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Lindley Murray Moore		Picture found in "Adam and Anne Mott" by Thomas Cornell, 1890
Born: 19 Nov 1822 Flushing, New York
Died: 29 Dec 1846 Rochester, Monroe Co., New York
Buried Mount Hope Cemetery, Lot 40 G, Rochester, Monroe, NY	Mary H, Moore, Lindley M Moore Jr., Abigail L Mott Moore, Lindley Murray Moore, Edward Mott Moore (left to right)	Burial Records at Mount Hope Cemetery

FATHER

Lindley Murray Moore 

MOTHER

Abigail Lydia Mott

Notes on Lindley Murray Moore, Jr
By Susan Brooke
Nov 2012

Murray seems to have been a frail child even as a youngster.  He was smart and ambitious and his father's excellent teaching assistant, yet he could not go to school for long periods of his life because of illness.

The very first mention of Murray in the letters of Abigail Mott Moore to her son Edward Mott Moore, Murray is mentioned as "unwell."  In 1834 when Murray was just 12 Abigail wrote, "Murray has been quite unwell for some days since thou left us, with a pain in his jaws, his gums & cheek were much swollen & his jaw stiff so that he could eat nothing but 'spoon victuals" for three days.  I think it is the effect of the salavation, which he underwent last winter - doest thou see any sign of that disagreeable complaint? (1)

But even when he was laid low, Murray seems to have been a positive, happy child.  Eight days after his mother wrote the above description of his health, Murray teased his brother, Edward, "Richard (their uncle Richard Mott) says he would like to go to NY to see A and G but he don't want to see E'wd because he puts the shovel on his back."  He and Mary were attending the Uncle Silas's school, "but we have not attended it daily on account of my health being so poor."  Murray finishes his letter by saying that they had sold part of their apples at 6 s per bushel.  "It will afford me a great deal."  (2)

Murray looked up to his brother who was then attending Medical School in Philadelphia.  And Edward was very close to his parents and siblings back home.  In 1837 Edward wrote home, "I am glad to hear that Murray is attending school, he must study Latin & Greek & go to College, (Haverford), for every boy that is industrious & wants to learn as much as he ought to be aided.  I wish now that I had not been such a dunce as I was at his age & refused to study, it would have made a great deal of difference now.  But Murray is intelligent enough to see the advantage of applying himself now & if he does by the time he is as old as I am will have amassed twice as much knowledge.  There will be no necessity for him to stay at Haverford during the whole term, for with his industry he can prepare himself to enter the junior or perhaps senior class by the time he is 18 or 19 years old.  The requisitions are not high for the absurd practice of our cities even for the sons of the most wealthy, is to have their education complete as they call it at 16 or 17.  They are then put into stores & immediately eradicate all that they have learnt by round of parties in the evening & business during the day." (3)  At this time Murray was 15.  He was very bright.  It was only his frailness that was holding him back.  It was quite unusual for boys at that time to go to college.  "In Rochester only about one resident in a thousand had earned a college degree and the number of young men currently in attendance at colleges did not exceed thirty." (4)

Four months after Edward was advising Murray to go to college, he wrote, " I feel highly gratified with Murray's improvement.  It is not a matter of great consequence that he should commence with Latin & Greek immediately, if he is occupying this time to advantage in other pursuits.  I mainly thought that at his age, they could be pursued with more advantage than perhaps any thing else, but if he is well employed there is no great hurry.  A small amount of time devoted to it would scarcely be missed from other employments." (5)  In the same letter Edward makes mention of the fact that the parents are considering Oberlin College for Murray and Edward strongly disapproved.

I do not know if Murray went off to College or not, but a year later, in 1839, Murray was assistant to his father in his father's school.  Abigail wrote to Edward, "Father, Ann and Murray all are closely engaged in their school.  I think neither of them manifests more interest in the improvement of their respective pupils than Murray, but all of them are sufficiently devoted to them."  Murray appears to be healthy at this time.  And once again, his sense of humor is noted.  Abigail wrote to Edward, "Murray sometimes amuses himself with 'feeling' very sorry for her (his sister Ann) that she has no prospect of finding any one to take care of her in her 'old age,' He also thinks it is a great imposition upon thy father to be obliged to support her so long.  Thinks she has better quality herself for a teacher without delay etc., but generally winds up with, 'Oh dear, if Ann could but get married, what a relief it would be to me!"  Abigail is clearly amused by her son's rants about his sister.  Murray was almost 17 and his sister, Ann, was 21. (6)

Three months later in October of 1838 Abigail wrote to Edward, "Murray is thin and pale, his whole time is closely occupied with his studies, in addition to his other duties he is now engaged - every evening in teaching a son of Dr. Hendrickson's.  - His father now wishes him to be taught the Latin language also Algebra, in these branches Murray is his teacher, it is five weeks since he commenced and I think I can say with safety that Dr is delighted with Murray as a teacher."  Abigail writes about the school's enrollment.  "They have now rising 60, two new ones coming in tomorrow.  Murray $4 per mo for teaching Frank and $20 per term for assisting father." (7)  Lindley was only earning about $600 a year.  (8)

Two months later, in December of 1838, Abigail wrote, "Murray is true to his post and makes a good assistant."  -  "Dr. Henderson has been unexpectedly called from this place, he regrets taking Frank from under Murray's instruction; Grandmother is glad for she thinks it was entirely extra work and she feared it would prove more than his strength would -  Murray, however, seems better than he did some weeks since and I was quite willing he should make the extra exertion, that he might know by experience that the good things of this world are not to be obtained without labor of some kind, of course would be more likely to set a proper value on money if he earned it himself.  He has taught Frank a day or two over 6 weeks and the Dr. paid him $7.  Father says he has often been surprised to see how implicitly the boys yield to Murray, some of them 18 and 20 years old treat him with as much deference as they do Dewey.  He loves teaching and I think it most likely he will follow it for a livelihood." -  "I think putting flannel on Murray has been of great benefit to him, he is very well at present and as full of life and spirits as I ever saw him, instead of coming home weary and exhausted, he now comes in full of glee and animation.  Thy old sunshirt has made him a very comfortable ? in which he looks very smart." (9)

This good health was very short lived.  By January he was suffering a terrible pain in his hip.  Abigail wrote, "He (Murray)  has suffered more or less with a pain about his right hip, sometimes the pain extending down his thigh and knee, and sometimes across the small of his back, understand this has not been constant perhaps for two or three days he will feel but little of it except he runs or walks on ice which invariably brings on the pain, there is also a weakness in that leg, I have often observed him after coming home from school when he got to the step take hold of the railing and pull himself up putting his left foot up first at every step, when queried with why he did so, he would say why I don’t know, that leg got more tired that the other, latterly he has complained acute pain saying he did not think it was in the flesh but in the bone - his tongue is almost constantly coated as tho he has a little fever - his hands and legs and sometimes his body has a motley appearance, quite dark and purple, his appetite generally pretty good nothing remarkable either way, frequent headache, he often complains of feeling very tired when he is quite free from pain, he has often told me in the morning how difficult it has been for him to get fixed just right before he could get to sleep, not that he was in much pain, but his leg and hip was so tired - these are his symptoms as near as I can give them - I have been very anxious for some time about him and have wished some medical advice, but he is so ambitious and his father so desirous of his services in school that it has been put off, we however have not entirely neglected him for we have used electricity and I have frequently bathed him with camphor or salt vinegar and have not called upon him but little to go on errands etc. When I was taken sick I told Dr Ried I wished him to examine Murray also and see whether he did not need some care as well as myself - after hearing from himself and sister how he was, he said he had given a very good description of the first symptoms of the “hip disease,” this was what I had feared - he then said the first and most important step was rest with the addition of being dressed very warm either with buckskin or flannel his grandfather having left good buckskin drawers - we used them - he also ordered frequent rubbing with pepper sauce and to take a small blue pill once in two or three days - these directions we have followed with the addition of electricity and he is already much better, so much so that he intends going to school again tomorrow; but will ride there and back - I fear for the consequences but he thinks if he is once there he can be as quiet as at home and his father needs his assistance very much, if after trying it I find he pails I shall insist upon his giving up the school altogether; for altho it may not prove that dreadful complaint, the hip disease, there is certainly something hanging about him which I fear will not be easily removed." (8) 

Murray has been doing so well with his teaching.  He was only 17 and commanding the respect of his peers.  Abigail writes in that same letter that his father and Dewey were asking the trustees to fix Murray's salary at $100 a year.  However, he may have had "hip disease."  Perthes Disease as if it known now,  is a condition characterized by a temporary loss of blood supply to the hip.  Without an adequate blood supply, the rounded head of the femur joint dies.  The area becomes intensely inflamed and irritated.   The long-term prognosis now in most cases is good.  Treatment mostly involves immobilization.  However, Abigail was getting conflicting advise.  ""He (Dr. Rolph) and Dr Reid agreed in sentiment in nearly every point, in one thing however they differ.  Dr. Reid says rest and quiet are indispensable. Dr. Rolph wishes him to take some exercise thinking that absolutely necessary for the restoration of his health." (10)

 He had a large plaster on his hip, and he was drinking sarsaparilla.   In addition Murray was being given some blue pill and arsenic 3 times a day.  No wonder he was losing ground.  "We have moved the desk out of the office and put a bed in there for him, he has more or less fever every day. It has been so difficult for his father to spare him from school that I fear he has been kept at it too long.  Altho the doctors think he may be now carried without much difficulty or doubt." (10)

Dr Ried must have prevailed with his theory for treatment. "He proposed his having a chair upon wheels saying he would not confine him to the bed, at present - - - Learning that Dr. Brown had a chair of this kind, father went there yesterday to see if he could get it.  The old man seems gratified with lending it, saying it always did him good to have it in his power of relieving the distress of cripples; this chair was made for his first wife who suffered many years with rheumatism.  Murray can wheel himself about the house with perfect ease.  There is a foot  -  for his feet to rest upon and he moves himself by his hands. ----- Murray is very cheerful and resigned to his fate, not a murmur, I believe, has yet escaped him.  Father seems less resigned than Murray." (10)

By June of 1839 Abigail wrote that they were thinking of Murray and Mary commencing at the High School, so Murray must have gotten better. Uncle Richard even suggested that Murray could start up Ann's school for since Ann was still in New York,  And Murray's sister, Mary, wrote to her sister Ann, "Brother M has been invited to deliver an address next 4th July to the juvenile temperance society at Fairport and I think it is very likely that he will."  Abigail concluded in the same letter, "We think Murray will be better off going to school and studying moderately than doing nothing, he will commence with the understanding of remaining no longer than it seem to agree with his health, father says there is no danger of Deweys crowding too much on him, he walks about without much inconvenience, nothing but weakness that hip is somewhat shrunk in." (11)

It is of note that while all this was going on with Murray and his hip, Abigail was pregnant with Alice Marie, and Abigail also was beginning to get sick with Consumption.  Alice Marie died in Aug of 1839, and a week later Ann wrote to Edward, "Mother is still feeble though better than when thou left, and this week she, father, Aunt S & Murray are going off riding round whither and how long I cannot say."  However, when Abigail wrote in the same letter she wrote, "Murray has been quite unwell a part of the time since thou left us, he thinks the weakness in his leg rather increases, and he has some time felt a twinging pain in it, more particularly about his knee, as yet no suitable employment for him offers, he will therefore probably commence going to school when we return home." (12)

Murray must have become a lawyer.  Thomas Cornell. a first cousin to Murray, wrote in his book Adam and Ann Mott,  "Lindley Murray Moore, Jr., the youngest surviving son of Lindley M and Abigail L Moore, a promising young lawyer died of consumption in his father's house between three and four months after his mother on Dec 29, 1846 having recently entered his 25th year." 

Sources:

(1) Letter from Abigail to Edward Mott Moore, Rochester, 5th Mo 5th 1834.  Letter on file with Edward Mott Moore Papers at the  University of Rochester

(2) Letter from Murray to Edward Mott Moore, Rochester, 5th mo, 13th, 1834.  Letter on file with Edward Mott Moore Papers at the  University of Rochester