over 170 years Moore
family members have either remained
here or gone out to other places to make a difference where they took
up
residence and plied their work.
c2011 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published Mar.
3, 2011
in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
Updated June 3, 2018
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