Samuel A. Moore came to Davis County in 1853, and from that time until his death, in 1905, his name was closely entwined with its history. He was widely known throughout the State. We served as fellow members of the State Senate, in 1866, where he was distinguished for both his usefulness and his eloquence. He had been among the bravest of the brave as a soldier and officer in the Civil War. Of him, General Weaver, in connection with his remarks touching Dr. Selman, said:

The enemy was so close that we could hear the command of the enemies' officers to "Shoot low" for fear of shooting their own men.

condition. Colonel Moore was a small man, slight in figure, but what he lacked in physique, he made up in a heroism that was a part of his being.

He was fond of the pioneers and loved to dwell upon the scenes of the past. He had a lively imagination, a really poetic nature. Some of his impromptu addresses, especially those at the meetings of the Pioneer Law Makers' Association, might well constitute the bases of real poetry. In proof of this, I venture to give some extracts. At the meeting of the Pioneer Law Makers' Association in 1898, he gave his recollections of pioneer days in Iowa, to which we all listened with delight. In speaking of his old associates, he said:

If they were not all of our own kindred and tongue, they were united to us by ties of companionship and association, by the incidents and struggles connected with the lives of the pioneers. Sacred be their memories. The peace of the Infinite Father who giveth His beloved sleep is theirs, and His loving arms are around them. The years of young manhood gave us health and strength to battle with the conditions incidental to the pioneer who sought to build a home for his old age in the wilderness of prairie that stretched beyond his vision and seemed boundless in its length and grand in its wideness, like the wideness of the sea. As the years wear on, and the wrinkles and crow's feet come to mark the flight of time, and the old arm chair and the slippers and hickory cane become fixtures beside the grated fire, my memory wanders back fifty years to the little cabin home that sheltered wife and children--the priceless treasures of my young manhood twining around my heart strings, with a strength of tenderness and comfort that gave me a measure of wealth and happiness which the king in his palace never enjoyed, though purchased with the revenue of an empire. The water on the prairies, filtering through the grass and settling in the draws and little pools, was clear as crystal and pure as if filtered through a bed of diamonds. There was no ague to be found there.  

He was born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, in 1821. His father died when he was but six years old; at eight he was apprenticed to learn the printer's trade, but after four years, he ran away from this service because of mistreatment. He had served long enough, however, to learn the art of typesetting, and in 1849 started a Whig paper called "The Spirit of the West," at Columbus, Indiana, and received the appointment of Postmaster, from President Fillmore. In 1850 he was elected to the Indiana Legislature. In 1851 he came to Davis County, Iowa, purchased some land and then went to St. Paul, Minnesota, whence in 1853 he moved to Davis County, bringing his family there from Indiana, and settling on the land he had before purchased. In 1855 he was elected County Judge. In speaking of that, he says:

I tried to fill that office to the best of my ability. The responsibilities that were placed upon the official under the old county judge system would come only to a man of empire today: The appointment of executors and administrators, the