1900 -- The William and Eva Moore Family

Lawrence Lloyd Moore as a boy

In 1900, William O. Moore was working as a blacksmith. He owned his house in Ganges, Michigan – a little town barely a mile from the coast of Lake Michigan – but the home was still under mortgage.

William was a native of England, but, by age 51, he had been living in his adopted country of the United States for 44 years. He and his wife Eva (48) had just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. In all, the couple had eight children, but only six were still at home. One of their children had died young, and their oldest daughter Anna (20) had just recently married a fruit grower named George W. VanNoate, Jr., and the young couple was living with his parents.

William and Eva still had their oldest child with them, however. At age 22, George E. Moore was working as a telephone lineman. Seventeen year old Bessie J. was already out of school, but the youngest four, Ruth E. (15), William F. (12), Glenn O. (9), and Lawrence L. (6) were still hard at work in school. Only little Lawrence (my great grandfather) didn’t know how to read or write yet.