HON. DANIEL MOOAR

MOOAR, STARK, MAYNARD, SOUTHGATE

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 3/14/2020 at 15:44:24

HON. DANIEL MOOAR, - Among the prominent citizens of Keokuk, is Judge Daniel Mooar, at this time President of the Keokuk Gas Light and Coke Company.

He was born in Hillsboro County, New Hampshire, and was the youngest of fifteen children, fourteen of whom lived to grow up to man and womanhood. He is just two generations from
England upon his father’s side, and two from Scotland upon his mother’s.

His grandfather, David Mooar, came from the interior of England when quite a boy and settled in New England. He was of the Anglo-Norman race, and hence the peculiarity in the spelling of the name. He was in the revolutionary war, and at the time the English spread the small-pox through the American camps he fell a victim to that disease.

Judge Mooar’s father, Jacob Mooar, was also in the revolutionary war, and fought in the battle of Bennington under Gen. Stark when in his seventeenth year.

The Judge while quite small was sent to a country district school but some time after the death of his father, which occurred when he was in his twelfth year, he was placed in an academy in Chester, Vermont. While in that institution one of his teachers was the Hon Horace Maynard, now Congressman from Tennessee. The remainder of his academical education was in a classical school in Milford, New Hampshire.

In the spring of 1839, while quite a youth, he came out to Cincinnati, and finding nothing to do there, he went over into Northern Kentucky, and for some time taught a district school in Grant County in that State.

After having earned sufficient to warrant his undertaking the study of the law, he became a student in the law office of the Hon. M. M. Benton, at Covington, and subsequently attended the Law College in Cincinnati, and graduated in that institution, and was admitted to the bar in March, 1843.

He settled in Covington, immediately upon the opposite side of the river from Cincinnati, which enabled him to enjoy all the advantages of that beautiful and thrifty city.

In the spring of 1844 he was married to Lydia A. Southgate, eldest daughter of the Hon. Geo. M. Southgate, of Kentucky.

Immediately upon going to the bar he was necessarily thrown in contact and competition with the very best legal talent the country afforded. It being a well known fact that at that day Kentucky was celebrated for her able statesmen and jurists.

With the bright examples before him of the statesmanship and legal ability of such men as Clay, Crittenden, Hardin, Robertson, the Wickliffs and Marshalls, together with the able lawyers that he was daily brought in contact with coupled with the fact that he was poor in purse, and with a family to support, placed him in a position at once well calculated to inspire and bring out the entire energies of the man.

As an evidence that he fully comprehended and appreciated the position he was placed in, from the time, he went to the bar, he exhibited an energy and advancement in his profession that meant success, and enabled him in a very short time to acquire sufficient business for an ample support.

He continued to prosecute his profession in Kentucky for about twenty-five years, most of which time he had a large and profitable practice. He established the reputation of being a profound lawyer, a safe counselor, and a man of high sense of honor and business integrity. Hence his success.

During his professional career, he never exhibited much taste for politics, or let them interfere particularly with his business although he was a member of the City Council as far back as 1841, and a member of the Legislature of Kentucky in 1849-50.

By a provision of the constitution of Kentucky, the members of the bar in that State are authorized to fill temporary vacancies in judgeships. Judge Mooar was several times, during his professional career, put upon the bench by a vote of the members of the bar of his district. This we consider no ordinary compliment, inasmuch as the members of the bar are presumed to be more competent than the general voting community, to judge of the necessary qualifications of persons for such an office.

The result of his labors in Kentucky was an ample fortune.

In 1865, his health, in consequence of constant application to business, had become very much impaired. In that year, having interest in Keokuk, he came out to look after them, and after having remained for some time, and finding that his health was very much improved by the change, and in the meantime two of his daughters having been married to gentlemen in Keokuk, he concluded to make Iowa his future home. Since which time he has been settling up his affairs in Kentucky, and from time to time transferring his property to Iowa.

He is now among the substantial and solid men of Keokuk. Besides owning the controlling interest in the Keokuk Gas Light and Coke Company, of which he is now President, his good judgment has been marked by the purchase of a large amount of the best business property on Main and other streets in the city of Keokuk. He has also purchased a large amount of unimproved property in and adjoining the city.

Judge Mooar is at this time between fifty and sixty years of age, and like a true philosopher is now laying off much of the details of business, although he is at his office in the city nearly every day when not absent from home.

He has taken up his residence on “Floral Hill.” a beautiful farm of 130 acres adjoining the city, which he is improving from time to time in a manner that exhibits the sound judgment and refined taste of the true gentleman.

He is a man of decided ability and varied information. Although very positive in his character, he is at the same time kind and obliging in his nature, and is possessed of high social qualities. Such men are really ornaments to any community, and Keokuk has been fortunate in adding such an one to her cizizens.

Source:
Illustrated Historical ATLAS of Lee County, IOWA
A. T. Andreas
Chicago, ILL.
1874

Transcription by Mary H. Cochrane, Volunteer