John Henry Moore (Texas)

Colonel John Henry Moore (1800–1880) was an early Texas settler, one of the Old Three Hundred first land grantees to settle in Mexican Texas.

Moore was born August 13, 1800, in Rome, Smith County, Tennessee. It is said that John Henry Moore ran away from college to avoid studying Latin. He went to Spanish Texas in 1818. (His father took him back to Tennessee, and he returned to Texas in 1821.)

He built Moore's Fort at present-day La Grange, Texas, in 1828; but he is best known for commanding the Battle of Gonzales on October 2, 1835. He was elected a colonel of the Texan army and served as a member of the council of war. Commander Stephen F. Austin ordered Moore to organize a cavalry company, who brought their own pistols and double-barreled shotguns.

During the Civil War, Moore enlisted in Terry's Texas Rangers. Being 61 years old, he was appointed to a committee to help secure bonds for financing the Confederate cause.

John H. Moore established the first church in Fayette County, Texas, in the fort building.

Moore died December 2, 1880.

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