FAMILY HISTORY

Joseph Addison Moore

Joseph Addison (Joe) Moore was a prominent citizen in Athens, Alabama.  Joe married Susan Elizabeth Bailes, who was born in Athens in 1841.  They were married on January 06, 1859 just two years before the outbreak of the Civil War.  With Abraham Lincoln wining the election for President in late 1860, North Carolina immediately seceded from the Union.  Alabama and most the southern stated followed in early 1861 with the formation of the Confederate States of America (CSA).  Joseph Addison Moore served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, enlisting as a Sergeant in Malone’s 9th Calvary.  Col. John C. Malone, Jr. may have been a relative on his wife’s or mother’s side of her family.  Malone’s 9th Calvary Regiment served under Brigadier General John A. Wharton’s Division of Major General Joseph Wheeler, which saw much action at Chickamauga and many other battles.  Joe must have served with distinction, as he was promoted to First Sergeant and since coming back home from the war in 1865; he was elected County Clerk, a much-esteemed position at that time. 

Joseph was listed again in Limestone County Census with his wife Susan Elizabeth Bailes along with six of his younger siblings; Sarah, Asa W., Mary P., Ann J., Julia A., and Kate E.  Another child, Eliza was not listed so we assume she had died between 1850 and 1860.  Joe was consistently reelected since many court documents attest to his status also as a County Commissioner and the position of Circuit Clerk where he served until the time of this death.  He was successful and somewhat affluent being financially able to house and support his younger brothers and sisters after their parents died.  Joe was 43 when his first wife Susan Elizabeth died in 1874 at the age of 32 when Luke was not yet 4 years old.  Sometime between 1874 and 1880, Joe remarried.  Not much is known about his second wife, Jennie.  As his brothers and sisters came of age and were living own their own, Joe and Jennie none the less continued to manage a large household. 

The Census of 1880 listed the Joe and Jennie Moore household that included five (5) sons, and a Tom Bridgforth age 15 and servants.  We don’t know what relationship young Tom had with the Moore family, maybe the son of Jennie’s.  Due to her age at the time, she could have been a widow and married Joe out of mutual necessity.  Many women lost their husbands during the war.  Tom was listed as being in school along with the Moore boys.  Also listed in the 1880 Census of the household of Joe and Jennie Moore was a black servant named Francis Mason, age 60 and her child or grandchild, Ella, age 10.  The five boys of Joe and Jennie are listed in the 1880 Census by name and (age); Walter Pettus Moore (13), Stith Malone Moore (12), Luke Pryor Moore (10), Emmett Hoffman Moore (8) and Lawrence W. Moore (1).  The youngest, Lawrence would have been the child of Joe and Jennie since Susan had died six years earlier.  Although slavery was no longer legal in Alabama after the Civil War ended in 1865, the size of Joe’s household and his affluence afforded the family the need for a servant.  There must have been servants’ quarters, since this servant was undoubtedly a former slave, it is unlikely that they all lived under the same roof.     

Joe’s younger brother, Asa W. Moore, nine years his junior, also served with distinction in the Civil War.  It is recorded that Asa enlisted as a private in one of the Infantry Divisions from Alabama and advanced to the rank of Sergeant, “participating in many of the principal battles, being wounded in front of Richmond”.  Asa W. Moore is listed in several publications, i.e.;  The History of Limestone County and Goodspeed’s History of Giles County.  After the war he taught school and then went into the dry goods business with his father in law.   

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