Joseph V. Moore, a general merchant of Longtown, Mo., is a son of Leo and Ann M. (Cissell) Moore.

Leo Moore was born in Perry County, Mo., near Perryville in 1811, and was a son of Isidore Moore, who born in Kentucky in November 1771. The latter was twice married and was the father of sixteen children, three by his first and thirteen by his second marriage.

He began life very poor. In the hopes of bettering his circumstances in the fall of 1800 he removed his family to Missouri, and obtained land from the Spanish Government in the Barrens of Perry County. His was the ninth family to settle there, and the first Roman Catholic family.

He accumulated considerable property and became a very prominent citizen. He served as judge of the county court, and was a member of the State Legislature for sixteen years consecutively, serving two or three terms in the Lower House, then in the Senate the remainder of that period.

Judge Moore was a friend to the Shawnee and Delaware Indians, and they often appealed to him to settle disputes among them. They also had a camping ground and burial ground on his land.

Leo Moore was educated in Bardstown, Ky., after which he devoted his entire life to farming pursuits. In 1833 he married Ann M. Cissell, of Perry County, Mo. She was the daughter of Louis and Maria (Mattingly) Cissell, of Perry County, Mo.

Leo Moore and wife became the parents of ten children, viz.: Robert W. (wife died at the age of fourteen years), Lewis F., Joseph V., Mary A., Isabella, Rosalie, William B. (deceased), Theodore L., Theresa (who died at school at Cedar Grove, Ky.) and Lawrence S. Mary A. and Rosalie are members of the order of Sisters of Loretto of the Sacred Heart, the mission of the order being to teach.

Joseph V. was born in Perry County, Mo. in 1840, and received his education at St. Mary's Seminary. He was married in 1861 to Susan M. Hayden, a native of the county, and a daughter of James and Christena (Seabaugh) Hayden. To Mr. and Mrs. Moore have been born seven children: James V., Sebastian L., Jettie, Kenrick J.(who died at the age of seventeen years), Flavian J., Lewis B, and Hattie.

Mr. Moore was engaged in teaching school and farming until 1887, when he engaged in merchandising. He purchased a half interest in the store of E. Urban, with whom he remained four years when they dissolved partnership and Mr. Moore continued alone. He still has a five-eighth interest in a farm of 280 acres with 180 acres under a good state of cultivation.

Politically he is a Democrat and was appointed postmaster of Longtown on January 1, 1886. In religion he is a Roman Catholic.

The subject of this sketch was a Union man during the late Civil War. He was led from home a captive on the 10th of October, 1861, by a band of rebels under command of Maj. Cozens of Ste. Genevieve County, Mo., was ordered to be shot, but was rescued by a friend of justice.

The Goodspeed Publishing Company compiled a series of histories of various counties in the U.S. in the late 19th century. The information in the History of Southeast Missouri, published in 1888, was provided by the contemporary residents of Perry County and her neighboring counties. The biographies are a valuable source of genealogical information, despite a few minor inaccuracies. We are glad to present the transcribed biographies here for anyone researching Perry County's history.