Moores were early settlers

Valentine Darnall was the first settler in Livingston County and the Fairbury area in the Fall of 1829. Darnall settled on what is now called Indian Creek, about three miles south of Fairbury.

In 1832, William McDowell and his five sons settled on Indian Creek about four miles north of Fairbury. Also, in 1832, Franklin Oliver decided to settle about three miles south of Chatsworth.

Another early settler in the Fairbury area was Joseph Moore. He and his family arrived in the Fall of 1831. Joseph built a log cabin on Indian Creek south of Fairbury, which later became Indian Grove Township.

The story of the Moore family began with the birth of Jonathan J. Moore Jr. in 1787 in North Carolina. Jonathan J. Moore married Sarah Peterson in 1806 in North Carolina. Jonathan was eighteen, and Sarah was seventeen years old when they married. Jonathan and Sarah had seventeen children. The Jonathan Moore family moved to Overton County, Tennessee. This county is about 100 miles east of Nashville and 25 miles south of the Kentucky border.

One of Jonathan and Sarah Moore's sons was Joseph Moore. He was born in 1812 in North Carolina before the family moved to Overton County. In 1829, when Joseph Moore was seventeen, he married twenty-one-year-old Nancy Ann "Anna" Travis in Overton County, Tennessee.

In August of 1831, Richard Martin Moore, the only child of Joseph and Anna Moore, was born in Overton County. In October of 1831, when infant son Richard M. Moore was just two months old, the Joseph Moore family decided to emigrate from Overton to Indian Grove Township. Joseph Moore walked the 450 miles from Overton to the Fairbury area. His wife, Anna Moore, carried their two-month-old infant son to Illinois while she rode their horse.

Back then, suitable land was defined as having water and trees. Every early settler in the Fairbury area settled on Indian Creek or the Vermilion River. Joseph Moore staked a land claim along Indian Creek and erected a log cabin. Joseph lived in this log cabin until he died in 1851 at the age of 39. Joseph Moore was buried in Cooper Cemetery. This cemetery is about eight miles southwest of Fairbury. Anna Moore died in 1880 at the age of 72. She was buried with her husband in Cooper Cemetery.

Another son of Jonathan and Sarah Moore was Richard Glen Moore. He was born in 1810 in North Carolina before the family moved to Overton County. In 1828, Richard G. Moore married Perlina Phillips. Richard and Perlina were 18 years of age when they married in Overton County. Richard and Perlina Moore had ten children.

The Richard G. Moore family moved from Overton County to Panther Creek in McLean County in 1830. Two years later, in April 1832, the family moved to a 160-acre farm in Section 29 of Indian Grove Township south of Fairbury. Also, in April of 1832, the Black Hawk War began. During this five-month-long war, Richard G. Moore served as a teamster. Richard hauled provisions from Ottawa and Peru to the U.S. forces fighting against Sauk Chief Blackhawk. This war ended in October 1832, and all Native Americans were forced to leave Illinois.

In 1833, after the Black Hawk War had ended, Richard G. Moore visited Chicago. Richard found that Chicago only had six log structures that served as stores. Richard G. Moore died in 1893 at the age of 83, and Perlina Moore died in 1899 at the age of 89. Both Richard and Perlina Moore were buried in Cooper Cemetery.

Isam Moore, another son of Jonathan and Sarah Moore, moved from Overton County to a farm in Section 21 in Indian Grove Township in 1834. Isam Moore was born in 1818 in North Carolina. In 1840, Isam Moore married Mary Ann "Polly" Spence. She was born in Kentucky and was the daughter of James Spence II (1797-1881) and Susannah Ristone Call (1803-1881). Isam was 21, and Polly was 15 years of age when they married in Livingston County. Isam and Polly Moore had four children. In Indian Grove Township, Isam Moore held the offices of Justice of the Peace, Constable, School Trustee, Assessor, and Collector.

Isam Moore died in 1893 at the age of 80. Polly Moore passed away in 1901 at the age of 77. Both Isam and Polly Moore were buried in Cooper Cemetery.

In August of 1937, descendants of the Moore and Travis families held a reunion at Marsh Park in Fairbury. One hundred fifty descendants of these two families attended the reunion. The group recounted that Joseph Moore and his wife, Anna Travis, were the first settlers in what is now Indian Grove Township in the Fall of 1831. Reunion attendees noted that all the early settlers chose their homes to be in the large grove of trees by Indian Creek south of Fairbury because everyone knew the prairies would never be good for anything except pasture land.

The two oldest attendees at the 1937 family reunion were the grandchildren of Joseph and Anna Moore. Hannah Moore, the daughter of Richard and Perlina Moore, was 90 years old when she attended the reunion. Hannah Moore married Robert Spence. Joseph and Anna Moore's second grandchild who participated in the reunion was 85-year-old Jonathan Glen Moore, the son of Richard and Perlina Moore. Hannah and Jonathan B. Moore died just a few years after the 1937 family reunion.

The first settlers in the Fairbury area were primarily three families. Valentine Darnall was the first settler, and he settled in 1829 in what is now Belle Prairie Township. In 1831, the Joseph Moore family settled in Indian Grove Township. The third family to settle in the Fairbury area was the William McDowell family, which settled in Avoca Township north of Fairbury in 1832. Many descendants of these three families still live in the Fairbury area.

(Dale Maley's weekly history feature on Fairbury News is sponsored by Antiques & Uniques of Fairbury and Dr. Charlene Aaron)