This annotated version of Frank A. Lamdin 203/4611's original 1989 essay illuminates and substantiates the tale of Martha Cody 203 and her husband Horace Moore's 1835 emigration to Lisbon, IL with scholarly research.

Horace and Martha came to Illinois after the Blackhawk War of 1832; Preacher Payne had been murdered and others fled, the Aments were rescued by the militia and Abram Holderman barely escaped the Indians' wrath. With peace, the settlers returned to their claims, the Indians fled back across the Mississippi and the fur trappers retired to the backwoods.

The Cody and Moore families first met in the 1760s, years before the Revolutionary War, when the Cody brothers, Jonathan 21 and Isaac 22, as well as their nephew, John 48 came to Union and found Horace's great-grandfather, the immigrant James Moore and his family living there. This James’ son Thomas was likely the one the Cody boys knew, since Horace's father James, was then just a child.

James Moore, the immigrant, with his wife and 5 children, had moved from Grafton to Union in 1739. A decade earlier, Robert Moore had pioneered Union with the first settlers, James and William McNall, and possibly James Moore came because of them. Union was the last town settled in those parts because it was hilly and timbered, not good for farming. After the Revolution, James’ sons, Thomas, James and David with their families, emigrated to Oneida County in the Mohawk Valley, part of the Military Tracts of New York.

Martha's 1st cousin once removed, Lydia 181 and husband Jarvis Moore, Horace's brother, emigrated to Lisbon in 1836 from Vernon NY with their 3 surviving children; J. Franklin 181/2, Henry C.181/4 and Samuel Almerin 181/6.

Later, came Lydia's brothers; Hiram 180 in 1843 but he moved on to Bloomingdale the next year, Thomas Jefferson Cody 184 settled in Lisbon in 1844 and Rhodolphus 176 came in 1845.

In her essay, "When Lisbon Was a Prairie", Mrs. Shufelt credits our own Horace Moore with naming the new town out on the prairie, east of Big Grove, but others have put forth the name of Levi Hills, proprietor of the "Tavern on the Prarie", the Lisbon stagecoach stop.

Frank begins his essay with a reference to the title;

The Moore and
Cody Families

My twice great grandparents in the above two lines were Horace Ament Moore (1788-1843) and his wife Martha Cody Moore (1791-1849). I have traced both lines back several generations to the immigrants, but have little information about their personal lives. The immigrant James Moore was born in Ireland and was married there. His first child was born during passage to America in 1717. The "History of Union Co. Connecticut" by Hammond and Lawson, New Haven Ct. 1893 traces an unbroken lineage through four generations to our Horace.

"When Lisbon was a Prairie" by Mrs. John L. Shufelt, 1917, states that James Moore "came from Ireland, to which place he had removed in a time of rebellion". She speaks of various illustrious ancestral Moores in both England and Scotland. She also mentions family heirlooms, including a famous conch shell, which became the property of Jay E. Moore of Ottawa IL in 1916.

The Cody immigrants were Philip and Martha Cody, who first settled in Beverly Mass. in 1698. The line of descent is covered in handbooks published by the Cody Family Association, Kissimmee, Fla. Martha was a fifth generation descendant of the immigrants. She was born in New York State in 1791, was an aunt of Col. William Frederick Cody (Buffalo Bill).

Following their marriage in 1809 Horace and Martha farmed near Vernon, Oneida Co., N.Y. Their four children were born there. Their parental families had been early settlers in this region. Martha's uncle, Samuel Cody, was named among the earliest settlers.

Oneida County was a part of the Oneida Reservation, purchased from the Indians in 1795, put up for auction in 1797. It is described in "Annals and Recollections of Oneida Co., N.Y., Pomeroy Jones, Rome N.Y. 1851. A large section was bought on speculation by a "company of wealthy Connecticut farmers". It was known to be prime land, located on the State Road, the main thoroughfare from the Mohawk Valley to the then West. Within a year even the poorest lots had been purchased. Both Horace and Martha must have grown up in this frontier environment.

Lured by tales of the broad and fertile prairies of Illinois, Horace sold his prosperous Vernon farm in 1835, and moved his family to Kendall Co., IL. The following account of this trip is extracted from the Lisbon pamphlet mentioned above, and from the original copy of a diary written by Horace during this cross country passage.

The pamphlet features Horace as having made the first land entry in Lisbon on Aug. 4 1835, and as one of the early settlers that November.

The Moores moved on physician's advice, as son John was in failing health with lung trouble.

The first morning after their arrival at Big Grove on Nov 9 1835, the ground was covered with snow. An empty log cabin was fitted up for their winter home. This was in the Grove, no homes were erected on the prairie, as it was thought that they could not withstand the fierce winds. The Moores astonished their friends the next spring by building their home out on the prairie. This was the first dwelling in Lisbon.

Horace' diary was written in a small notebook, faded and difficult to read. I have managed to interpret the greater part, though occasional words and phrases elude me. It covers the period Oct 1 to Nov 7 1835. Entries are brief and terse, sometimes obscure.

Horace does not once mention other family members, makes no note of his teams or conveyances. There is no financial information, but·perhaps he kept a separate cash book. On most days he mentioned the weather, state of the roads, towns passed through, mileage for the day, accommodations for the night. They prepared no meals, never slept out. They appear to have traveled first class, insofar as possible, stayed at hotels or inns when available, or in private homes.

Their route is rather easy to identify until they reached Indiana, where roads were bad and settlements few.

Horace was generally in “good spirits", with one exception. That was in the City of Buffalo, where they stopped for a day of rest. To quote from the diary: "There's a great deal of confusion here and I long very much to get away. I have not been so homesick in any place since I started. I think there is many places far preferable to Vernon, but not this. I would rather I live on a hill. Took supper with 80 persons. See all sorts of folks. English, Scoch-Irish, Indians and Niggers.

Nov. 6 Started this morn. Traveled across the prairies, we could not see land. Is a right smart chance here I reckon for farmers. Drove 16 miles, entered the State of Illinois. Found a great change. It grows better and better the farther we go. Forded river and river, and creek after creek. Took dinner I know not where and put up at a private house. Nov. 7 We set sail this morning in excellent season. Drove across prairies through slews and rivers and took dinner at Hicory Creek. 22 miles. Come through Joliet, ford the Des Plain River, come over hills, prairies, slews, creeks and all these fine things.

So ends the diary, perhaps thirty miles from their destination. They arrived there on Nov 9, 1835. They had traveled a thousand miles or more in about forty days. I know not how Horace calculated his daily mileage. I have read of a device in use at that time which fastened to the carriage wheel to count the number of revolutions. The odometer of its day.

I will now summarize material drawn from several history and reference books concerning the Great Western Movement, and about northeastern Illinois in particular. The western population movement gained great momentum during the 1830s. New Englanders who a generation before had settled the interior of New York were pressing forward. Into the smaller prairies of Indiana and Illinois, where tough sod taxed their strength, but repaid with bountiful crops of grain. Shoulder high prairie grass afforded rich pasturage for cattle, and groves of buckeye, oak, walnut and hickory furnished wood and timber. But by 1840, the northern part of Illinois still had less than two persons per square mile, and Chicago was still a town of only a few thousand souls.

Mass movement into northeastern Illinois began after completion of the Erie Canal in 1825. Water shipping from New York to Chicago provided a source of supplies and a vast market for grain. In 1833 more than 300 lake vessels arrived at Chicago, although its permanent population was only 350. In 1836 the first grain was shipped from Chicago to New York. (Some of this could have been raised by Horace Moore). Roads were also improving, though slowly. Turnpikes became more common, with passenger coaches and wayside inns. Many were toll roads, with special rates for wide-wheeled vehicles, which did less damage to roads. A few were macadamized (after an Englishman, McAdam). This was a varying mix of earth, crushed stones, sand and gravel. Low swampy stretches were corduroy, tree trunks laid across the road. Fifteen miles of corduroy was laid in 1819 across the Black (Maumee) Swamp, as part of a military road between Sandusky Ohio and Detroit Michigan. This is most likely a road mentioned by Horace Moore in his 1835 diary.

The Lisbon area and much of northeastern Illinois was a mixture of prairie and forest land, with many streams. Forests or "groves" hugged the streams, prairies were relatively small, seldom extending more than a few miles across.

Settlement was along the forests, for fuel, water and building materials. The myth persisted that the forested soil was richer. Most settlers cleared land and farmed among the stumps. At first, no one farmed the central areas of the larger prairies. Tough prairie sod usually required 6 or 8 oxen for the first breaking, after which horses could handle the job. The first year the settler often planted "sod corn", simply chopping holes in the sod with an axe and dropping in the seed. This method provided a reasonable crop, and prairie hay was cut for animal feed. Sod breaking was thus deferred to the second year. The ground was rich, subsequent crops abundant. Labor was described as scarce and well paid. A good man was said to earn $10 per month, with bed and board. A "female help" received $1 per week and board. But for most farmers, cash was mighty scarce. They either traded work with neighbors, or did it themselves.

Early towns were set up in and around groves, allowing each man his share of woodland (perhaps 40 acres), and as much prairie as he cared to or was able to take up. (This was prior to legal survey and government sale of land at $1.25 per acre. When government sales began, the settlers banded together to protect against the inevitable speculators and land grabbers). Roads were simply the prairie sod, not bad until rutted. One problem was the slews, long depressions in the prairies, very muddy in season. Prairie grasses grew so tall that one could become lost in a prairie which extended only a few miles. The grasses disappeared after a few years of cultivation, and were often burned off by man or nature.

Guide Books of U.S. Coinage indicate that our coinage was still quite scarce in the 1840s, and that much foreign coinage remained in circulation, mostly English and Spanish. Shillings are often mentioned in writings of the period. An 1835 author traveling in southwestern Illinois prices a dozen eggs at from "6¼¢ up to an Illinois Shilling, 16⅔¢. Another traveler in Pekin Illinois "found a new currency, my shillings and sixpence transformed into bits and pics (picayunes)." Catherine Moore, writing home from Galesburg Illinois, mentions her board and room as 10 shillings per week, about to be raised to 12. She compares this with another family offering a cheaper rate of $1 per week. A young man in Illinois worked for his school teacher throughout the term (3 or 4 months); cleaning, firing the stove, and other chores. At school's end he received wages of two silver dollars, the first he had ever possessed. He clutched them in his sweaty palm all the way home. Hard money was scarce, much commerce was carried on by barter or traded work. It was not until after the Civil War that coinage was reasonably plentiful.

I will quote from a letter written by Martha Moore from Lisbon IL and dated Aug 26 1836, to her father-in-law James Moore of Vernon N.Y.

"I suppose you have already tired of having our beautiful country described, but you may depend the half has not been told you. Father, suppose the meadow we used to own on the patten contained hundreds of acres as handsome as that, and the grass tall enough to mow and spangled with a great variety of flowers, and growing on a deep rich soil and plenty of good water, all in the state of nature -- would you call it good or not? That is the situation of this country. Our folks have worked hard and steady, for there is very little stormy weather to hinder them from work. There have not been more than two or three days last winter that they were obliged to stop work on account of the weather. Instead of the snow we had a white frost, but as soon as the sun was up it would vanish away. The weather this summer has been cold and backward. We moved onto the prairie the 27th of April, and commenced plowing the middle of May. Our oats, spring wheat, corn, potatoes, beans and peas were all dropped on the sod and the turf turned over them. Horace is now cradling oats.

The wheat was harvested ten days ago. We have corn, peas and beans that are quite ripe. We have plenty of garden sauce of all kinds, and vines in great abundance. The boys have not done haying yet, for there is no stopping place. We have six cows, four calves, seventeen heifers, one yoke of oxen, Maley and Violet, and the bay horses. I suppose you think I have bragged too much. We would like you to come and see for yourself. We live forty rods from Mr. Hills and half a mile from Mr. Bushnell. Our society is good. We have meetings every Sabbath also Sabbath school, singing and district school. There has been no sickness to speak of in this region of country since we came here..."

...0, how I wish you were all here for a little while to enjoy the pure air of the western gales and view the rich and magnificent robe with which this great valley is clothed. There is nothing artificial about it. It is just as our Heavenly Father has adorned it."

Horace' father James Moore did come out from Vernon N.Y. in 1838 to live with his son. He passed away in 1839. Emaline Moore, age 21, wrote to her aunt Martha Cody in Vernon:

"Aunt Martha, I have followed my aged grandfather to the grave... It was indeed solemn to follow the first dead body that has been carried across the prairie. Yes, this prairie has been settled four years, and this is the first funeral procession that crossed it."

The four children of Horace and Martha Moore, all born in N.Y., were as follows:

John (1810-1894) This was the son said to have been ill in New York. He a entered the mercantile business in Lisbon with his brother Horace Jr. Both men also farmed, and were quite successful. John married 1) Sarah Ann Tuttle, who died in 1850, and 2) Harriet Maria Cody, by whom he had two children. A daughter died young, son John Jr. married twice, but evidently left no issue.

Horace Jr. (1813-1879) He had married Jane Ann Cody before the family moved west. Their first child Henry was born in 1837, and was frequently mentioned in letters as the darling of the family. Horace and Jane Ann had five children in all. The Cody Book lists numerous descendants of daughter Helen Jennie, (1841-1918). It would seem that the other children either had no issue, or that their lines have died out.

"Emaline (1818-1842). She married Lewis Sherrill in 1840. They had one son, Dana, born in the year of her early death. He became a minister, died unmarried."

Catherine Elizabeth (1828-1911) She married Samuel Dana Bartholomew on 24 June 1845. She was to become my great grandmother. My knowledge of her married life is included in the Bartholomew section of this paper.

I have several letters written by Catherine when she was a child or a young lady. Two of these were written in 1839 when she was eleven. They were post-scripts to long letters written by her sister Emaline to their Aunt Martha Cody Willard in Vernon N.Y. These remarks were "to fill the space", they said. Her handwriting, grammar and spelling seem quite good for her age. A short excerpt: " ..... don't Aunt Martha put yourself to too much troubel (sic) for that silk bag, though I shall thank you heartily for it. I have kept my needle book as nice as when you last saw it. My parasol I think much of and am going to have some silk and have Mr. Stone cover it for me" She also speaks of her school, a recent marriage, and of her nephew "Sweet little Henry, the pretiest (sic) boy that ever was."

Remaining letters were written by Catherine to her mother and brothers from Galesberg Illinois where she attended Knox Academy during the winter of 1843-44. Her father Horace had died during the preceding summer. She had passed her fifteenth birthday in October. She appeared to enjoy her schooling.

She had four studies: Arithmetic, Geography of the Heavens, Astronomy, and Grammar. The Grammar class had thirty scholars, total school enrollment was 118.

They assembled at half past eight in the morning in the largest room of the Academy, where a Rev. Mr. Marsh read a chapter and prayed. Tardy ones had a "black mark put against them", and had to give the reason "before the whole school". Classes lasted until five p.m., with an hour intermission at noon.

She asks that some things be sent to her: “send me that shawl that you spoke about having me fetch with me... if I should stay until May I should want my bonnet very much, and another calico dress to wear every day. ...If you conclude to have me stay I wish you would send me calico for a dress and my patterns and I think I can make it myself... and send papers". This last was for writing paper, always in short supply.

Catherine boarded in a private home, where they raised the rates. "Mr Grant said that he would board for ten shillings a week. Now he says that he cannot for less than twelve. I think it is almost too much when we do our own washing. We can get boarded at Mr. Martin's for a dollar, but it is considered farther to walk to school, and I presume we would not live as well. If you think I had better go there, write and let me know". Lacking a shillings to dollar conversion table, one cannot determine the better offer.

For additional information concerning Catherine's later years, please refer to my section on the Bartholomew family, especially Samuel Dana Bartholomew, beginning on page 5.

More extensive research of early records in Oneida County, N.Y. might reveal more personal data about the Moore and Cody families. They lived in and around Vernon for many years. Horace' brother Jarvis married Lydia Cody, first cousin to our Martha.

As noted above, both of Horace' sons married Cody girls. I wrote to the Cody Association, in hope that they would have information beyond that given in the Cody Book, but they did not. Their records are pretty much restricted to lines of descent, in which area they have done an outstanding job.

I have corresponded with Mary Alice Richards Hanson, #206/7111 in the Cody Genealogy, She is descended from George Carryl Cody #206/5 of Westmoreland N.Y. This George was the father of Harriet Maria Cody, the second wife of our John Moore. Mrs. Hanson had visited Westmoreland N.Y. as well as Lisbon IL, and searched cemeteries in both areas. She may prove to be a source of additional data.