Moore, Charles E.

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

Charles E. Moore. When Charles E. Moore came home from college in 1887, his first efforts were directed along the line of the loan and mortgage business. He had been at it continuously ever since, now for thirty years, and had built up the largest organization handling loans and mortgages at Eureka or in that section of the state.

As the head of a successful business of this kind Mr. Moore's interests have naturally gone into a wider field of finance and business affairs. Since 1908 he had been president of the Citizens National Bank of Eureka. He is an active member of the Kansas State Bankers' Association and the American Bankers' Association. He is a director in the Citizens Building and Loan Association of Eureka, is a director of the Greenwood County Fair Association, owned business blocks and dwelling houses in the city, including the building in which his own offices are located on Main Street. While Mr. Moore is not to be classified as a farmer he had a direct interest in farming operations, and owned 6,000 acres in Greenwood and Kiowa counties.

He is one of the older native sons of the Sunflower State, and his people were in Kansas when it was still a territory. Charles E. Moore was born at Neosho Falls in Woodson County February 8, 1864. Both his father and grandfather were early settlers in the state. His paternal ancestors came originally from Ireland. His grandfather William Moore was born in the State of Ohio in 1815, moved in early days to Western Indiana, and in 1859 came out to Kansas, where he allied himself with the pioneer element. He died in Decatur County, Kansas, in 1896. P. M. Moore, father of the Eureka banker, was born near Greencastle, Indiana, in 1835, grew up there, and was twenty-two when he came to Woodson County, Kansas. That was in the year 1857. Kansas was still the hotbed of struggles between the slavery men and the free state men, and both life and property were insecure. As an early settler he developed one of the first quarter sections of land in Woodson County, his homestead being two miles northwest of Neosho Falls. He kept his home on that farm, which in the meantime was put under cultivation and bore many a crop of corn and other grain, but since 1883 had lived retired in Eureka. P. M. Moore is a republican and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married Melissa G. Anderson, who was also born near Richmond, Indiana, in 1845. Of their five children Charles E. was the second and the oldest now living. The oldest was Viola, who died at the age of twenty after her marriage to Park Van Nordstrend. Effie E., the next in age after Charles E., married R. Z. Swegle, who owned a bookstore at Augusta, Kansas; Ada L. is the wife of O. L. Cullison, a newspaper editor at Greeley, Kansas; Roy A., is an abstractor at Eureka.

Charles E. Moore grew up on his father's farm in Woodson County, attended the rural schools, and afterwards entered Baker University, where he graduated with the degree Bachelor of Arts in 1887. In 1911 his alma mater conferred upon him the degree Master of Arts. Mr. Moore is a trustee of Baker University. He is an active republican, and in 1916 was a delegate to the National Republican Convention in Chicago. He is past master of Fidelity Lodge, No. 106, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, is a member of Eureka Chapter, No. 54, Royal Arch Masons, Eureka Commandery, No. 45, Knights Templar, and of Wichita Consistory, No. 2, of the Scottish Rite. He also belongs to Beetle Camp No. 858 of the Modern Woodmen of America at Eureka.

Mr. Moore owned a comfortable home on Mulberry Street in Eureka. He was married in that city July 8, 1890, to Miss May Morgan, daughter of Thomas T. and Kate M. (Monroe) Morgan, who are both now deceased. Her father was for many years a merchant at Eureka, having located in that town in 1880. Mrs. Moore was educated in the grammar and high schools of Eureka, and also attended the old Southern Kansas Academy of the city. She is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and belongs to Queen Bess Chapter, No. 56, of the Eastern Star. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have one child, Morgan E., who is in business with his father.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

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