Original Highland Township Landowner Jacob W. Moore This is Jacob Wilkie Moore whose biography was published in American Biographical History of Eminent and Self-Made Men of the State of Michigan, Western Biographical Publishing Co., Cincinnati (1878), First Congressional District, p. 100. That account reads as follows: MOORE, JACOB WILKIE, Detroit, was born in Geneva, New York, May 13, 1814. He is the son of Aaron Moore and Mary Wilkie, and grandson of General Moore, of Massachusetts. Mr. Moore's father died in 1817. His mother afterwards married Peter N. Hard, who had charge of the academy at Geneva for several years. The family removed to Mt. Morris, Livingston County, New York, and settled on a piece of wild land, which Mr. Moore helped to clear. At the age of sixteen, he chose the trade of a silversmith. Finding the business too confining, he abandoned it, after three years' service, and persuaded his step-father to sell his farm and emigrate to the Territory of Michigan. They embarked at Buffalo, on board the steamer "William Penn" and, after a five days' passage, arrived in Detroit, November 1, 1833. Mr. Moore soon left, by wagon - the only means of travel at that time - for Ann Arbor, where he remained about one year. He then went to Monroe, and became a clerk; first, in the American House - a hotel kept by S. S. Parker; and, afterwards, in the grocery store of the late James McBride. His savings, having reached the sum of fifty dollars, were invested in forty acres of Government land, which he soon sold for one hundred dollars. Thus began his real estate speculations, in which he has been quite successful. In company with Mr. Sherman, Mr. Moore took a contract for excavating on the line of the Wabash and Maumee Canal, at Toledo; after carrying on the work for a year, he sold out to other parties. Upon the breaking out of the Toledo War, he went with the militia to preserve the rights of Michigan. On his return, he settled at Flat Rock, Wayne County, where there was a reservation of Wyandotte Indians. In the Patriot War of 1838-39, Mr. Moore was employed as a secret agent of the United States Government, which position he filled satisfactorily, receiving his soldier's bounty of one hundred and sixty acres of land. In 1845 he went into the general real estate business, which he followed success fully for many years. In 1859 Mr. Moore was appointed United States Consul at Windsor, Canada. He was the first Consul to raise the American flag on the western borders of Canada; and, although the town was filled with rebels who had made threats to tear it down, Mr. Moore kept it waving over the consulate throughout his term of service. During the civil war, he took an active part in the Union cause. For several years, he was Corresponding Secretary of the O. D. C. S.; and, at their last annual meeting in New York, he was created a life peer -an honor conferred upon only two others in the United States. Mr. Moore served eight years as a member of the Board of Education; and was elected Secretary of the Board, which office he resigned. He served as Deputy Collector of Customs, under Collector Charles G. Hammond, and was afterwards appointed to a position in the Secret Service Department. He is an active member of the Methodist Church; and has served as class-leader, exhorter, and Sabbath-school superintendent. Mr. Moore was married, in 1843, to Margaret Berthelet, daughter of the late Henry Berthelet. Her death occurred February 18, 1875. Mr. Moore has one son, Joseph B. Moore, who is connected with the First National Bank of Detroit. Based on the foregoing account it does not appear Jacob W. Moore ever resided on his purchase in Highland Township. |
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