Hit "Connect" to claim your profiles...
Later he attended the Lawrenceburg Seminary (the term 'seminary' in this period did not imply preparation for ministry), a private school which was discontinued about 1875. The talented and ambitious young people of those long-past years made heroic efforts to secure an education, and their efforts did far more good than the average citizen of today can realize. Real pioneers in any field deserve our deepest gratitude . . .
Brother Moore was converted under the preaching of Bro. P. S. G. Watson during a revival in October, 1872, at Abbott’s (Stingy) schoolhouse. He was baptized by Bro. Watson in Abbott’s Pond on November 1, 1872. He became an active member of Salvisa Baptist Church, but continued to spend long hours working on the 200-acre farm. In 1876 he preached his first “real sermon.” This was at Abbott’s schoolhouse.]
The Anderson County Census of 1870 reveals a household of Sarah Searcy, 65; Lucy Moore, 40; Dudley Moore, 14; and blacks Nancy Searcy, 5[3]0; Susan M. Searcy, 26; and John M. Searcy, 18. Black neighbors were the families of Aaron Searcy, wife Walsy, and seven children, along with a hosehold of four black Meauxes. As a young adult, Dudley worked hard on the farm, side by side with the former slaves whom he clearly viewed as his friends. This would have been the time he attended schol at the Lawrenceburg Seminary. He joined in the occasional parties for young people held in the neighborhood and took a normal interest in the girls. He also became very involved in the cause of Temperance, the campaign to prohibit the sale and use of alcoholic beverages, an interesting position in light of the importance of distilleries for the economy of Anderson County.
The next period of W. D. Moore's life centers around Georgetown College, where he enrolled as a student in the second semester in January, 1877. He was a twenty-one year-old freshman, which was not unusual in the nineteenth century, since there were so few public high schools to prepare students for college. While at Georgetown, Dudley Moore corresponded with lots of people. He wrote his mother at least once a week; he wrote his younger neighbor, John T. Hedger; he wrote a lady friend who was a student at Daughters College in Harrodsburg; and he wrote his Lawrenceburg friend, J. M. B. Birdwhistell, who was a student at Centre College in Danville.
Living in a newly added-to mens dormitory, Pawling Hall, W. D. Moore entered full bore into the life of the college. He took his studies seriously; he became part of Tau Theta Kappa, one of the college's two prestigious debating societies; and he took part in religious and church life in and around Georgetown. He made friends with his fellow students and among the faculty, many of whom he kept in touch with even after he left Georgetown.
His letters to his mother are consistently upbeat and informative. Her letters to him reflect her concern over his health, how much she and her mother, "Grandma Searcy," miss him, along with news from the neighborhood. Transportation from Ripyville to Georgetown was always complicated, so he came home only during the longest holidays. During his Georgetown years he did quite a bit of preaching at nearby churches, especially the Baptist church at Corinth in northern Scott County. Most of his travel was by horse and buggy, with an occasional train ride.
In the school year of 1879-1880 John T. Hedger (1858-1889), Moore's younger friend, neighbor, and the son of Elder James Thompson Hedger (1819-1898), joined W. D. at Georgetown College. (J. T. Hedger was a typical self-taught Baptist "farmer preacher," who preached and pastored at several locations in Central Kentucky, most extensively in Nelson county as a "missionary" for the Baptist organization in the state. Elder Hedger was the grandson of John Rice, one of the pioneer Baptist preachers in Kentucky.) The presence at Georgetown of his Anderson County friend was a major plus for Dudley Moore; a major minus was a persistent lung ailment which hindered his progress at Georgetown and eventually led to his decision to leave college for good, after having spent weeks under a doctor's care in Cincinnati. His letters never name the disease (which sounds like tuberculosis), but once he returned to Anderson County, it rarely bothered him again.
There was a major change in life in Ripyville while Dudley was at Georgetown, the departure from the household of the former slaves, most of whom moved to Kansas, near Topeka. Many black Kentuckians joined this migration, known now as the "Exoduster" movement. The widows Searcy and Moore had been able to maintain their farm because of the labor of the slaves until the end of slavery, after which the former slaves remained in the neighborhood and continued to work for "Miss Sallie" and "Miss Lucy." The central figure was "Uncle Aaron" Searcy, whose departure for Kansas in 1879 was a real blow to the "Misses" as well as to W. D. Moore.
When Dudley Moore arrived back in Ripyville for good, he renewed his friendship with Alice Vincent Hedger Williams (b. 1850), the sister of his friend, John T. Hedger. A bright and attractive young woman, Alice had married A. C. Williams, a thirty-five-year-old native of Richmond, Virginia, at her father's house on August 26, 1873. Williams had held several posts as a Baptist "missionary," first in Louisville, then in unchurched areas of Eastern Kentucky. At the time of the marriage, Williams lived in Wolfe county. Two children were born to the Williamses, Mary (b. September 28, 1874) and Walker (b. March 11, 1876) . At some point, the little family moved to Montgomery County, where, in 1878 or early 1879, Rev. A. C. Williams died. The widow Williams and her children then moved back to Ripyville near her parents.
Even while W. D. Moore was at Georgetown, he had received several charming, intelligent letters from Alice Williams. They reveal a well read, deeply Christian, deeply Baptist, young mother of two. At some point their friendship turned "serious", and they were married on January 4, 1881, in Anderson County by Moore's friend, Rev. A. S. Pettie, who later became an influential pastor in Mayfield, Kentucky. W. D. was twenty-four; Alice was thirty. Clearly Dudley Moore had not discussed this step with his mother and grandmother! In fact, a remarkable postcard survives which he mailed to Ripyville from a steamboat headed down the Ohio River toward Clinton, where he says to his mother, "I suppose you heard I got married." In a letter he relates that the couple’s horse (attached to their buggy) had “run off” after the wedding, but neither was hurt.