The 2015 Moore Reunion
Daniel and Susan's oldest living grandson at 91 young years of age, the son of Clarence Madison Wilson, SR and Bessie Moore Wilson, Clarence Madison Wilson, JR was there as usual. He is an inspiration and treasure to all of us. Also there were Clarence JR's sisters Beverly Wilson Richmann, and Mary Lou Wilson Bazzell. My own mother, Iva Delores Wilson Ragan, passing on in 1976, was their older sister. Uncle JR (Clarence, JR--Bud to his brother and sisters) has vivid memories of Daniel and Susan. Mary recalls as a little girl singing to her grandfather. Bev didn't know her grandfather, he passing in 1936, but remembers Granny Susan, she living with Bev and her mother Bessie until her death in the little house on Reece's Creek in Wayne County in 1949.
There were cousins aplenty, great grandchildren and great-great, great-great-great, and great-great-great-great grandchildren of Daniel and Susan. We had a first time visit by Kenneth Moore, a great-great grandson of Daniel by his first marriage to Margaret Sutton, and by way of their first son, James Henry Moore, and Kenneth's nephew Jeff Moore of Butler County, Missouri.
My son Scott Ragan attended for the first time, my sons Matthew and Kent for the first time since they were children. My granddaughter Kayla Ragan and grandson Brandon Ragan attended also on their inaugural Moore Reunion.
Missing from the reunion was Cecil Wilson, brother to Clarence JR, Mary, and Bev, and also a grandson of Daniel and Susan. Cecil was fighting a serious infection in St. Louis after bladder cancer surgery. He was missed and in our thoughts and prayers.*
The reunion lasted from about 10 A.M. until about 2 P.M., the covered dishes brought by everyone sufficiently ravished. There was fried chicken, pulled pork, beef brisket and assorted other main courses, side dishes and desserts enough to feed everyone with plenty to box up for the trips back home.
To all that contributed to the planning this year, we all offer our heartfelt thanks and gratitude. We all don't recognize enough the work and efforts of Connie Wilson Hicks that she puts into making the reunion arrangements each year. Thanks, Connie!
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| The Moore Reunion 2015 |
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| First Cousins, Great Grandchildren of Daniel and Susan Moore and Grandchildren of Bessie Moore Wilson and Clarence Madison Wilson, SR. L-R, Back Row: David Bazzell, Julia Bazzell Baker, Keith Ragan, Ron Wilson, Ken Ragan. L-R, Front row: Anna Lilia "Lillie" Madrid Voirol, Connie Wilson Hicks, Patsey Moore Wood.
The afternoon found several of us, Aunts Mary and Bev, my brother Ken and his wife Suzanne, my wife Sandy, my sons and grandchildren, making the trip to Wayne County to spend the night at Miller's Lodge on Lake Wappello in order to visit the cemeteries and old places of our ancestry on Sunday.
After a good dinner the night before, we met at Kinfolk's Restaurant in Greenville for a hearty breakfast buffet, ate until we were dizzy, and headed to Rucker Cemetery for a tour of our ancestry. The cemetery was originally purchased by Meshack Ward, my great-great-great grandfather, for family interments and was donated for public use. It was originally called Ward Cemetery. It was an initiation to heritage of sorts for my sons and grandchildren. In the cemetery were my sons' fourth great grandparents, Meshack and Elizabeth Wilson Ward, their third great grandmother, Mahala Ward Tarlton and possibly the unmarked grave of her husband and their third great grandfather Alexander Craig Tarlton, their third great grandmother Missouri Johnson Toler Williams, their great-great grandmother Susan Ann Tarlton Moore, their great grandparents Clarence Madison Wilson SR. and Bessie Moore Wilson and numbers of cousins, aunts and uncles too numerous to list here.
We followed the cemetery visit with a trip down the road to where the original Moore cabin once stood, and the spring which made life possible for all of our Moore, Wilson, and Dees ancestry. It is also the site of my Mother's birth and that of her brother Francis Marion (Hank) Wilson and her older sister Marie Wilson Maloney as it was the home occupied by Bessie and Clarence Wilson, well after the passing of John and Eliza Moore, in the first years of their life together.
We were joined by and met for the first time by Russell Moore of Patterson, a descendant of Robert Glenn Moore, the brother of Daniel, and cousin Ruth Ann Dees Louis and husband Robert Louis. As always, we took turns having the ritual sip of cool water flowing from beneath the stump of the sycamore tree, a toast to our forefathers and mothers that somehow made a living here and raised families whose offspring populate in numbers the citizenry of Missouri and the surrounding states. Their willingness to endure, to fight, and to dream and build made our lives possible. The toast is always in their honor. 
Sunday, September 13, at the Moore Spring. L-R: Kayla Ragan, Scott Ragan, Brandon Ragan, Ken Ragan, Matt Ragan, Mary Wilson Bazzell, Kent Ragan, Beverly Wilson Richmann, Keith Ragan, Ruth Ann Dees Louis.
 Russell Moore of Patterson joins us for the first time for the ritual sip at the Spring.
We concluded the day with Russell Moore, my Aunt Mary Wilson Bazzell, my sons and grandson, making the trek to the old Woolard Cemetery to pay homage to Daniel Moore, his parents, John and Eliza Moore and numbers of graves of Moore ancestry.
The trip involved a hike of some notable distance involving both a measurable ascent and descent along a washed out old wagon road into appreciable undergrowth, thorns, and fallen trees. A spry 82 year young Aunt Mary matched every one of us step for step, an endurance and perseverance she attributes to her mother Bessie Moore Wilson, who she said "would have made the trip, too." And knowing my grandmother, I believe she would have, too! Aunt Mary, you are quite the remarkable lady.
The memories of the reunion and the trip and adventures of discovery of the following day in Wayne County will long accompany me on my continued journey into old age. I hope they are recalled with clarity by all those that came to the reunion and to Wayne County on Sunday with equal fondness. I especially treasure the time of Aunt Beverly and Aunt Mary on Saturday night in the log cabin at Miller's Lodge to share their memories of their big sister, my mother Dee Wilson Ragan with my sons of a grandmother they never were blessed with knowing. Scott, Matt, and Kent have lives that are richer for the memories shared, the love on display. As is mine.
Until next year love each other, take care of each other, treasure the memories you make. It is almost a certainty that we all will not be here at the next reunion, so take nothing for granted and offer prayers of thanksgiving for all those, living and in memory, that have enriched our lives.
L-R: Back row: Sandy Ragan. Kayla Ragan, Matthew Ragan, Brandon Ragan, Scott Ragan. Front row: the amazing Aunt Mary Wilson Bazzell, and Kent Ragan. Miller's Lodge Sunday, September 13, 2015.
*
 He is survived by wife Sherrill Lea Wilson of Greenville, and children, Victoria, Karen, and Brian. He is missed by everyone except the fish residing in the St. Francis River.
Copyright by the author, Keith Wayne Ragan, September 20, 2015
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