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Below is a family biography included in The History of Darke County, Ohio published by W. H. Beers & Co. in 1880.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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GEORGE WASHINGTON MOORE, merchant, Greenville, was born in Warren Co., Ohio, Jan. 20, 1825; his father, Findley Moore, was a well-known teacher, whose field of service was principally in the counties of Warren, Montgomery, Butler and Preble; from him, many prominent men in those counties received their rudimentary drill; his wife was Elizabeth Dunlap, born in Mifflin Co., Penn. Our subject’s youth was spent at the cabinet-maker’s trade; he had no school privileges after he was 11 years of age; the first three years of his majority were employed as a huckster; in the fall of 1849, he went to California, and for eight years was engaged in mining and in transporting merchandise to the mines; in the summer of 1857, he crossed the Plains from Los Angeles to St. Joseph with a drove of wild horses and traded them off for cattle, which he fed through the winter of 1857-58, and, in the spring of 1858, he sold these to the Government for the Utah expedition against the Mormons’; on his way from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, he encamped for several days on the site of the Mountain Meadow massacre, and east of the Rocky Mountains, met and conversed with the ill-fated party respecting their hazardous journey; in September, 1858, he located in Greenville, and, in company with his brother-in-law, Michael Miller, embarked in the dry-goods trade; this arrangement lasted five years; in August, 1863, he entered into his present co-partnership with the Hon. John L. Winner, and for some years the dry-goods house of Moore & Winner has been the leading one in Greenville. In December, 1861, he married Miss Mary Porter, daughter of John W. Porter, Esq., of Greenville. Mr. Moore has given his exclusive attention to business, and, with the exception of local positions on the Board of Education and Town Council, has never filled any public office. Though often solicited to become a candidate for the General Assembly, he has always declined, and, in the fall of 1878, he was earnestly pressed by prominent men of all parties to allow himself to be made an independent candidate for Congress, under circumstances that gave the most flattering prospect of success, but he declined. In 1879, the Democratic Senatorial Convention for the counties of Darke, Miami and Butler, unanimously nominated him for the State Senate, and he was triumphantly elected. He is a refined and courteous gentleman of the old school, with sound sense, a clear head and unimpeachable integrity; he is an easy, agreeable and fluent speaker, and is, in everything he is connected with, a resolute worker.

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This family biography is one of 659 biographies included in The History of Darke County, Ohio published in 1880 by W. H. Beers & Co.  For the complete description, click here: Darke County, Ohio History and Genealogy

View additional Darke County, Ohio family biographies here: Darke County, Ohio Biographies

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