John McCabe Moore

JOHN MCCABE MOORE holds high prestige as one of the gifted and representative members of the bar of Wyandotte county to which he has lent distinction for some twenty years, having engaged in practice in Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, for that period, with the exception of five years in which he served as judge of the district court of Wyandotte county, Kansas, his splendid standing as a lawyer being thus stamped with popular approval. He has a most excellent equipment, native and acquired, and his success has been the logical outcome of the same. The Moore family is one of the old and notable ones and a glance at the ancestral history of the subject discovers several names of great prominence.

The great-grandfather of the immediate subject of this biographical record was James Moore, known in history as the "Illinois Pioneer." He was born Virginia in 1750, and in 1772 married Catherine Biggs, of Maryland, a sister of William Biggs, a noted Indian fighter of that time. Both James Moore and his wife were of Scotch-Irish ancestry, their immigrant ancestors having come to these shores early in the eighteenth century. In Peck's "Annals of the West" appears this interesting reference to the Illinois Pioneer. "In the year 1777 Colonel George Rogers Clark, before capturing the British ports in the northwest, thinking that Kaskaskia was the most important stronghold of the enemy, sent James Moore and another man by the name of Dunn to reconnoiter the place. Acting upon the report of James Moore and Dunn, Colonel Clark, with a company of men, captured Fort Kaskaskia on the 5th of July, 1778. In 1781, James Moore with his family, led a party of emigrants from Maryland and Virginia to Kaskaskia where they spent the winter." The historian comments in this connection: "It is extraordinary that this small party of emigrants could have escaped all the dangers of the Revolution and Indian hostilities and reached their destination in safety. It would seem that Providence was fostering this infant settlement in Illinois." In the spring of 1782 James Moore and his family, made their permanent home at Belfontaine one-half mile from the present site of Waterloo in Monroe county, Illinois, this being the first farm opened in the so-called "Illinois country," which comprised all of the territory northwest of the Ohio river and east of the Mississippi, and was a county of Virginia after the capture of the northwest territory by George Rogers Clark.

The first American born within the limits of Illinois was Enoch, the third son of James Moore, his birth occurring February 17, 1783, at the Belfontaine farm. Enoch was a member of the convention that framed the first constitution of Illinois, under which it was admitted into the Union. He was a commissioned officer of the War of 1812 and afterward served as a member of the State Legislature, filling county offices for twenty years. He died in 1848. He was a great reader and hard student and frequently filled the pulpit in the Methodist Episcopal church. He made a survey of the Wisconsin-Illinois line in 1844.

David Nolan Moore, the youngest son of Enoch Moore, and father of the subject, was born at the Belfontaine farm in March, 1827. He went to California in the year 1849, with ox teams, leading a band of young men in company with the late William R. Morrison. He was graduated in the St. Louis Medical College in 1853; practiced medicine in Carlyle, Illinois, till 1884, with the exception of the time he was surgeon of the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry in the Civil war. He removed to Decatur, Illinois, in 1884, and there practiced medicine and surgery until his death in 1903. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and of the Masonic fraternity, and he gave his allegiance to the Republican party. David Nolan Moore married Matilda Scott, daughter of Henry and Eliza Scott, of Carlyle, Illinois, in 1857. She was educated at Monticello Seminary at Godfrey, Illinois, and died while visiting her sister at Hannibal, Missouri.

John McCabe Moore was born at Carlyle, Illinois, June 11, 1862. In the public schools of that place he received his preliminary education and subsequently entered McKendree College at Lebanon, Illinois, from which in due time he was graduated. Being drawn to the law as a profession, he prepared for it in offices in Carlyle, Decatur and Chicago and was admitted to the bar in Illinois in 1886. Shortly thereafter having become impressed with the apparent advantages and opportunities of Kansas City, Kansas, he removed there and he has remained in practice in this city and in Kansas City, Missouri, ever since that time. He was for five years judge of the district court of Wyandotte county, having been first appointed by Governor Bailey of Kansas for one year and being subsequently elected for a four years term. His experience on the bench, combined with the ripened abilities of a strong mind, fitted him for his present position as first assistant United States attorney for Kansas to succeed Judge J. S. West, who was elected a member of the supreme court of Kansas. Judge Moore resides in Kansas City, Kansas, but his law office is in Kansas City, Missouri. As assistant United States attorney his official residence is in Topeka, Kansas, and he is in the general practice of the law in Kansas and Missouri. He is indeed an honor to his profession, his thorough knowledge of the law in its principles as well as its precepts, his extensive acquaintance with the routine of the practice and his performance of his duties unhampered by the influence of friend or enemies, placing him high above the rank and file. His loyalty to the Republican party dates from his maiden vote and he stands high in local party councils.

Judge Moore was married on the 20th day of June, 1904, his chosen lady being Miss Nellie McCracken, of Nashville, Illinois, whom he first met when they both were attending McKendree College. She is a daughter of Ninian and Margaret McCracken, residents of Nashville, Illinois. Their home is one of the charming and cultured abodes of Kansas City in whose social life they play a prominent part. The subject is a Mason of the Thirty-second degree, Scottish Rite, and exemplifies in his own life the ideals of moral and social justice and brotherly love for which the great order stands. He has indeed succeeded in his highest personal ambition to be an upright citizen and an honor to his chosen profession.