Wallingford/Jarlov Family Trees

From Arthur Moore, Jr., January 2010:

Arthur Moore was blessed with a keen mind, a strong body, and an abundance of energy and determination. In 1906, after about eight years of school, Arthur left his parents’ home at Fields Store at the age of 16 to make his own way and not be a burden on his parents who still had three younger children to raise. He went to Milam County where he worked as a farm laborer.

By 1908, he was back close to home working in a drug store in Waller owned by Dr. McCrary. Dr. McCrary owned cattle and decided to move his medical practice, drug store and cattle to Brown County in central Texas. He and Arthur moved the cattle by train. The trip took three days and they both rode the cattle cars to tend to the cattle. That sounds like fun!

Dr. McCrary established his medical practice and drug store in the little town of Brookesmith. Arthur stayed on and lived with the McCrary family to manage the drug store and cattle. He saw his first armadillo in Brown County, as armadillos had not yet migrated into east Texas. Arthur was homesick, however, and resolved to return home.

In 1911, he attended a business college in Brownwood for three months, and after obtaining his diploma moved to Hempstead where he took a job at the drug store owned by Mr. Peek located where the City Drug Store was in later years. At the drug store, Arthur filled prescriptions in addition to other work. The hours were long and the pay low.

In 1913, Arthur took the civil service examination and, making the highest grade of the applicants for the job, became the rural mail carrier on Route 1, Hempstead, succeeding Roy Chapman. Route 1 went northeast from Hempstead almost to Fields Store and back, over 30 miles in all.

At first, Arthur drove a horse and buggy on the route, fording creeks and occasionally having to spend the night with a family on the route when in wet weather the creeks rose too high to cross. Later he purchased what was known as a mail wagon, specifically designed for rural mail carriers and which afforded greater protection from the weather.

He kept one horse in Hempstead, and rented a small pasture at the far end of the route where he kept another horse. He would switch the horses at the far end of the route each day.

In 1917, Arthur volunteered for World War I, but was not accepted due to an irregular heart beat. Also in 1917, he purchased his first automobile, a model T Ford for which he paid $400. The automobile made his mail route much quicker and he was often finished by the middle of the day. He was therefore looking for part time work to complete the day.

In 1917, the Citizens State Bank of Hempstead was short-handed, due to two of its employees having left for the war. Arthur took a job at the bank as a part-time bookkeeper, to last only until the other two employees returned from the war. They both returned but did not stay in Hempstead, and Arthur continued his part time work at the bank. He advanced rapidly from bookkeeper to teller to assistant cashier.

In 1920, he accepted a promotion to vice president and cashier upon the condition that he could continue his mail route.

When his brother Melvin Jr. became sheriff of Waller County in 1925, Arthur moved with Melvin Jr. and his family into the old jail so his brother’s family would not be there alone when his brother was out. Also, when Melvin Jr. was called out to enforce the law at night, Arthur always went with him as extra protection. Now that is brotherly love!

Banking in those days was difficult. During the 1930s, poor farmers would come in asking to borrow $200 to make a crop. Arthur would talk them down to $100 because he knew that, despite good intentions, there was no way they could pay back $200. Banking also resulted in fights with disappointed loan applicants. Arthur said that the most important qualification for a banker was to be able to hold his own in a fight. Certainly, he was well qualified as a banker, by that or any other standard. In the mid 1940s, Arthur got rid of his milk cow, because milking had become difficult due to soreness and stiffness in his hands. He blamed this on too many fights.

Arthur Moore was promoted to Executive Vice President and in 1938 became President of the Citizens State Bank, succeeding A.R. Woodson of Conroe. Roy Chapman, who had been succeeded on the mail route by Arthur 25 years earlier, also had at one time been a president of the bank. Arthur’s conservative management and investment policy brought the bank safely through the depression of the 1930s, in contrast to the failure of many banks during that time. During the 1930s, Arthur purchased a couple of tracts of land, and ran cattle on one tract until the 1950s.

Arthur was a Christian and a member of the First Methodist Church. He was very frugal but also generous to those who needed help, whether family, friends or strangers. He regularly visited the sick. Probably because they could no longer look to Melvin Jr. as sheriff for help, African-Americans who were being abused turned to Arthur to stand-up for them. When accompanying her grandmother on summer visits to Hempstead during the 1930s, Arthur’s niece, Ouida, would on occasion hear African-American men, who had approached the house after dark to tell him of abuse, calling “Mr. Moore, Mr. Moore.” Arthur would go out to talk with them and find out what the problem was. Later he would confront the abusers. Arthur was a very brave man!

Like all the Moores, Arthur did not use alcohol or tobacco. In the 1950s when the surgeon general warned that cigarettes may be hazardous to your health, Arthur remarked, “I didn’t need any surgeon general to tell me that.”

In 1938, at the age of 48, Arthur married Bernice Terrell. She was from Navasota and was a teacher. Strange as it may seem, Bernice first taught during her senior year in high school in Navasota.

An elementary school teacher had become ill very early in the school year. The administration could not find a replacement and asked Bernice to teach. While teaching, she had to complete her high school courses by picking up her assignments daily and taking tests after classes.

After graduating from high school, Bernice used the money she had earned teaching to attend college for one year at Sam Houston. She then taught for one year while still in her teens at Old River in Chambers County. She next taught at Fields Store for two years, and then in Navasota for several years. While teaching in Navasota, Bernice obtained a degree in elementary education from Sam Houston after attending summer school for about 12 years. Although she had a teaching certificate and a dozen years teaching experience, she had to do student teaching to graduate. After obtaining her degree, Bernice taught in Houston for two years. She and Arthur married during Thanksgiving of the second year. Bernice completed the school year in Houston and ended her teaching career at the age of 33, with 15 years of teaching experience and also having obtained a college degree. That is pretty amazing!

Arthur and Bernice lived in Hempstead at the home his parents had built and in 1955 built a new home on 11th Street, just southeast of the school. They had two children, Arthur Jr. and Ann. Arthur continued to deliver mail on Route 1 until he was forced to retire in 1960 at the age of 70, after 47 years.

He continued as president and chairman of the board of the Citizens State Bank until he sold his interest in the bank in 1963. He had worked for the bank for a total of 46 years. Arthur Jr. and Ann both completed high school in Hempstead, graduated from college, and found work elsewhere.

Arthur died in Hempstead in 1975 at the age of 85. After his death, a longtime friend said of Arthur, “He did more kind things than anyone in Hempstead.”

An elderly African-American man told Bernice, “God bless you ma’am, your husband was the best man I ever knew.” Bernice died in Hempstead in 1992. Arthur and Bernice Moore are buried in the Hempstead cemetery.