Wright Anderson Moore

Wright initially traveled to Utah in 1852, but then returned to the east, coming back to Utah in 1861 with his wife. The purpose for his second trip is unclear.

Companies John S. Higbee/James W. Bay Company (1852)Approximate age at departure: 21 Job Pingree Company (1861)Approximate age at departure: 30

Wright Anderson Moore (1830–1913) John S. Higbee/James W. Bay Company Trail Experience (Stories) Wright Anderson Moore (1830–1913) Job Pingree Company Trail Experience (Stories)

Wright Anderson Moore (26 June 1830 - 4 Dec 1913) was a Mormon pioneer and the founder of Garden City, Utah in the fall of 1875.

Parents: Richard Moore (22 Aug 1800 - 8 Jan 1870) and Susanna WRIGHT (unknown - 26 Sept 1797).

Marriage: Helen PALMER (unknown - 4 Dec 1928) on March 26, 1858.

Children:

1. Henry Wright Moore (28 Dec 1858 - Feb 1859, age 2 months)
2. Martha Helen Moore (15 Nov 1864 - 22 Nov 1952)
3. Sarah Susanna Moore (15 Mar 1866 - 18 May 1866, age 2 months)
4. Mary Eleanor Moore (18 July 1868 - unknown)
5. William John Wright (18 Nov 187 - 8 Mar 1873, age 3 months)
6. Phoebe Emma (30 Sept 1873 - unknown)
7. Phillip Richard (10 July 1877 - unknown)
8. Elizabeth Ann (10 Oct 1878 - 7 Oct 1887)

Notes

From Family History:

1830-1913

Wright Anderson Moore was born at 4:00 A.M. 26 June 1830, in Hagnaby Lock, Lincolnshire, England. Hagnaby Lock was a small village about twelve miles north of Boston, Lincolnshire, England. Wright was the third son born to Richard and Susanna Wright Moore and the third child in a family of seven children. He was christened Wright Moore and added the middle name Anderson when he grew to be a man. All the children were born at Hagnaby Lock:

William born 15 June 1826

John born 8 June 1827

Wright born 26 June 1830

Mary born 1 March 1833

Elizabeth born 9 March 1835

George born 21 August 1836

Charles born 15 February 1840

William born 15 June 1862

Elizabeth died as a baby, when she fell from the girl’s arms who was caring for her and the fall broke her neck.

The Moore family was of the laboring class and lived in the rural districts in eastern Lincolnshire. His father had been a laborer and his mother a housemaid, both worked on large farms or ranches. The owners of these ranches were known as Gentlemen and Ladies who did no work themselves. They paid the minimum wage for maximum work. Wright was very young when he went to work under these extreme conditions. These poor circumstances were where Wright received his early lessons in life.

Very few incidents in his early life are available. One is, he never learned to talk until he was three years old. Wright was not a slow learner, it was not his nature to talk. Even in his adult years, Wright did not talk much. He was known to be a very clear and thorough thinker in all things during his lifetime.

Another incident happened while he was herding a gaggle of geese as a small boy. The old gander took a disliking to young Wright and chased him, knocked him down, and began beating Wright with his flapping wings. Young Wright thought his death was at hand when he was finally rescued by an older herder.

As far as schooling went, Wright received about five weeks of formal school. The Bible was the only textbook in which they used for a reader and all learning purposes. The main necessity in his young boyhood, was to learn to labor on the farms and ranches for the Gentlemen to help support his family. At one ranch, where he worked, it was a standing rule that the meat must not be fully cooked. The idea was that if the meat was cooked properly the boys would eat more than the owner wanted to give them. As they called it, it must be so it would "squeal" when the fork was stuck into it. The girl servants sat at one table and the boys another where on both theses tables the food served was of the poorest quality. The Gentleman, Lady, and their family sat at a separate table and ate food fit for kings.

This time in history was a time of classification. For a person to rise from one classification to another was very difficult if not impossible. Working families worked long hard hours for a pittance for a wage. Another farm Wright worked at, he dug and picked potatoes. Here he was required to be in the field and ready to start at daybreak and work until he could count three stars with one eye closed. Before he could go home, he had to haul all the potatoes that he had harvested into the main farmyard. Before going to the fields in the mornings, he was also required to call on and wake the maidservants. Soon, Wright became known as a dependable, hard worker.

He learned to use the cradle to harvest grain and to stack it. A cradle is a frame on a scythe for laying grain evenly as it is cut. Due to the wet climate and the dampness of the country, the wheat was stacked above the ground on a wagon wheel. The wheat stack was topped out both on the top and bottom. Without a pitchfork, to accomplish this task, Wright had to get down on his hands and knees and do this all by hand.

When the Gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came to the district near Hagnaby Lock, Wright Moore was out of the area working. The rest of his family embraced the gospel and was baptized. It wasn’t until he returned home and upon receiving the gospel he accepted it as truth. At twenty years of age, Wright was baptized and confirmed into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 9 October 1850, by Elder Charles Clark. He was ordained a Teacher on 28 January 1851, by Elder Clark.

As was the case with the many early converts, after they were baptized, they had a strong desire to come to Zion. The Moore family began their preparations to make the journey to America.

It was with a mixture of happiness and sadness as they bid farewell to their friends and relatives. The family boarded the ship Kennebec on 8 January 1852, as steerage passengers or third class. Severe adverse winds prevented them from leaving port. On 10 January, the Kennebec and another ship sailed from Liverpool.

It wasn’t too far into their voyage when they encountered a horrible storm. The waves grew higher than the ship, tossing it to and fro. The ship was in perilous danger. Huge waves crashed overboard taking much needed provisions and drinking water out to sea. Ocean water washed down the hatches, leaving other food and provisions wet that were stowed below deck. The crew and passengers trampled over what was scattered on deck. Hours later, when the storm finally subsided, an unnerving calm took its place. There wasn’t a whisper of wind to billow the sails. When Wright spoke of this storm, he said, "The storm was bad enough, but the calm was terrible, just sitting in mid-ocean and not being able to move and the captain sternly refusing to turn back."

The other ship which sailed from Liverpool with them vanished from their sight in the storm. It probably sunk as it was never seen again by the Kennebec nor did it ever reach America. It is note worthy at this time to add, there were no LDS emigrants aboard the other ship. In the recorded maritime history, it shows that during the years in which the vast majority of newly converted Saints sailed to America, many, nearly a hundred ships sank. Only two of all those lost ships had Mormon emigrants aboard. We have to ask, did the hand of the Lord play a part in the overwhelming statistics and survival of these new converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints?

The ship had started out with six weeks worth of provisions for a normally five-week voyage. After losing so much in the storm, it was apparent they would soon run short. After rations had been cut several times, water was rationed down to one pint a day per person and the food was very poor and limited. A group of Irish emigrants began stealing food and water from the Mormons. Some began eating the sea biscuits on deck that had been trampled. They picked crumbs and small pieces of old, moldy sea biscuits, wet with sea water that had been walked on and left to spoil. Hunger, thirst, sickness, and almost desperation combined to make a very gut-wrenching scene. This voyage makes us wonder how many times if they wished they had stayed and worked for some old Gentleman in England.

Their five-week voyage turned into nine weeks before they reached New Orleans. Besides the Moore family all being very sick, Wright said, "For days I could hardly walk. The ground seemed to move up and down and roll as the ocean had." He had developed Scurvy and was very sick. It took years for Wright to overcome the fevers and chills he continued to suffer from the adverse effects of this voyage.

Once the Moore family gained some strength, they resumed their trek, traveling up the Mississippi by river boat to St. Lewis. It is thought that they lived in the part of the city known as Blackjack. Here in St. Lewis, Wright was ordained an Elder by Robert Humphries in 1855. In a new country and among strangers, the men in the family set about to learn farming for themselves and to obtain the means to do so. Their new religion was always first and foremost in their lives, the one reason which had brought them to this new land and unfamiliar way of life.

Their friends back in England, the Palmers, whom the Moores helped pay passage for, joined then in 1857. Their daughter, Helen Palmer had remained in New York to work for a while to work as a cook. When she joined her family in St Lewis, a romance sprung up between the quiet, unassuming and hardworking Wright and Helen, a hardworking, independent girl. Wright and Helen were married 26 March 1858. This union brought eight children into this life, four survived and lived late into their lives.

Their children:

Henry Wright Moore born 28 December 1858, died February 1859, age 2 months

Martha Helen Moore was born 15 November 1864, died 22 November 1952, age 88

Sarah Susanna Moore was born 15 March 1866, died 18 May 1866, age 2 months

Mary Eleanor Moore was born 18 July 1868, died

William John Wright was born 18 November 1871, died 8 March 1873, age 3 months

Phoebe Emma was born 30 September 1873, died

Phillip Richard was born 10 July 1877, died

Elizabeth Ann was born 10 October 1878, died 7 October 1887, age 9 years

Wright and Helen first lived in part of his father’s house. Their first child was born 28 December 1858. This birth nearly killed Helen. She and the baby were quickly loaded into the back of a wagon and taken to her mother-in-laws for care. The baby was a boy and named Henry Wright Moore who died the following February. Wright’s mother, Susanna, nursed Helen back to health.

The following spring, as soon as Helen had recovered sufficiently and was able to ride in the wagon, they packed up their belongings and headed westward with his brother Charles. They first homesteaded at Genoa, Nebraska near Peru, where they planted crops and started a home. Soon after there home was established, the government sent 3,700 Indians to the area to discourage this Mormon settlement. Wright and his brother, Charles, worked very hard clearing, then plowing and planting the crops. Soon their time and energy were devoted to fighting the prairie fires to prevent the loss of their crops. They hired Indian squaws to pick corn and separate the good from the damaged corn. The tribal elders, old buck Indians, as they called them, wouldn’t work, but would send the squaws. This is where Wright learned to trade horses with the Indians.

During the early fall of 1860, a prairie fire burned all their crops. Discouraged, the following spring, they joined and crossed the plains in Job Pingree’s small group of Saints. Wright and Helen had two yoke of oxen. Their best ox died, just before they reached Green River, Wyoming. Having no choice, they traded Helen’s prized cookstove for a milk cow to make up the team. Helen had brought with her this newly purchased stove which she desperately wanted to keep. The stove was the envy of all the other ladies in the group.

After arriving in Salt Lake City, Wright was hired to help build the Salt Lake Theater. Wright and Helen went to the endowment house on 24 January 1863, where they were sealed for time and all eternity by the President and Prophet of the LDS church, Brigham Young. They continued to live in Salt Lake until the completion of the theater which was the spring of 1863. At this time in LDS History, Brigham Young assigned each man to learn a trade. Wright was to learn basket weaving. He did learn quickly, and like everything else he did in life, it too had to be done "just right." He would peel green willows, all had to be uniform in size and the finished product had to be very neatly woven. This perfected talent brought in extra money. He continued to weave and sell baskets the rest of his life. Many of these baskets lasted for many years.

After the Salt Lake Theater was completed, they moved to Skull Valley, west of Salt Lake City, where Wright and his brother worked for Captain Helper breaking horses and milking cows. Later they moved to Smithfield, Utah. Here Martha Helen was born 15 November 1864. Another daughter Sarah Susanna was born in Smithfield on 15 March 1866, and died 18 May 1866. Mary Eleanor was born 18 July 1868.

In the winter of 1869, they were living in St. Charles, Idaho, when the call came from the general authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to settle the Bear River Valley. Wright felt this call was similar to a mission call. He answered this call and on 14 March 1870, Wright Anderson Moore was among the first settlers who came sledding into the Bear River Valley.

He lived the United Order...him being one of the few to respond. The settlers made camp on the knoll at Big Creek just south of Randolph. This knoll had a good view of the surrounding country where they could watch and be ready for an attack by Indians or wild animals.

On 21 March, Apostle Charles C. Rich, stake President David H. Kimball, and James A. Hart arrived at camp. They stayed long enough to locate the town of Randolph. A rope was used for a surveyor’s chain. More settlers came that spring and summer. The sagebrush grew very tall around the new town of Randolph. One could hardly see an approaching horse and rider. Mothers feared for their children, afraid they would be lost in the tall brush. About twenty-six homes were built the first summer and about twenty families remained during the first mild winter. Some crops were planted that spring. Sheep were brought in 1 December 1870. John Cameron, George A. Peart, and Wright A. Moore were appointed by the bishop to settle disputes concerning land matters. Most all trouble was settled in a Bishop’s Court, the advice being, "Don’t take your brother to law."

During the winter, many men went away to work. Wright went to Piedmont, Wyoming to work as a coke burner. (Piedmont is now a ghost town outside of Evanston, Wyoming, and has one of only four remaining charcoal kilns. Excess timber from building the railroad ties was converted to charcoal for use in the smelters near Salt Lake City. Working the kilns was called "burning coke." By 1873, the area production exceeded 100,00 bushels of charcoal per month). Two children were born to Wright and Helen Moore while they lived in Randolph, Utah. They were William John Moore born 18 November 1871, and died 8 March 1873. Phoebe Emma was born 30 September 1873.

When the establishment of Randolph was settled, the general authorities told them they were free to stay or move on as they so chose. In the fall of 1875,Wright gave half of his farm in Randolph, to the church and moved his family to Garden City, Utah, becoming one of the first settlers there. Wright A. Moore was appointed the first Presiding Elder of Garden City. The first church meeting was held in the Moore home. He was later ordained High Priest and then set apart as First Counselor to Bishop Robert Calder on 11 May 1878, by James Hart. He served in this calling for about twenty years. Len Cook was second counselor. Although Wright moved to Woodruff for about one year, he was not released from this calling.

The name of Belle View was first suggested for Garden City, but the postal authorities refused this name as there was already another Belle View, Utah. Wright then submitted the name Garden City, which was accepted. He was appointed by Apostle Charles C. Rich and President William Budge to distribute the land, in which they ended up drawing the lots from a hat.

Wright and Helen’s son, Phillip Richard, was the first child born in Garden City. He was born 10 July 1877. They also had another child born to them there. A girl, Elizabeth Ann, nicknamed Teddy, was born 10 October 1878, and died 7 October 1887, from typhoid fever. Their four other children lived into their late eighties.

At one time here, Wright had nine cows. He also raised grain, lucern, apples, plums, raspberries, strawberries, and watermelon. By horse and wagon, he peddled his fruit as far away as Evanston, Wyoming. He claimed he made more money off his two acres of fruit than he did the entire rest of their farm. Wright later sold some of his land cheaply to encourage others to come to Garden City so they could establish a ward and a school. He kept one lot of twenty acres for himself.

Wright was the Garden City road overseer and Garden City school trustee for many years.

In the year 1902, they decided to move to Idaho. They settle in Taylor, Idaho, (now Jameston) three and a half miles east of Shelley. They purchased the Longhurst farm which consisted of only six acres. Even this late in their lives, they built a neat, but not costly, little home. They continued to remain active in their church work and devoted members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Later they moved to Blackfoot, Idaho, to be nearer to their youngest son. Phillip Richard. Wright was described as a kind, just, quiet man, sincere in his convictions and very tolerant in his attitude. The worst thing that ever came from Wright’s mouth was when he was overheard calling his horse, "You old fool."

At age eighty-three, Wright Anderson Moore passed away from pneumonia, on 4 December 1913, at his home in Blackfoot, Idaho. He is buried in Blackfoot, Idaho.

Wright Anderson Moore is listed in the book called "Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah."

In this book he is given credit for settling Garden City in February 1877. It also gives Wright the credit for naming the city as we know it today.

Compiled and Written by Joan W. Creamer-(great-great-granddaughter)

Sources:

Phillip Richard Moore (Son)

Sylvia Robinson (granddaughter)

Willard Longhurst (grandson)

Ruby Nixon Davis (Phoebe’s granddaughter)

Dorthy N. Moore (great-granddaughter)

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868

Moore, Wright Anderson

Company: Job Pingree Company (1861)

Narrative:
Job Pingree immigrated to Utah in 1857. In the autumn of 1859, he returned to his native England to dispose of family property. While there he served as a part-time missionary. In the spring of 1861, he returned to America, escorting some of his recent converts.
At Florence, Nebraska Territory, 24-year-old Pingree was appointed captain over a company of 33 wagons and 3 or 4 carriages. This was an independent company, the emigrants being able to purchase their supplies and outfits without Church assistance. Most in the company came from St. Louis, but a few came directly from England. There were about 150 people in the company. Pingree did not submit a roster of his company, drawn from his memory, to the Church Historian's Office until 1916. It is probably incomplete. Oxen pulled most of the wagons except for four or five outfits drawn by horses. There was also at least one span of mules pulling a wagon, and a few cows tagged along. The company left Florence on June 7.

A few in the company suffered accidents even before leaving the outfitting place. One man had to ride in a wagon all the way because his foot was crushed when a horse threw him. Before leaving, a woman with a painful inflammation in the joint of a finger had the sore opened and the bone scraped. The wound was slow to mend so someone in the company suggested she wrap her finger in a gunpowder poultice to speed healing. One evening as she was lighting a campfire, her poultice caught fire and the gunpowder exploded. She lost the fleshy tip of her finger.

In his book Roughing It, Mark Twain wrote that just east of Independence Rock, his westward-bound stagecoach passed a Mormon train consisting of 33 wagons. Almost certainly this would have been Pingree's company. Twain observed that the emigrants had no head coverings, were covered with dust and looked very tired.

Most of the company arrived in Salt Lake on September 2 except for some left behind who straggled in at intervals during the next few days. Pingree reported that there were no accidents "to speak of," no deaths, and little loss of cattle. Pingree was asked by Brigham Young how his company had fared. "After I told him," Pingree recorded, "he said I had done just right."