Son of William Green Moore and Minerva Price.
He was an Assessor.

~

MOORE, JOHN LEE
Born in Parker County in 1862 when there was little there but Indians and wild beasts, John Lee Moore has had his share of the dangers and hardships incident to pioneer life.
His father, W. G. Moore, was of Irish-German lineage, born in Alabama in 1820. His first marriage was to Miss Minerva Price, born in Alabama in 1820 of German descent. He was twice married afterward and became the father of 21 children. John Lee Moore is a son by the first wife. W. G. Moore moved to Texas early in the 40's and was the first settler in Parker County, devoting his time to farming and raising horses and cattle. Later he became a large stock farmer, and as the country settled, increased his acreage in agriculture and now resides on his original farm in peace and plenty.
John L. Moore married Miss Octavia Roberts in June, 1886 and has five children; Eugene H., James Elmer, Mary E., Tom Green and John. He is a typical stockman, his father being the first white settler to start the plow and ranch in Parker County. The lives of the young Moores were exciting and interesting enough, alternating between pleasures and dangers.

One afternoon, late in the 60's, John and a brother two years older, were about a mile from the double log cabin, engaged in the innocent pastime of shooting horned frogs with bow and arrow. His brother was a few paces in advance, and, turning around to ask John what success he was having, he was terrified to see a band of Indians riding toward them single file. With a shout of "Indians" he made a bound and was off down the path. John looked up and saw his danger, but it was too late to follow his brother's example. The Indians, six in number, came dashing down the trail, and as one buck was leaning over to grasp the little pale face, he darted to one side and dove into the thick chaparral like a rabbit. The quick turn and thick growth gave him a temporary advantage which he was using to the best purpose when he heard the horses of the Indians crashing through the brush after him and only a few steps behind. Rushing through a briar patch he ran into a little opening where a motherly old sow had made a nest of sage grass for a litter of young pigs. As quick as thought he dropped down and burrowed under the straw heap like a rat. Hardly had he got settled when the Indians came rushing past, one riding over but not discovering him. When near the house they gave up the chase and rode on. His brother, in the meantime, had got home safely and given the alarm that Johnnie had been killed by the Indians, and while a party was being formed to give chase to the savages, his father, rifle in hand, ran out to reconnoiter. Striking the trail where the Indians had broke into the chaparral, he followed it slowly, calling his son in a low voice, hoping against hope that he might have eluded the redskins. Coming near the straw heap, Johnnie heard his voice and sprang out into the father's arms. From early infancy his life was full of exciting incidents and the close and continued work with the cattle on the frontier made him familiar with every phase of the cattleman's life.

In the later '70-s and early '80's he was one of the heaviest operators in cattle in what was then the new ranges about the head of the Concho and the foot of the plains. In 1887 he took charge of the Martin, Byrne & Johnson ranch in Sterling County with 2,500 head, where he has resided for the past fourteen years.

Like all cattlemen of Texas who are to the manner born, he is a genial, companionable man, fond of a good story and a joke and popular with all who know him. He has, like many others, made his way unaided and now enjoys the fruits of his life of toil and deprivation.

(Source: Historical and Biographical Record of the Cattle Industry and the Cattlemen of Texas by James Cox, Published by Woodward & Tiernan Printing Co, St Louis, 1895)