Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/461

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MOORE


MOORE


one of the most influential friends of the proprie- taries. In 1757 his removal from office was re- quested by the assembly, which body he then attacked in the Pennsylvania Gazette of Oct. 19, 1857, and a warrant was issued for liis arrest. He was imprisoned in Philadelphia from January until August, 1758, when he went through a form of trial and was declared purged of every charge by the governor, and in 1760 by Jthe Crown. During the Revolutionary war he was a staunch defender of the Crown, and in June, 1775, he was visited by a committee from Cliester county — headed by Antliony Wayne, his inveterate enemy — who forced from him a signed denial of his principles, which evidence satisfied the commit- tee, but its latent sarcasm is quite apparent. While the army was at Valley Forge, Col. Cle- ment Biddle and otlier officers were quartered at Moore Hall, and a committee of congress met there in 1778. He died at Moore Hall, Chester county. Pa., May 30, 1783.

MOORE, William, statesman, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1734 ; son of Robert Moore, who immigrated to America from the Isle of Man. William was a merchant in Philadelphia, and at the outbreak of the Revolution supported the patriot cause. On Dec. 11, 1776, he was ap- pointed a member of the committee of safety, and on March 13, 1777, the committee appointed him on the newly organized board of war. He was elected a delegate to the Continental congress in 1778, but declined to serve. He became a mem- ber of the supreme executive council of Pennsyl- vania in 1779, was elected its vice-president, and upon the resignation of its president, Joseph Reed, he succeeded to the office and was pro- claimed captain-general and commander-in-chief in and over the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. His term of office expired in October, 1782, and he was judge of the high court of errors and ap- peals, 1783-84, and a member of the state assem- bly in 1784. He was a director of the State Bank of Pennsylvania, and in July, 1784, was elected chairman of a meeting to originate meas- ures for placing the public debt upon a perma- nent foundation. He was a trustee of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, 1784-89. He was mar- ried to Sarah, daughter of Tiiomas Lloyd, and his daughter Elizabeth was married to the Mar- quis de Marbois, who acted for Napoleon in the transfer of Louisiana to the United States in 1803. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., July 24, 1793.

MOORE, William Robert, representative, was born in Huntsville, Ala., March 28, 1830; son of Robert Cleveland and Mary Franklin ( Lingo w) Moore, and a descendant of Charles Moore, who emigrated from England and settled in Virginia in 1650. His father died in 1830, and-he removed with his mother to Beech Grove, Tenn., where


she married John Mills Watkins in 1836. He at- tended the district schools, worked on his step- father's farm, and in 1846 became a clerk in a re- tail store at Beech Grove. He was employed in a wholesale dry-goods house in Nashville, Tenn., 1847-53, and contributed the first $500 saved from his salary to the endowment fund of Cumberland university, Lebanon, Tenn., to be used for the free instruction of young men. He engaged in the wholesale dry goods business in New York city, 1856-59, and in Memphis, Tenn., after 1859. He was married in February, 1878, to Charlotte Haywood, daughter of George H. and Margaret (Thompson) Blood. He opposed secession and was a Republican representative from the tenth Tennessee district in the 47th congress, 1881-83. He was the author of the joint resolution givmg congress the power to enforce the obligation of contracts made by any of the states ; was in favor of the gold standard, and was opposed to the re- pudiation of any part of the state debt. He was unanimously presented as candidate for Vice- President of the United States by the delegates from Mississippi and Tennessee at the Republican national convention at Chicago in June, 1888, but withdrew his name, and declined also the nomination of governor of Tennessee in 1890.

MOORE, Willis Luther, meteorologist, was born in Scranton, Pa., Jan. 18, 1856; son of Luther T. and Lucy E. (Babcock) Moore. His parents removed to Bingliamton, N.Y., and in 1864 he joined his father, who was a civilian officer in the constructive corps of the army sta- tioned at City Point, Va., and he sold newspapers to the soldiers in the field. He attended the pub- lic schools of Bingliamton ; became a composi- tor and reporter of the Bingliamton Republican^ and later a reporter on the Burlington, Iowa, Haxvkeye. He was married in 1886 to Mary Lozier. He entered the U.S. signal corps in 1876, and in 1894, as a result of an open competitive examination, he was appointed professor of me- teorology and was assigned to the charge of the U.S. weather station at Chicago. In 1895 he was promoted chief of the U.S. weather bureau. He was elected a member of the Wasliington Acad- emy of Science, a fellow of the American Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the board of managers of the National Geographic society. He is the author of Moore's Meteorological Almanac and Weather Ouide (1901), and of many contributions on me- teorological topics to scientific publications.

MOORE, Zephaniah Swift, educator, was born at Palmer, Mass., Nov. 20, 1770; son of Judah and Mary Moore. His father removed to Wil- mington, Vt., in 1778, and he worked on the farm until 1788. He attended a preparatory school at Bennington, Vt., 1788-89, and was graduated from