My Family in the Civil War, Part Seven: Edward and Susannah Moore, Beginnings

This is the seventh in a series on my Civil War ancestors.

Edward Windsor and Susannah Bryant Moore

On my recent genealogy road trip, I was primarily researching family on my father's side. However, I had recently discovered the existence of the Civil War pension file of Susannah Moore. She applied for a mother's pension, the first I'd ever heard of. I put this one at the top of my list to secure at the National Archives.

Index to Civil War Pension Files for Bartlett C. Moore, see source 1 below

What I learned from this file, along with my other research, is a story I have to tell before I can even begin to work on my father's material.

This is the story of Edward and Susannah Bryant Moore, my great great great great grandparents. It concerns mostly the last half of their lives, but I'll outline what I know about their earlier years today.

Edward Windsor Moore was born October 17th 1802 in Guilford County, North Carolina to Edward W. and Pheriba Moore, the sixth of nine known children.  At this time, the Indiana Territory had recently been carved out of the Northwest Territory. 

Sometime before 1812 (when the father Edward appears on a militia list in Harrison County, Indiana Territory) the Moore family moved, along with several other North Carolina families, to the area that would later be called Orange County, Indiana.  They lived for some time at Moore Fort, which was a log block house surrounded by a deep ditch. Just inside the ditch was a row of posts set into the ground pointing out over the ditch.  There were still some Indians in the area, and sometimes early settlers would have to shelter at this and other forts nearby. 

Edward W. Moore, the father, received a land grant in 1816 for 80 acres. He and Pheriba lived there until they sold the property in 1833. They moved to Illinois for a time where some of their other children had gone, then on to Parke County, Indiana, where they lived out the remainder of their lives. Their story is for another day though.

Edward Windsor Moore married Susannah Bryant on September 24th, 1823. He was almost 21, and she was 19. She was born July 25th, 1804, the daughter of William Bryant and Barbara Alspaugh. The Bryants came to Orange County from Lincoln County, Kentucky. 

Like any diligent genealogist, I'd found all the census records for the Moores. I recorded the names and birthdates for all their 13 children from a family Bible transcript. I knew Edward was a Methodist minister in Orleans, Indiana. I also knew that he and Susannah had lost some sons in the Civil War. I thought I had a pretty good picture of them in my mind's eye. A nice old preacher and his wife, probably fairly well off living out their days in town in Orleans after farming in their early years.

What I found in the pension file painted a far different picture.

Next post I will discuss Edward and Susanna's life before the Civil War.

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Sources:
1. National Archives and Records Administration. U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000. Original data: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. T288, 546 rolls.
2. "History of Lawrence, Orange and Washington Counties Indiana"