George Henry Moore was born on February 15, 1858 in the Sni-A-Bar Township, Lafayette, County, Missouri. He was the son of Nathan W. Moore and Julina Ann Johnson. George had two siblings: Eliza Jane Moore (b.1855) and John Wiley Moore (born 1860). George's father enlisted in the Union Army on January 30, 1863. He died in service to his country on September 15, 1863. At the time of his father's death, George was just five years old.
George's mother Julina married Charles Pinkard Johnson on March 1, 1866, in Lafayette County, over two years after the death of George's father Nathan.
In June, 1870, George (age 12),his sister Eliza Jane Moore (age 15) and his brother John Wiley Moore (age 9) lived in the same house as their mother, step-father and their three young children, Mary Elizabeth Johnson (age 3), Josiah Steven Johnson (age 2) and Samuel Nathan Johnson (age 3 months). Julina and Charles added another son, Noah W Johnson, to their family in 1872. George's sister, Eliza Jane Moore (age 17) had her first child, Dell Washington Johnson, in 1873. Charles Pinkard Johnson was Dell's father.
In 1876, the entire family (Johnson's and Moore's) traveled by covered wagon to Ventura County, California. Julina and Charles soon bought a small piece of property in Saticoy, and both families lived on the property.
In 1878, a young Spanish woman, Maria Sostanes Flores, her father and siblings moved adjacent to or nearby Charles and Julina. George and Maria met and developed a relationship and were married on February 14, 1879, in Ventura. They moved to a house nearby or adjacent to George's mother and step-father. They were married for four years and had two children: Nathan Washington Moore and Virginia Grace Moore.
George (age 21) registered to vote for the first time in Ventura County on April 16, 1879. He was working as a farmer when he and Maria had their first child, Nathan Washington, on December 17, 1879. George and Maria had their second child, Virginia Grace, on May 20, 1881.
Maria had been in poor health for several years. George decided to move his family to Oregon in 1882, hoping that the change would improve Maria's health. In 1882, George and his family traveled by wagon into the San Joaquin Valley, headed for Oregon. They brought a young Spanish girl with them to help care for Maria, Nathan and Virginia. During this journey, George met a group of people in Bakersfield who discouraged him from traveling to Oregon. George and his family eventually headed to the hills northeast of Bakersfield and landed in the Granite Station area. The Long Tom mine and Ballard mine provided jobs in the local area for him.
In June of 1882, George lived in and registered to vote in Long Tom, and listed his occupation as a laborer. It is most likely that George, Maria, Nathan, Virginia and the Spanish girl were living on or near the Greemo ranch (currently the Record Ranch), about a one or two-hour horse ride from the mine. Maria's health deteriorated to the point that George traveled to Bakersfield to secure medicine for her. Maria died on July 3,1883, while George was on this trip.
When George returned and found his wife had died, he took some lumber from his house and built Maria a coffin. He buried her across the gulch from the original Record Ranch house.
George was in a bad spot, he was a twenty-five-year-old widower left to care for a three-year old son and a two-year old daughter. He needed someone to care for his children while he was away working to make a living for his family.
Theophilus and Adele Sewell and their daughter, Frances (age 8), lived in the Woody/Granite area, not far from the Moore's home. Adele, Aunt Dele, as she was fondly known, had been caring for her younger five siblings since her mother's death in 1868. Although most of her siblings had left her care by 1883, Aunt Dele was also helping her sister, Elvira Engle, raise her four children down on the Horseshoe Ranch, just west of Granite Station. Elvira's children were Clara Engle (age 7), David Engle (age 5), Frederick Engle (age 3) and Callie Engle (age two months). There were plenty of children around the Sewell's home at any one time and Aunt Dele was known to be a loving and caring person. George was able to leave Nathan (3) and Virginia (2) in the care of the Sewell's, while he was away earning wages to provide for their futures.
George found work on a logging crew on the eastern slope of Greenhorn Mountain working for Richard Evans, owner of a lumber mill. George was a crew member that pulled logs out of the woods with a bull team of oxen. A bull team was generally composed of six to eight yokes of oxen, with two oxen per yoke. George also helped haul lumber from the mill to Old Kernville to build homes and businesses.
George later found work at the Ballard mine, where he met and worked with Benjamin Frazier. Ben was living close to the mine, in the Woody/Granite Station area, with his wife Parthenia Jane Hitchcock Frazier, and their children Benjamin Issac, Laura Zania, Andrew W., Minnie A., Charles Joseph, Alice May and Henry George. It appears that Henry eventually boarded with the Frazier's, moving Nathan and Virginia from the Sewell's to the Frazier's home to be with him. Over time, George developed a liking for Ben's daughter Laura, but she was too young, so Henry had to wait until she was old enough to marry.
George and Laura were married on December 4, 1889, at the Ballard Mine by Parson Obedia Dooley. Their first son, Henry George was born in rural Woody/Granite Station on July 19, 1890. Soon after the birth of Henry, George and Laura bought a piece of land where Grizzly Gulch crosses Blue Mountain Road. They lived on that property the rest of their lives.
George and Laura were married for 64 years and had eight children: Henry George Moore, Dell Dewey Moore, John Shelley Moore, Charles Joseph Moore, Violet Pearl Moore, Byron Ray Moore, Gladys Laura Moore and Ila Mae Moore.
George died in Bakersfield, Kern County, California on May 26, 1953. He is buried next to Laura at the Blue Mountain Cemetery in Woody.
