Samuel (Houston) Houston Moore

Eva and Sam Moore Buxton, Merble, and Moores in a Wheat Field Houston and Eva Moore Houston Moore Home, 1906

Samuel, known as Houston, was born on February 19th, 1900 near Billings, Oklahoma.  Houston's father was William Dean Moore and his mother was Lola G Cramer.  His paternal grandparents were Samuel Houston Moore and Margaret Emma Dean. He had two brothers and a sister, named Charley, Harry and Allie.  He died at the age of 76 in 1976 in Medford, Oklahoma.

• General Notes

  Houston Moore was born February 19, 1900, on his father's homestead near Billings, Oklahoma. In 1901 his father sold his place and bought one five and a half miles east of Renfrow, where Houston and his brothers Charley and Harry and sister, Allie, grew up.
  
  Houston and Charley rode bicycles five and a half miles into Renfrow to attend high school for two years. Then they transferred to Medford High School where Houston graduated in 1919.
  
  In the winter of 1918 a heavy snowstorm came just before Christmas and roads were blocked. In order to get home for Christmas the two Moore boys walked from Medford to Renfrow on the railroad tracks, stayed over night at the Renfrow hotel, and then walked home across fields. The snow was as high as fence posts in places. They arrived home about noon.
  
  Houston graduated from Oklahoma A&M College in 1924. He was on the wrestling team and won his letter in wrestling.
  
  He had always loved farm life, so after finishing college he decided to farm. His parents had moved to Caldwell, so he started farming on their home place.
  
  In November 1924 Houston married Eva Bachman. She had been teaching in Grant County four years.
  Houston started farming with five horses, two cows, two brood sows, and some farm machinery given to him by his father.
  
  We started housekeeping with an iron cook stove in the kitchen. It would burn coal or wood, and kept the kitchen warm in the wintertime. We had a kitchen cabinet and also a three burner Perfection oil stove for summer cooking. We had a wood burning heater in the living room. Houston and my brother would go down on Deer Creek and cut wood and haul it home in a wagon, for fuel.
  
  For lights we had one Coleman gasoline lamp, and several kerosene lamps. A hand power washer was used for about two years, then we bought a gasoline powered washer. Water for washing was heated in a boiler on the kitchen stove.
  
  Houston bought his first tractor in 1928, at Twin City.
  
  Our first baby boy was born in January 1927 and named Samuel Houston, Jr. Dr. W. P. Grimaud was then at Renfrow, and he came to the home and delivered our babies. We had four boys: Sam, Willard, Lawrence, and Wayne.
  
  The depression was upon us, and money was scarce. In April 1932 wheat was 35 cents a bushel. Houston ground wheat and soaked it in barrels of water and fed it to hogs. We raised chickens, milked cows, and had a garden, and there were fruit trees on the farm, to help supply food. In 1936 the grasshoppers were so bad they completely stripped a field of green corn, leaving only the stubs.
  
  Our boys grew up and attended Flint school, and then went to high school at Deer Creek. They drove tractors and helped with farm work as soon as they were old enough. We had many happy times together. The coming of rural electrification was a wonderful help to farm life.
  
  In 1945 Sam was drafted into the Army. After his discharge he went to OSU, graduating in 1950. He was in ROTC, so was called back in the Korean War, serving as a lieutenant. Lawrence served two and a half years with the Air Force in Japan. Wayne was drafted and served in Korea.
  
  We moved into Medford in 1974. Houston died in 1976.
  
  All our boys are married and have families. Sam lives in Tulsa, Willard and two of his sons farm north of Deer Creek, Wayne lives at South Haven, Kansas, and farms, and Lawrence lives in Liberal, Kansas.
  
  by: Eva M. Moore, History of Grant County Families, 1980
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  William Dean Moore was born in Wayne County, Iowa in 1868. His father, Samuel Houston Moore died of pneumonia when Will was only four years old. When his mother remarried, Will and his brother Frank went to live with relatives. He lived with an uncle, Mr.. Hill, in Cherokee County, Kansas. He worked two years for Mr. Smith in McPherson County, Kansas, when he was about sixteen. Then Will and Frank went to Washington and Oregon and worked in the lumber and at farm work.
  
  They returned to Kansas for the opening of the Cherokee Strip. They registered at Caldwell, Kansas. On September 16, 1893, Will was waiting at the Kansas State line south of Caldwell for the signal so he could make the run into the Cherokee Strip so he might have his own home. He was not alone; his brother, Frank, and brothers-in-law, Andrew Wilson and Nick Hobson, were also making the race.
  
  The four men had a chuck wagon, but Will chose to ride his horse in the race. His horse stepped in a hole and fell and Will's leg was hurt. He staked a claim that evening about three miles east and ten miles south of Caldwell. Deer Creek ran through his quarter. When he awoke the next morning, there was another man on this quarter. Will said, "The land didn't look too good and the man was a rough looking character, so I decided to go back to Caldwell and see if I could locate the chuck wagon."
  
  Will didn't know at the time but Frank had staked a claim five and a half miles east of Renfrow, Oklahoma; and the brothers-in-law staked the farm across the road from Frank for Will's mother, Margaret Moore McCart. This was about three miles north of where Will spent the night.
  
  Will stayed at Caldwell for about two weeks, until his leg got so he could ride again, and then he went to Enid to the land office. He found a claim south of Billings in Noble County that had not been filed on. He built a sod house. The first two years after the, opening were dry and they did not raise a crop. In the fall, Will took his three horses and wagon and went to Cherokee County, Kansas where his uncle lived to shuck corn. Will said if he didn't raise a crop the next year, he was going to leave Oklahoma; but he raised a crop the next year.
  
  In 1898, Will built a two room frame house. In 1899, he married Lola G. Cramer who lived about eight miles west of his homestead. Lola was born in Wayne County, Iowa in 1879. Lola's parents came to Oklahoma two or three years after the strip opened.
  
  In the spring of 1901, Will sold his farm and bought a farm five and one half miles east of Renfrow and across the road west from Frank's farm. William and Lola and their children, Samuel Houston, Charley, Allie and Harry continued to live on this farm until 1920. Then they bought a house in Caldwell so their children could go to high school. Houston, Charley and Allie continued their education and graduated from Oklahoma State University. Harry married and decided to farm. He lived on a farm just two miles from the home place until 1937 when he moved to Kay County to continue farming. Harry retired and now lives in Blackwell. His son Max is principal at Pond Creek High School.
  
  Lola died at Caldwell in 1937. Will died at Winfield, Kansas in 1948. About five years previous to his death he went to Winfield to live with his daughter, Allie, who was a teacher in the high school at Winfield.
  
  Charley died in 1972 at his home in San Antonio where he had lived many years.
  
  by: Allie Moore, Winfield, Kansas
  

Details of Houston's family with Eva Marie Bachman