William Smith Moore

MOORE, William S. - William Smith Moore was born near Greenville, Tennessee in February, 1834 and died Sunday morning, June 3, 1917, at the hospital in Lincoln, where he was operated upon a few days ago. He was of a large family of children, he being the oldest, only one of whom, Uncle Jerry Moore of Texas, survive him. He moved to Arkansas in December 1858, with Uncle John R. Moore, who settled at Cincinnati. Soon after he arrived here he became a partner in business, blacksmithing, wagon making and later at milling, with Uncle Rankin Pyeatt. He afterwards married Uncle Rankin’s daughter, Miss Kate. To this union were born six children, Lonnie, Melvin, Henry, Charlie, Bettie and Lucy. Only three, Charlie Moore and Mrs. Lucy Gould of Cane Hill and Mrs. Bettie Buchanan of Clovis, New Mexico survive him. He had been married three times. His second wife was a Miss Moore. To this union was born one child that died in infancy. His third and present wife was Miss Annie Crawford. Besides the ones mentioned above he leaves three grandsons and four granddaughters, and a large number of friends to mourn their loss. Mr. Moore is one of the principal men who has made Cane Hill into what it is, and more especially, what it has been. He has been an ardent supporter of the church, school, and general welfare of everything that has been for the betterment of our town and community. He has been in the milling business more than half a century. He has tided many over the hunger line. He professed religion early in life and joined the Presbyterian church. After moving to Arkansas he joined the Cumberland Presbyterian church and when this church united with the union he went with the union. Few men in the Arkansas Presbytery has done more and been more loyal to it than he. Until the last few years he rarely missed a Presbytery. In his home church he has been an elder and Sunday School teacher for a number of years, in which capacity he will be greatly missed. His funeral services were held in the College Chapel by the Rev. Dr. M.L. Gillespie of Fayetteville assisted by Revs. Gaither and Johnston. The interment was made in the cemetery near the College. His life was very clearly shown in the large attendance from all over the county upon his funeral and burial as well as the heaps of beautiful flowers planted on his grave. [Prairie Grove Herald 6/7/1917]

Mrs. Annie Moore, widow of William S. Moore, who died June 3, 1917, filed Widow Application #29708 with the State Confederate Pension Board and was allowed a pension July 18, 1930, citing her husband’s service with Company B, 34thArkansas Infantry. [State of Arkansas Confederate Pension Archives] William S. Moore. miller and farmer, was born in Greene County, Tennessee, February 20, 1835, the son of Capt. Anthony, and grandson of David Moore, the latter being a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Anthony Moore was a farmer by occupation, and died in Greene County, Tennessee, in the spring of 1880. His wife whose maiden name was Nancy Helt, was also born in Tennessee. William S. Moore spent his youthful days on a farm in Tennessee, and made his home with his father until twenty-one years of age. He then learned the wagon-maker's trade and in the fall of 1858 came to Arkansas, locating in Canehill, where he worked at his trade until the summer of 1862, when he joined the Thirty-fourth Arkansas Infantry, Confederate States Army, and served until the close of the war. He participated in the battle of Prairie Grove, and was paroled in the summer of 1865. He then returned home, and formed a partnership with Mr. Pyeatt in the milling business, and erected the Canehill Mills, which was in running order by the spring of 1866. The mill has been remodeled and improved since it was erected, and is now one of the finest mills in Washington County. It has a combined roller and buhr process, and has a capacity of about forty barrels per day. They also manufacture some lumber, and in 1869 added a carding machine, which has proved very profitable. In 1861 Mr. Moore married Miss Kate Pyeatt, a daughter of his partner, J. R. Pyeatt, and their union was blessed in the birth of four children: Henry (who is a physician of the county), Charles R., Bettie and Lucy. Mrs. Moore died in 1877, and he afterward married his present wife, Miss Josephine Moore, a daughter of James Moore. She was born in East Tennessee, and was reared in Texas and Missouri. They are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and are worthy citizens of the county. Mr. Moore has a good farm, which he manages in connection with his mill, and a fine orchard of forty-five acres.

Cane Hill Mill

The original site of Billingsley Mill, which is commonly remembered

as the Cane Hill Mill, is marked with an overshot wheel that is 36 feet in

diameter and can still be seen on Jordan Creek along Highway 45

between Cane Hill and Clyde. The survey notes from 1832 calls "Mr.

Billingsley's mill ... one of the best in the country." According to

W. J. Lemke in his November 1961 Flashback article, "The Old Mill at

Cane Hill," before the Civil War John R. Pyeatt built a mill north of

Cane Hill. Later Pyeatt was joined by William S. Moore. Moore traveled

to Cincinnati to purchase new machinery. After Pyeatt's death in 1895,

Moore was joined by Walter Buchanan. Around 1902 the mill was moved

to a site one mile south of Cane Hill where it continued operations until

about the 1930s. This is the site marked today by the old mill wheel. At

various times the mill made flour and cornmeal, sawed logs, and carded

wool. The numerous photographs of this mill date to when it was the

Moore-Buchanan Mill.