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Pioneer settler's death prematurely announced
On this day in 1842, the Telegraph and Texas Register announced
the death of John Henry Moore. Like the famous announcement of Mark
Twain's death, however, the news was exaggerated; Moore lived for
thirty-eight more years. He was an early settler who was involved in
numerous important events in early Texas. As a member of the Old Three
Hundred, he received a land grant from Stephen F. Austin. He built a
blockhouse called Moore's Fort at the future site of La Grange. He was
an outspoken advocate of Texas independence, and fought against the
Mexicans both in the Texas Revolution and afterward. Moore commanded the
Texans in the battle of Gonzales (October 2, 1835). He was involved in
several campaigns against Indians. It was between the two Mexican
invasions of 1842--in both of which he fought--that the newspaper
announced his death. He was sixty-one when he enlisted with Terry's
Texas Rangers for service in the Civil War; since he was too old to
fight, he was put to selling war bonds. After losing most of his
property, including slaves, in the Civil War, he died in 1880. This
would have given the Telegraph an opportunity to state Moore's
death date correctly, if the paper had not itself died three years
before.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- MOORE, JOHN HENRY
- TELEGRAPH AND TEXAS REGISTER
- OLD THREE HUNDRED
- GONZALES, BATTLE OF
- MEXICAN INVASIONS OF 1842
- EIGHTH TEXAS CAVALRY
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Black Jack Ketchum is captured in New Mexico (1899)
- Davy Crockett born (1786)
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