Wallingford/Jarlov Family Trees

According to the application for the historical marker for Fields Store Cemetery, Melvin Moore (described as a local resident and for many years the country surveyor) gave an acre of land about 1 mile east of Fields Store Cemetery for a school building in about 1890.

He was described on his daughter's birth certificate (Florence) as a surveyor of land, a civil engineer.

http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2009/12/16/waller_county_news_citizen/opinion/growingup121709.txt

Written by Arthur Moore, Jr. - January 2010

The story begins in Iredell County, North Carolina, where Lewis Melvin Moore Sr. was born in 1845 to parents William Wilson Moore and Sarah Day Moore. His family called him Melvin. Shortly before the Civil War, Melvin Moore moved to Arkansas with his parents and siblings. Melvin was a Confederate soldier during the last two years of the Civil War, serving in southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana. His oldest brother, Augustus, was also a Confederate soldier and was killed in Virginia at the battle of Fredericksburg.

Melvin had only a few years of formal education. However, he read any book that he could get. He had a particular interest in mathematics. Somehow he obtained college level textbooks on geometry, trigonometry and analytical geometry and taught himself mathematics.

Soon after the Civil War ended, young Melvin came to Texas and worked in Montgomery County as a laborer on the construction of a railroad. He was interested in the work of the engineers who designed and constructed the railroad, and proceeded, uninvited, to take his lunch breaks with them. He was unwelcome as they did not want to associate with a laborer.

Melvin persisted, however, and one day he found the engineers frustrated by a mathematical equation that they had set up in connection with their work, but could not solve. To their astonishment, Melvin solved the equation. After that, he was welcome at lunch.

Melvin next moved to southern Grimes County and learned the trade of leather tanning while working at Phelan’s Tan Yard near Retreat. It is thought that his parents and surviving siblings soon joined him at Retreat. In 1871, Melvin’s parents purchased land in the Fields Store community in southern Grimes County, now northeast Waller County, and the Moore family moved to Fields Store.

Melvin purchased a W. & L. E. Gurley surveyor’s compass, chain and pins and started surveying land. In 1878, Melvin married Eliza (“Lide”) Wallingford, also of Fields Store. Eliza, a native Texan, was the daughter of Thomas Ginn Wallingford and his first wife, Evaline, then deceased. Thomas Ginn Wallingford was the ancestor of all the Wallingfords of Waller County. Melvin and Eliza had 10 children, Evaline, Sallie, Lillian, Florence, Melvin Jr., Arthur, Valma, Edna, Irene and Vernon, all born at Fields Store.

In the early 1880s, Melvin contracted with the state and took a survey crew to West Texas to survey the boundaries of newly created counties. After a year or so, he cut his work short and returned home upon learning of the death of his first child, Evaline.

Melvin continued to survey land and also farmed. He donated a small tract of land located on the road running east from Fields Store so that a public school could be established. He taught at the Fields Store school for a couple of years, and later tutored high school mathematics after school.

At some point Melvin went into the business of leather tanning and making harnesses and other leather articles. He used the old, slow method of tanning that he had learned in his youth, using vats of water containing ground-up red oak bark, rather than the faster method using stronger chemicals then in use commercially. His leather and articles were deemed superior to those made commercially and were in great demand. However, for some unknown reason, he soon abandoned his successful leather business.

Melvin served a couple of periods as County Surveyor of Waller County, the first period beginning in 1876 and the second in 1890. After they were old enough, his sons Melvin Jr. and Arthur served as his survey crew. Melvin charged $4 per day for surveying work, and paid his sons 50 cents each. When times were especially hard, Melvin, Melvin Jr. and Arthur would camp out in the woods and cut and stack cords of wood to sell for resale as firewood in Houston.

Melvin ran unsuccessfully for Tax Assessor-Collector of Waller County. He was again appointed County Surveyor in 1908 and continued as such until his death. Primarily because of his duties as County Surveyor, Melvin and Eliza and their children that were still at home moved to Hempstead in 1911. They built a home on the south side of Hempstead which still stands at the corner of 8th and Market streets.

...

In Hempstead, Melvin continued his work as a surveyor. He designed and attempted to construct a photocopy machine, but abandoned the project when he broke one of the lenses. He also purchased a bark mill and was planning to go back into the leather business. However, in 1916 at the age of 71, Melvin was killed by lightning while surveying a tract of land near Hempstead. In Hempstead, Melvin continued his work as a surveyor. He designed and attempted to construct a photocopy machine, but abandoned the project when he broke one of the lenses. He also purchased a bark mill and was planning to go back into the leather business. However, in 1916 at the age of 71, Melvin was killed by lightning while surveying a tract of land near Hempstead.

In the 1880 Waller County Productions of Agriculture report, Lewis Moore was shown as renting for a share of the production of the land he farmed.

He had 11 acres of tilled land and 4 acres of woodland.

His farming machinery was valued at $20 and he had $100 worth of livestock.

He produced about $26 worth of products in the previous year.

He had 1 horse, 4 milk cows and 6 other cattle. There were 4 calves in the year. He made about 50 pounds of butter.

He had 10 barnyard poultry.

He cut 20 cords of wood, valued at $20.

From Arthur Moore, Jr., July 2008:

My grandparents, Lewis Melvin Moore and his wife, Eliza Wallingford Moore, owned a home on the north side of 1488 perhaps a mile or two east of the Cemetery, where my father was born in 1890 (he said he was listed on the 1890 census as an unnamed baby). He pointed out the place of his birth to me, but I can't locate it on the map without first locating it on the ground. In any event, they sold out after living there only a couple of years and moved to west Texas for my grandmother's health. They moved back after a year or so and I think lived in several different houses, none of which I can locate. They got their mail at Joseph so I suppose they lived in the direction of Joseph, or maybe the post office was moved from Fields Store to Joseph. They moved to Hempstead in 1911.