Moore, Clifton H.

Born: 1817-10-26 Kirtland, Ohio

Died: 1901-04-29 Clinton, Illinois

Clifton H. Moore was a lawyer, farmer, landowner, Mason, and a Republican. Moore came to Illinois in May of 1839 and settled in Pekin, Illinois. He taught school until the spring of 1840 when he was hired as a clerk in the courthouse at Tremont. At around the same time, Moore began to read law under the firm of Bailey and Wilmot and was admitted to the bar in July 1841. The following month, he moved to Clinton, Illinois, where he began to practice law and business. Moore was friends with Abraham Lincoln and frequently encountered him in the courtroom. Moore married Elizabeth Richmond in February 1845, with whom he had four children. In 1850, Moore was practicing law in Clinton and owned $5,000 real estate. In 1852, Moore entered into what proved to be a very lucrative partnership with Judge David Davis for the purpose of buying and selling land. This partnership continued until David Davis’s death in 1886. By 1860, Moore had amassed $182,000 in real estate, with a personal estate valued at $1,900. He attended the 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago that nominated Lincoln for president. In 1870, Moore served as a member of the Illinois constitutional convention.

The Biographical Record of Dewitt County, Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1901), 9-11; Clinton Register (IL), 3 May 1901, 1, 4:1; John M. Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis, 1899), 2:896-98; Portrait and Biographical Album of DeWitt and Piatt Counties, Ill. (Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1891), 191-93; For cases involving Lincoln, search under Participant, "Moore, Clifton H.," Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Clinton, DeWitt County, IL, 424; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Clinton, DeWitt County, IL, 71. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.