Obituary from front page of Rochester Herald, Tuesday March 4, 1902

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Obituary Rochester Herald Tuesday March 4 1902

He received the rudiments of learning at his father’s school at Flushing, L I. Later he was sent to the Rensselaer Institute at Troy. When he was 16 his father brought him to Rochester, then accessible only by means of the Erie Canal.
Mr Moore had told of those far off days, and his impressions may be read in his own words:
“In 1828 my father and mother brought me from New York on a prospecting journey for a home. My mother had a sister in the neighborhood, so we determined to settle in Rochester. I can remember the joy of travelling along the Erie Canal. It was a graceful, slow, restful progress, never more than five miles an hour. In those days the canal stretched through the forests which had been hewed away for its passage. The great tress stood up close to the ban, so that we passed continually through a tall avenue of great beauty. There was a man in the bow who played most wonderfully on a French horn and won my boyish heart. When we came into the aqueduct I remember how he blew signals of danger, warning other boats to keep back, for there was room for only one boat to pass at a time. One of the passengers on the boat was a congressman from Virginia. He and my father had many a pleasant discussion on slavery. It was only 1828 then, but the seeds were being sown.
“In 1830,” the doctor went on, “my father settled here on a farm of 169 acres. It was on what is now known as Lake View. When I was 5 years old my father led me to the school house, and by the time I had reached 7 years I knew geography by heart. At that age I began Latin. Three years later I took up my first Greek book; and from that time to my fifteenth year I never had one week’s vacation. I used to work on the farm to help my father. In those days it was a great deal worse than it is now. The logs which had been cut away to open up the land had not yet been burned off. Wood was too plentiful to be used. When I was 19 the love of learning came strong upon me. My father sent me to the Van Rensselaer school at Troy. It was a famous school then. They taught us pure science. Now it is a civil engineer’s school. After my schooling there was ended I came home and father wanted me to choose a profession. I had at one time resolved to be a farmer like my father: but neither he nor I was anxious to make that my life work. He wanted me to study law, but I chose medicine. From 1830 to 1836 I was too far from Rochester to see much of the city of the people. I was only a mile or two away; our farm was then outside the city, and it was no small journey to get in and back. I went into the office of Dr. Coleman to begin my studies. It was on State Street, near where the Ellwanger & Barry building is now. I remember there was a beautiful garden about the house.”
The young doctor soon began to make a mark for himself. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 1838. His first position was that of resident physician at the Insane Asylum of Frankfort, Pa. There he remained a year and a half and then returned to Rochester, which was thence forward to be his home. In 1841 he began to lecture on anatomy and two years later was elected professor of surgery in the medical college at Woodstock. VT., where till 1864, he passed a couple of months of each year. Steadily his reputation grew and in 1854 he was appointed professor surgery at the medical college of Pittsfield, Mass., holding the post for five years. -----

In the days of his wooing, Dr. Moore went west for a while, seized by the fever of the time. It was the time of the first opening up of Michigan and Indiana, and the government was offering land at $1.25 an acres. Dr. Moore had an uncle who sent him, by way of Toledo, to Fort Wayne, to buy up land for him. With $21,000 in his belt, the young man made his way on horseback. The peril of the journey dismayed him not at all. On the contrary, he rather like the thrill of it. So he was one of the first to arrive at Fort Wayne, and bought up $16,000 worth of the best land available.

Rochester ought to have been two miles further north. It was founded in a blackash swamp. The situation was unhealthy and malarial. The land had to be drained. Trenches were dug, mere ditches. Soon there was a cry for better sewage. The citizens sent down to General Swift at Genesee, who was the only engineer in this part of the state. He came up with plans and specifications. The plans were beautiful but the figures scared the people so that they dropped the plans. The trouble and the immense expense which have come upon the city of late years may be traced back to the decision of these early fathers.
When the canal was put through some of the citizens wanted it to cross the river below the lower falls where there is a natural harbor to the lake. The canal was being pushed as cheaply as possible. It would cost $75,000 to have it cross where it does now: $400,000 where they wanted it to cross. The cheaper place was decided upon and that determined the location of Rochester.
Later may citizens wanted the canal to run down to Roe Street. Some of the millers objected so strenuously, on the ground that the water might be taken from the river too greatly, that the plan was given up. It they had yielded Rochester would not be a city of 250,000 instead of what it is."