DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just along for the ride. Now, you're eight miles north of La Grange, out where the Moore family laid their own to rest, and the stone here marks a man the frontier knew well. John Henry Moore — noted Indian fighter, and the commander of the Texians at the Battle of Gonzales on October 2, 1835.
That date. Hold onto that date. October 2, 1835.
Because if you know your Texas history even a little, you know what was stirrin' that autumn, what was comin' to a head, and John Henry Moore was right there at the sharp edge of it, leadin' the Texians when it counted. Born in Tennessee on August 13, 1800, he came into a world that was still figurin' itself out — and by the time he left it, on December 2, 1880, Texas had been born, bled, and roughed into something resemblin' a state. Beside him in this cemetery rests his wife, Eliza Moore, born April 23, 1809, died February 25, 1877.
She went before him, and he followed a few years after. Two lives, one plot of ground, eight miles north of La Grange. The marker doesn't dress it up much more than that — just the names, the dates, and that one line that tells you everything you need to know about the kind of man he was: commander of the Texians at Gonzales.
Some men get whole chapters. John Henry Moore gets a date — October 2, 1835 — and that's enough.
What the marker says
Noted Indian fighter; commander of the Texians at the Battle of Gonzales, October 2, 1835. Born in Tennessee August 13, 1800; died December 2,1880. His wife Eliza Moore, born April 23, 1809 died February 25, 1877. (Moore Family Cemetery, 8 mi. N La Grange)