Lives Between the Dimensions

The 2015 Moore Family Reunion was a day of visitation, feasting, and re-telling of family stories experienced on a pleasant 70 degree day in Westside Park in Fenton, Missouri on Saturday, September 12, 2015.  The reunion, an annual event the Saturday after Labor Day each year, drew an about average attendance of the descendants of John William Moore and Eliza Berry Moore of Wayne County, Missouri.  Most attending were direct descendants of their son, Daniel Moore, a Civil War and Plains Wars Cavalry soldier, and his third wife, Susan Ann Tarlton Moore. 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. ...

  For Pam, Dan, and Mike Foreword My Aunt Marie, sister to my mother Iva Delores (Dee) Wilson Ragan, was born July 11, 1916 to Clarence Madison Wilson and Bessie Edith Moore Wilson near the now ghost town of Ojibway in Wayne County, Missouri.  More correctly, she was born in what was known as the Moore Community. Her formative years were not easy.  She was born with polio and endured a number of operations at Shriner's Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, a condition that left her with a slight limp in her adult years, but in no way detracted from her attractiveness as she reached adulthood.  She was a pretty woman, and her disease and pain did not define her. Her voice was deep and raspy, her demeanor always pleasant when I was around, in spite of trials and tribulations in her personal life.  She was warm, deeply religious and always proud of her children and extended family.  My mother used to drive frequently from our home in Paducah, Kentucky to vi...

The subject of Eminent Domain came up at the last Moore Family Reunion in Arnold, Missouri on September 6, 2014... specifically as to how many acres of land were owned by Daniel Moore at the time of the government seizures.  I had read somewhere of 120 acres, and Uncle Cecil Wilson clearly stated that he felt it had been much more than that.  I knew he was right, but, couldn't get a fix on where I had come up with that figure. Since our next reunion is at Rucker in Wayne County, September 5, 2015, and a visit to the Moore Spring and the old home sites along Wet Fork Creek in the Ojibway Valley, I felt the subject was due some research. I believe we all will have an enhanced appreciation of our sight line from the ridge where Daniel Moore's home once gave shelter to  Bessie,  Ann, and Ted  (Doad), across the creek valley in front in one direction and to the wooded hills in the back as a result of the research.  We can only imagine at the effort and sacrifi...

Another Chapter of Our Story By Keith Wayne Ragan    The Civil War in Wayne County, Missouri was not fought with bugles, swords, and spotless uniforms.   It has been said to be, by several historians, the seat of the bloodiest guerrilla warfare of any arena of the Civil War in the United States..   Pretty much everyone knew everyone else.   If they weren’t neighbors, they knew each other from extended family alliances, trips to the general mercantile, the sawmills, the gristmills, blacksmith shops, or church or arbor gatherings.    The militias that were formed for both sides were often composed of those that advocated slavery and/or had strong ties to Southern ancestry, vs. those that did not.   Just as often, the alliances chosen were simply community or neighborhood commonalities.   The old locales of the Ojibway and Lost Creek communities, for instance, were not seats of slavery, their immediate ancestry were not ...

Honoring the Memory and Sacrifice of RAYMOND DONALD DALLAS (OCTOBER 19, 1923 – AUGUST 2 1944) And the Crew of the “I’ll Get By” Lt. Raymond Donald Dallas The Final Mission Raymond Dallas, Navigator, 1 st LT., while on a combat mission aboard the B-17 “I’ll Get By”, perished along with 6 other crew members on August 2, 1944 near Airan, France.   The exact location is Airan, Calvados between Caen and Lisieux. The crew of “I’ll Get By” on that mission were: Capt Robert Oris Baber, Pilot, KIA 1 st Lt Jasper W. Kaylor, JR., Co-Pilot, KIA 1 st Lt Raymond Donald Dallas, Navigator, KIA 1 st Lt Frank T. Sohm, Bombardier, KIA T/Sgt Oscar C. Walrod, Flight Engineer, KIA T/Sgt Robert V. Hill, Radioman, KIA S/Sgt Donald W. Phillips, Ball Gunner, POW S/Sgt Walter J. Collyear, JR., Tail Gunner, POW S/Sgt Barney Lipkin, Waist Gunner, POW Capt Elmer E. Brockman, Observer, KIA Anthony (Tony) Dallas is the lone surviving sibling of Raymo...