DAVID T. MOORE, the son of John and Sarah Moore, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, on the 23rd day of September, year unknown,
the family records having been lost. His father was the only son of John Moore, who came to America before the Revolution and was
of Scotch descent. He was a soldier in the battle commonly called Braddock's defeat. After this he married a Miss McNairy, likewise
of Scotch descent, and when the Revolution broke out he joined the patriot ranks of the common soldier to that of a captain before the
close of the war. The father of the subject of this sketch was a soldier for some time in the war of 1812, and after marrying a Miss Snowdon, of Virginia, settled in Wayne County, Ohio. When Daviod was only five or six years old, his parents, with their family of
eleven children, moved to Putnam County, in the western part of Ohio, then an almost unbroken wilderness, passing through a part
of what has long been known as the Black Swamp, and although David was very young he still remembers vividly the corduroy
roads, mud holes, broken wagons, and dead horses, the wild woods and the still wilder Indians. After remaining in Putnam County
about one year, and his father dying, his mother gathered her eleven children and returned to Wayne County, Ohio, where the mother
being unable to provide for so many, David with his sister Malvina found a home in the family of a cousin, John Miller, of Holmes
County, Ohio. Here, at about the age of nine years, he first saw the inside of a school room. He worked on the farm and attended the district school two and a half months each year until the age of sixteen. At this time a favorable opportunity occurring he taught the
district school at $12 per month. After teaching successfully for three months, and drawing $36, the amount of his winter's wages,
and with no one to advise or condemn he tied his whole fortune up in a cotton handkerchief, and with a small copy of the Bible and Buillon's Latin Grammar, and Reader he hung the whole upon a stick across his shoulder and started on foot, one bright summer
morning from his whilom home, and walked twenty-five miles to Hayesville, in Ashland County, where Vermillion Institute was
located. At this time a new world was opened up--the world of Letters heretofore undreamed of. With but $36 in his pocket, without acquaintances or friends, he entered upon the academic course of study, having no idea where the money was to come from, how
much it would take, or what he would do with the knowledge should it ever be obtained. There was a thirst for knowledge that could
not be satiated in any way but in constant study. But the years rolled on in teaching and study, and he had climbed through the
course of study, and must go somewhere to complete the college course. What seemed to be an accident directed his course to
New Athens, in Harrison County, to a college under the direction of the Associate Presbyterians. To this place he started the second
time on foot and travelied over 100 miles, until at the end of the third day, footsore and covered with dust, he arrived at the little out-of-the-way town, the goal of many an anxious hope. Here, as before, he worked, taught and studied until the middle of the senior
year was gained. At this point he stopped and being directed to St. Clairsville, in Belmont County, he obtained a suitable situation
as principal of the Union Schools established in that town. Here he taught, studied and labored, but never returned to complete his collegiate course. He had obtained a fair standing as a Greek, Latin and Hebrew scholar, and could read and hold a limited conversation
in German, French and Spanish languages. The mathematical course had been principally obtained by study while teaching and
reviewing these branches for the purpose of standing the examinations in college. While in St. Clairsville he, in common with thousands
of others, became greatly excited over the political issues of the day. The Whig party was dead, the Democratic party was a non-combatant, and the South was aggressive. His sympathies became enlisted with the thousands struggling to bring our
government back to the first principles engrafted in the Declaration of Independence. He went with the hundreds to Philadelphia
in 1856, and was admitted into that great body as an alternate delegate from Belmont County, Ohio. Here he just gained sight of those
great apostles of human rights and political freedom, Lovejoy, Wilson, Stevens, and a host of other, and heard words that burnt into
his very soul, words never forgotten. He returned home fully determined to study law, and prepare himself for that great battle that
all felt must come sooner or later. He now commenced the study of law in St. Clairsville, but health giving way he determined to
go South, and see for himself if these things could be so. After passing through Kentucky and Tennessee, he landed at Franklin
Springs, a popular little watering-place in the north part of Alabama. Here he taught a few pupils for board, and studied law, but in
the spring of 1857, not liking the Southern character, he came North and located in Taylorville, Illinois, where he continued the study
of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1859, and commenced practice in Taylorville, in partnership with Z. P. Shumway, but the
rebellion coming on Mr. Shumway volunteered for three years leaving the business of the office to the care of his partner. Poor
health and close confinement finally drove him from the practice of his profession and he was forced to take some active
outdoor employment to save life, and obtained employment as travelling special agent of an active insurance company. This
employment he continued until the 19th day of January, 1864. In Taylorville he met among his pupils a Miss Sarah N. Shumway,
daughter of Major Shumway, formerly a native of Massachusetts, and married her on her twentieth birthday. She was an
accomplished lady, having honorably graduated at the Illinois Conference College for Females, located in Jacksonville, Illinois A short
time after their marriage they started for Iowa. He intending to try once more the practice of the law, but circumstances so prevailed as
to cause him to undertake merchandising in the little city of Washington, Iowa, where in about three years, by the rapid decline
in merchandise which followed the close of the war, the young couple found themselves without the possession of a penny. The
insurance business presented itself again and he accepted the general agency of an active western insurance company, which
he followed for about fifteen months. Then taking the little money he had made and the other had saved, they took their little son
Dwight Shumway Moore, born in Washington, Iowa, and started in the spring of 1869, for the still farther west in search of a place
where there were no rich people, but where all live on a social equality. This place was found to be about three miles north of the
present location of York. Here a homestead was taken, a sod house constructed, a well dug, and plowing commenced in June, 1869.
Being settled the farthest west of any one they had no neighbors, and lived for months without seeing any one but the passing
braves going and returning from the hunting grounds. The nearest post office was Seward about thirty-five miles by way of the road.
When there were plows to be sharpened they were taken to the same town, there being no blacksmith shop nearer. The only mill was
at Milford, not far from forty miles the then travelled road. They had but $30 in money and this soon went leaving them like their
neighbors, minus coffee, tea, sugar, meat, vegetables and often flour. They ground wheat in the coffee mill for cakes and used
boiled wheat for dessert, and sometimes dessert was all they had for dinner. But good health continued, pure air and pure water
was abundant; and in a few months the emigrants came in and the deer, antelope, elk and buffalo disappeared. In the spring of 1870
the county was organized, D. T. Moore taking quite an active part in obtaining petitions for that purpose. At the election for county
officers D. T. Moore was elected unanimously to the office of Probate Judge. Through his influence a State road was located and
surveyed from Lincoln through Seward, York and Hamilton Counties, which was not much more than located until both sides of said
road was lined with new homesteaders. In the spring of 1871, he was elected over his competitor by a vote of two to one as a delegate
to the Constitutional Convention to convene at Lincoln in June, of that year. In this convention he took quite an interest, and was constant
in attendance and faithful in the discharge of his duties, and his votes and speeches in that body show that he even then foresaw
the coming storm wherein labor and capital would become (by means of corrupt men) antagonistic forces. In 1872 he attended the
State Republican Convention for the nomination of State officers, and although unexpected and unsolicited he received quite a complimentary vote in that body for Governor. He withdrew his name after one vote was cast. Since then he has taken personally no
active part in the politics of the State, but is wide awake to the political situation and fully believes that "eternal vigilance is the price
of liberty." His politics have been Republican from the first start of the party of 1856. He has been on the political stump and advocated
the cause of the party in every national election, but believes the party lash should never be applied to a man's conscience. He is a
firm advocate of the free school system and hopes to see the day when technology, handicraft and the proper use of tools will be taught
in high school in each county seat in the State. He thinks intemperance is a national crime and will never be subdued until text
books shall be placed in the hands of the children and taught in the common schools defining in full the destruction that alcoholic beverages produce. He has his whole life been a believer in the Christian religion, and is now a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. About five years since he moved from his farm to York and has from that time to the present been engaged in
the practice of law, and has seen York County spring up from a wilderness of prairie into a rich and populous county and York, the
county seat, into what might be called the Athens of Nebraska.
SOURCE: Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska
http://www.kancoll.org/books/andreas_ne/york/york-p4.html#yorkbios2
Who is this family member?