Moore, Thomas (1815–1898)

Thomas Moore, son of John and Phoebe (Westerfield) Moore, was born in Mercer County, Kentucky, on August 6, 1815. He began studying medicine in 1836 in Glasgow, Kentucky, where he married Eliza J. Dodd on March 9, 1837; they had nine children. In the fall of 1837 Moore began practicing medicine in Allen County, Kentucky. He also practiced in Warre and Simpson counties before moving to Limestone County, Alabama, in 1845. In 1853 he moved to Burnet County, Texas, where he continued to practice until the strain began to impair his health. He abandoned medicine for law in 1857. He was a member of the Secession Convention, where he served on the Committee on Federal Relations and helped to prepare the chairman's address advocating secession from the Union. Moore served as Confederate States receiver during the Civil War. In 1866, during the provisional government of A. J. Hamilton, Moore, his son John, and several others were arrested by military authorities as opponents of Reconstruction; they were taken to Austin and imprisoned for seventy-eight days. No basis for the charges was found, and they were released. In 1867 Moore moved with his family to Waco to practice law. He was a member of the Church of Christ. Moore died in Waco on November 5, 1898.