Horace L. Moore, a veteran of the Civil war, formerly a merchant and now a banker and resident of Lawrence, was born in Mantua, Ohio, Feb. 25, 1837. His parents were Samuel and Elizabeth (Keyes) Moore. In tracing the genealogy of the Moore family, we find that Colonel Moore is descended, in the sixth generation, from Andrew Moore, of Poquonnock, Conn., who married Sarah Phelps, a granddaughter of William Phelps, the immigrant, of Windsor, Conn., Feb. 15, 1671. William Phelps came from England to Dorchester, Mass., in 1630. The father of Colonel Moore was born at Granby, Conn., and went to Ohio in 1866, where he married Elizabeth Keyes, a granddaughter of Maj. Edward Crafts, of the Revolutionary war. Samuel Moore was a soldier of the war of 1812.

Col. Horace L. Moore was educated in the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, at Hiram, Ohio, at the time President Garfield was a teacher there. A good part of his education was acquired teaching school, a half dozen terms in Ohio and Pennsylvania. He came to Kansas in 1858, when twenty-one years of age. He read law in the office of Christian & Lane, at Lawrence, and would have been admitted to the bar in June, 1861, but for the outbreaking of the Civil war. He answered the first call of President Lincoln for troops, by enlisting as a private in Company D, Second Kansas infantry, with which regiment he served until it was mustered out on account of the expiration of the term of enlistment, Oct. 31, 1861. The next day, Nov. 1, 1801, he reënlisted in the Second Kansas cavalry, and was made second lieutenant of Troop D, Dec. 11, 1861, and commissioned first lieutenant May I, 1862, and then lieutenant-colonel of the Fourth Arkansas cavalry, by the secretary of war, Feb. 18, 1864, serving with this cavalry until mustered out, June 30, 1865, after a continuous service of more than four years. In all of the battles in which his regiment was engaged Colonel Moore took part with high credit. In the summer of 1867 the Eighteenth Kansas, a battalion of four troops of cavalry, was enlisted and mustered into the United States service to check the Indian depredations on the plains, and Colonel Moore was assigned to the command with the rank of major. In November, 1868, the Nineteenth Kansas cavalry was raised and mustered into the service to reënforce the command of Gen. Phil Sheridan, then conducting a campaign against hostile Indians in Kansas and the Indian Territory, which resulted in the death of the Cheyenne chief, Black Kettle, and the destruction of his band in the battle of the Washita. When Hon. S. J. Crawford resigned as governor of Kansas, and took command of the Nineteenth Kansas, Major Moore was made lieutenant-colonel, and on the resignation of Colonel Crawford, in February, he was mustered as colonel, and as such commanded the regiment until its term of enlistment expired. In this campaign against the hostile Indians, Colonel Moore won no less distinction than in the Civil war. He was a gallant and brave commander, and his military record is deserving of more than a passing mention.

Returning to the life of a civilian, Colonel Moore engaged in the mercantile business in Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico, until 1882, in which year he returned to Lawrence, where he has continued to maintain a residence, and retired from mercantile pursuits. Soon after returning to Lawrence he was elected treasurer of Douglas county, in which office he served one term. He was then honored with an election to the Fifty-third Congress, in which he served with credit to himself and constituents. After leaving Congress Colonel Moore wrote a genealogy of the Moore family, a work which engaged his time for four or five years. For many years he has been a director of the Lawrence National Bank, and since 1903 he has been active in this bank, holding the position of vice-president. Colonel Moore voted twice for President Lincoln, and once for President Grant, but since then he has generally voted with the Democratic party, although he came all the way from New Mexico to cast his vote at Lawrence for James A. Garfield, who was one of his teachers in the Western Reserve Eclectic institute, as heretofore stated. For years he has been a member of the Kansas State Historical Society, and was once president of the society. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is a Royal Arch Mason. At the time he was president of the State Historical Society he delivered an address before the society, in which he urged the compulsory recording in the county judge's office, all births, deaths and marriages, which is now the law of Kansas, the law emanating from his suggestion. Several years ago, on Decoration Day, while the orator of the day was delivering his address, a game of base ball was being played on the campus of the University of Kansas within the hearing of those who were observing the Nation's day of mourning. When the speaker had finished, Colonel Moore arose and spoke in condemnation of such disrespect for the day, as shown by the playing of base ball, when everybody should have marched to muffled drums and engaged in honoring the dead who fought in the defense of the Union, and his speech led to the enactment of a law against such discourtesy to the veterans of the Civil war. In the course of his career Colonel Moore has always stood out for patriotism, for progress in civic affairs, and in business exemplified an integrity and industry that has won for him both esteem and an enviable reputation.

In 1864 he married Esther A. Harmon, of Portage county, Ohio, the eldest daughter of Capt. Samuel and Jane (Deming) Harmon. Her father was a descendant of Francis Harmon, who came to America in the ship "Love," in 1635, and settled in Springfield, Mass. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have two sons, Samuel A., of Lawrence, and Frank H., a lawyer, now assistant solicitor for the Kansas Southern railroad, at Kansas City, Mo. Colonel Moore and his wife have traveled extensively through Great Britain, continental Europe, and elsewhere. They are numbered among the leading families of Lawrence, and in the state Colonel Moore is one of the best and most favorably known among those men who have left upon the history of the state the impress of an active and exemplary life.