Lottie Lee Moore

Lottie Lee Moore Crouch

Lottie Lee (Moore) Crouch lives on the same farm, in the

Meadow Valley Community, that has been in her family for 150

years. The Moore/Crouch land has lately been cut up by the new

Highway 112171 by-pass intersection. The first Moore to migrate

to Washington County was Samuel Moore, born 5 July 1783 at

Martinsburg, West Virginia. In March 1805 at Gallatin, Sumner

County, Tennessee, he married Elizabeth "Betsy" Pierce. They

had one son, Joseph Pierce Moore, born 13 April 1806, and the

young mother died 27 December 1807. On 27 December 1808

Samuel Moore second married Jane Dickson and they had eight

children in Tennessee: Elizabeth, John Pavett, Nancy Isabella,

Margaret Dickson, Martha Jane, Allen Mathis, Francis Marion

and Mary Eliza. Samuel Moore was a lieutenant in the War of

1812, and a warm personal friend of General Andrew Jackson.

Around 1836 the Moores moved to Washington County, Arkansas,

where Samuel farmed, although he had earned his living in

Tennessee making spinning machines. By 1846 he moved to

Rusk, Cherokee County, Texas, where he died 8 March 1872.

Samuel's oldest son Joseph P. Moore, on 18 October 1832,

married Matilda Cummings Abbott at Murfreesboro, Tennessee,

where she was born 8 December 1813. In August 1837 they purchased

the Moore/Crouch farm in Washington County, Arkansas.

In the 1840s Joseph had a racehorse track, where the present

highways intersect. Joseph and Matilda Moore had seven sons,

who were raised on the homestead farm: Thomas Jefferson,

Stephen, David, George Pierce, Joseph Pierce Jr. "Bud", Samuel

and John. Their father died 27 November 1850 and was buried in

a small family cemetery just north of the present barn, which

contains eight family graves. David died in 1851, and in 1860

Steve, Sam, and Tom's young wife all died of typhoid and were

buried there.

Tom, George and Bud served in the Civil War. Tom took a

slave with him when he went to war. In 1861, Bud dreamed Tom

had died. A few days later, the slave returned home with Tom's

horse, from Dardanelle, Arkansas, where he had died of typhoid.

Tom's widowed mother Matilda raised his one year old daughter,

and endured the hardships of the war, on this family farm. Their

meat had to be hidden in nearby woods, from raiding armies and

bushwhackers. Tom's hidden violin was discovered and stolen.

But part of the pioneer family survived the war.

Joseph Pierce "Bud" Moore was born 16 September 1845

near Paris, Arkansas, during a brief move south. After serving in

the Civil War, he prospected for gold in Yellowstone, Wyoming,

and Montana, between 1865-1870. Then in the 1870s he was one

of the first traveling representatives for the Singer Sewing

Machine Company. He also farmed, and hauled White River

rock from a quarry, to be used in the construction of Old Main,

on the new University of Arkansas campus. At Mt. Comfort on 3

July 1892, Bud Moore married Nancy Ellen Lamons. She was

born 12 May 1873 at Greenville, Tennessee, as were her parents,

Isaac Newton and Clara Ellen (Wright) Lamons. (The parents

moved to Arkansas in 1877, and both were buried at Westville,

Oklahoma.) Bud and Nancy Ellen Moore had two girls, Lottie

Lee born 15 July 1893, and Nan born 3 August 1895, on the

Moore family farm. Later that same year, the mother Nancy died.

Once more, the pioneer grandmother Matilda took on the job of

raising small girls, although she was 82 and nearly blind. The

girls attended the Deane School and later the Meadow Valley

School, which stood where the U. A. Agri Park is now. In 3

November 1906, Matilda went to a well deserved rest, and hers

was the last burial in the small cemetery on the farm. Then 13

year old Lottie and 11 year old Nan took over the job of running

the home for their father. Their log home burned in 1910, and

was replaced by the two story frame home which now stands,

surrounded by tall trees. Their father never remarried, and died

25 March 1919. Nan Moore began teaching in 1914, but earned

her degree from the University of Arkansas in 1947. Nan was a

school teacher for 46 years, including 34 years at Tuscon,

Ariwna. She retired in 1961 and lived on the home place with

her sister until she died 24 January 1987.

Robert Bennett Crouch was born 3 December 1892 at Mt.

Sterling, Kentucky, and died 15 April 1969. His father, Isaac

Breckenridge Crouch, from Bourbon County, Kentucky, brought

the first registered saddle horses to Oklahoma in 1896. In 1913,

Bennett Crouch of Vinita, Oklahoma, moved to Fayetteville,

Arkansas, to train and show horses for Edward Orn (on the

present Paul Martin farm). Bennett was a farmer and stockman,

and one of the organizers of The Farm Bureau, where he was on

the board of directors. He also served as a director of the Meadow

Valley School. Obviously, the 8 December 1915 marriage of

Bennett Crouch and Lottie Lee Moore was a good union, and

their family helped them celebrate their Golden Anniversary in

1965. They spent all their married 'lives on the same farm, where

their seven Crouch children were born: Mildred Lee born 28

July 1917 and died 26 February 1937; Joe Bennett born 30 May

1921, married Christine Allen and had Joe Bennett and Allen

Oliver; Mary Carolyn born 12 November 1923, married Zara Lee

Thomas and had Carolyn Lee, Michael, Joe, and Gerald Dale;

Robert Henry born 31 December 1925, married Virginia Smith

and had Robert W. and Marilyn Kay; Patricia Lucille born 29

May 1929, married H. Dean Browner and had Donna Jean,

Nancy Ellen, and Janet Kay; Kathryn Nan born 12 August 1933

and died 30 October 1933; and Charlotte Sue born 20 March

1935 and died 28 October 1935. The three oldest surviving

Crouch children still live here, their grandchildren comprising

the seventh generation of the Moore family to live in Washington

County.

By: Patricia (Crouch) Browner