"History of Northeast Missouri" Edited by Walter Williams,
Published by The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago Illinois 1913 Three Volumes
page 1343
GILBERT BEEBEE MOORE. The career of Gilbert B. MOORE, of Audrain county, furnishes a striking example of the desirable result to be accomplished through the pursuits of honesty, integrity and perserverence. Mr. MOORE being the architect of his own fortunes in a remarkable degree. Left fatherless when only three years of age by the bullet of a Confederate soldier during the Civil war. Mr. MOORE spent his boyhood in hard unremitting toil, nor was he given the advantages that higher education, capital or influential friends could bring. However, in him as in scores of other men, the necessity to care for himself developed natural abilities that might otherwise have remained dormant, and his courageous, energetic labors have caused him to forge his way to the front rank of agriculturists of his section of the county.
Merimon MOORE, the grandfather of Gilbert B. MOORE, was born in 1797 in North Carolina, near the Virginia state line, there owning a plantation and keeping many slaves. About 1830, he came to Missouri and entered about one thousand acres of land, four miles from Ashley, in Pike county, and there his death occurred in 1862. He was a prominent Democrat of his day and was ordained a preacher in the Primitive Baptist faith, and assisted in erecting the old Siloam church. Before leaving his native state, Mr. MOORE was married to Permelia FARMER, and she died at the home place in Pike County, Missouri, when she was sixty-seven years of age, in 1879, having been the mother of four children: Osbourn Jefferson, Austin C., Ozias O., and Mary A., all of whom spent their lives in Missouri.
Osbourn Jefferson MOORE, son of Merimon and father of Gilbert B. MOORE, was born July 15, 1832. As a young man he was engaged in farming and teaching, and also studied surveying, and was a faithful and industrious worker. He stood among his fellow citizens, and was elected to the office of Justice of the Peace, but at the outbreak of the Civil war enlisted in the Confederate army under General Price, and met his death in battle Janurary 13, 1863. In politics he was a Democrat. He was married to Miss Louisa BRANSTETTER, who was born in 1840 in Pike county, Missouri, daughter of Frederick BRANSTETTER. Prior to this, she had been married to E. P. MORRIS, of Vandalia; she still survives. Mr. and Mrs MOORE had two children: Gilbert Beebee; and Sallie P. J., who married John WILSON and lives in Portland, Maine.
Gilbert Beebee MOORE was born near Ashley, Pike county, Missouri, March 14, 1860, and was reared on the home farm. At the age of sixteen years he went to live with his Uncle, T. B. BRANSTETTER, in Audrain county, about eight miles south of Vandalia, and about four years later purchased eighty acres of land six miles south of the city. Since this time he has carried on farming, although he has also devoted his attention to other pursuits. In 1889 he located in Vandalia and secured a position teaming for the La Crosse Lumber company, and subsewquently for the Crawford company, and then spent eleven years in the ice businesss in partnership with Charley BLAIN. He was made deputy constable and subsequently Justice of the Peace in Vandalia, but in 1904 returned to his farm, where he has since resided, being the owner of 212 acres of finely cultivated land. He carries on general farming and also devotes much attention to stock raising, and his ventures have proven uniformly succes!
sful, his property being one of the valuable ones in Audrain county. He has also risen to prominence in public life, and is at this time the Democratic nominee for the position of county Judge.
On March 23, 1881, Mr. MOORE was united in marriage with Miss Ruanna CROW, who was born February 20, 1856 in Pike county, Missouri, daughter of Jacob and Catherine (SHAW) CROW, old and honored settlers of Pike county, when they came from Kentucky. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. MOORE, namely: Carl Bertram, who married (first) Neva LAUGHLIN, and has one child, Gilbert J., and (second) Ida SIDWELL; and Leland, who married Carrola SIDWELL. Both sons reside in Audrain county, where they have valuable homes and well-cultivated tracts of land. Mr. MOORE and his family attend the Primitive Baptist Church, and have numerous friends in church, social and business life in the county.
John R.