Joseph Pierce "Bud" Moore was born 16 September 1845
near Paris, Arkansas, during a brief move south. After serving in
the Civil War, he prospected for gold in Yellowstone, Wyoming,
and Montana, between 1865-1870. Then in the 1870s he was one
of the first traveling representatives for the Singer Sewing
Machine Company. He also farmed, and hauled White River
rock from a quarry, to be used in the construction of Old Main,
on the new University of Arkansas campus. At Mt. Comfort on 3
July 1892, Bud Moore married Nancy Ellen Lamons. She was
born 12 May 1873 at Greenville, Tennessee, as were her parents,
Isaac Newton and Clara Ellen (Wright) Lamons. (The parents
moved to Arkansas in 1877, and both were buried at Westville,
Oklahoma.) Bud and Nancy Ellen Moore had two girls, Lottie
Lee born 15 July 1893, and Nan born 3 August 1895, on the
Moore family farm. Later that same year, the mother Nancy died.
Once more, the pioneer grandmother Matilda took on the job of
raising small girls, although she was 82 and nearly blind. The
girls attended the Deane School and later the Meadow Valley
School, which stood where the U. A. Agri Park is now. In 3
November 1906, Matilda went to a well deserved rest, and hers
was the last burial in the small cemetery on the farm. Then 13
year old Lottie and 11 year old Nan took over the job of running
the home for their father. Their log home burned in 1910, and
was replaced by the two story frame home which now stands,
surrounded by tall trees. Their father never remarried, and died
25 March 1919. Nan Moore began teaching in 1914, but earned
her degree from the University of Arkansas in 1947. Nan was a
school teacher for 46 years, including 34 years at Tuscon,
Ariwna. She retired in 1961 and lived on the home place with
her sister until she died 24 January 1987.
Robert Bennett Crouch was born 3 December 1892 at Mt.
Sterling, Kentucky, and died 15 April 1969. His father, Isaac
Breckenridge Crouch, from Bourbon County, Kentucky, brought
the first registered saddle horses to Oklahoma in 1896. In 1913,
Bennett Crouch of Vinita, Oklahoma, moved to Fayetteville,
Arkansas, to train and show horses for Edward Orn (on the
present Paul Martin farm). Bennett was a farmer and stockman,
and one of the organizers of The Farm Bureau, where he was on
the board of directors. He also served as a director of the Meadow
Valley School. Obviously, the 8 December 1915 marriage of
Bennett Crouch and Lottie Lee Moore was a good union, and
their family helped them celebrate their Golden Anniversary in
1965. They spent all their married 'lives on the same farm, where
their seven Crouch children were born: Mildred Lee born 28
July 1917 and died 26 February 1937; Joe Bennett born 30 May
1921, married Christine Allen and had Joe Bennett and Allen
Oliver; Mary Carolyn born 12 November 1923, married Zara Lee
Thomas and had Carolyn Lee, Michael, Joe, and Gerald Dale;
Robert Henry born 31 December 1925, married Virginia Smith
and had Robert W. and Marilyn Kay; Patricia Lucille born 29
May 1929, married H. Dean Browner and had Donna Jean,
Nancy Ellen, and Janet Kay; Kathryn Nan born 12 August 1933
and died 30 October 1933; and Charlotte Sue born 20 March
1935 and died 28 October 1935. The three oldest surviving
Crouch children still live here, their grandchildren comprising
the seventh generation of the Moore family to live in Washington
County.
By: Patricia (Crouch) Browner