Jesse Lee Moore

Jesse, was born in 1890 in McKinney, Texas (near Dallas). He was the twelvth of fifteen children born to Columbus and Paralee (Jordan) Moore, emigrants to Texas from post-Civil War Tennessee. By 1910, the Moore family was living in Hall County, Texas, east of the JA Ranch. Although the date of his marriage to May Melton is not yet known, the birth of their first child, Iva, in November, 1915 suggests that they likely married no later than that same year.

Soon after Iva’s birth, he went to work for the JA Ranch as a hand and remained there until 1924. After leaving the JA, Jesse purchased a Model T truck and delivered cotton and feed from farms to area towns. In 1926, the family moved to a 200-acre farm and raised cotton. The 1927 crop failed for lack of rain, and the family was forced to sell everything, including household goods, and to go as far as Colorado in search of work.

Iva’s narrative of 1927-1935 is about a constant search for work, often to hoe or pick cotton, a labor that included the children and precluded a consistent education for them. The family of nine was often homeless, staying with various relatives in the region or, for a brief period, in a half-room dugout.

At some point, Jesse returned to the JA Ranch. In his later years, he drove the chuckwagon and was the camp cook. He died on April 1, 1984, in Solano County, California, at the age of 94.

Connections: Jesse was the father of Iva Moore Tucker.