© Kathy Duncan, 2025
In my search for the family of Joseph Barber's wife Arsena, I found a tentative group of Moores who were all selling the same 40 acres of land to Armistead Richardson of Richmond County, Georgia in 1836. All the deeds were filed in Floyd County, Georgia. That group includes Samuel B. Moore, Mary Ann Moore, and Joseph Barber of Dooly County, Georgia; Abel Moore and Bryant Moore of Sumter County, Georgia; and Wiley Moore of Pulaski County, Georgia.
Samuel B. Moore, Mary Ann Moore, and Joseph Barber sold their portion of Lot no. 860 for $100, so they each received $33. Abel Moore and Bryant Moore sold their share for $50, or $25 each. Wiley Moore sold his share for $20. Armstead or Armistead Richardson paid a total of $170 for Lot no. 860. In 1839, Richardson sold Lot no. 860 along with other lots to his son-in-law William S. Simmons. The Williams S. Simmons Plantation house, also known as the Montgomery Farm, of Cave Springs, Georgia, was built in 1840 on Lot no. 870 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
This potential group of siblings likely inherited 40 acres of land from either their father or a bachelor brother. Who was that person? I had two clues about that piece of land: 1.) it was 40 acres, and 2.) it was Lot no. 860. Those clues suggested that the land might have been part of a Georgia Land Lottery. I quickly found that the 1832 Georgia Gold Lottery consisted of 40-acre lots, which were available to bachelors over 18 years old (1 draw), widows (1 draw), a family of orphans (2 draws), married men, who were heads of a family, (2 draws). In addition, participants were required to be three year residents of Georgia and U.S. citizens.
Then I looked for lot no. 860 in the Gold Lottery, which I found on Family Search along with the name of the original owner.
Lot no. 860, consisting of 40 acres, was granted to L. D. Moore of Mashburn's District in Pulaski County, Georgia.
I went back through my documentation for Joseph Barber and found someone I had forgotten about: Lorenzo D. Moore. In 1833, Joseph Barber of Pulaski County, Georgia, granted a power of attorney to Lorenzo D. Moore of Pulaski County, Georgia, to act as Joseph's representative in his claim to his grandfather, Thomas Mashburn's estate in Onslow County, North Carolina. That document was filed in Onslow County, North Carolina.
The Floyd County, Georgia land that Lorenzo D. Moore won in the Gold Lottery ended up with his heirs: Samuel B. Moore, Mary Ann Moore, the wife of Joseph Barber, Abel Moore, Bryant Moore, and Wiley Moore. Of these heirs, Bryant Moore, born c. 1799, was one of the eldest. Joseph Barber's wife Arcena Barber was born c. 1812. A rough idea of the siblings' birthdate range gives me a clue as to whether Lorenzo D. Moore was their brother or their father. The real clue, however, is in Lorenzo's name. He, like hundreds of baby boys born in that period, was named after the Methodist itinerant minister, Lorenzo Dow. Dow traveled from Georgia and North Carolina back to New England in 1810. A brief search of North Carolina newspapers in Genealogybank reveals that Dow had extensive preaching engagements in 1811. His itineraries were published several times. I would say that Lorenzo D. Moore would not have been born much earlier than this and was probably born a little later. Therefore, Lorenzo D. Moore would have been one of the siblings. Lorenzo's name also gives me a clue as to possible church denomination records for the Moore family - Methodist.
Now I have a large group of siblings in various locations to connect to potential parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It's actually a lot to work with.
