Humphrey Moore, the youngest child of Humphrey, and Mary Sweetser Moore, who for more than a generation was the minister of the town and who lived among its people for nearly seventy years, was born in Princeton, Mass., Oct. 19, 1778.
His grandfather was Paul Moore; his great-grandfather was John Moore; his great-great-grandfather was Jacob Moore, natives of Sudbury, Mass.; his great-great-great-grandfather was John Moore who emigrated from England and settled in Cambridge but removed to Sudbury in 1643.
His parents, according to the testimony of the son, “were industrious, economical, exemplary in their lives, and respected by all their acquaintances.” From them he obtained all the instruction he received previous to his ninth year, when he became for the first time a pupil in the district school. Robert B. Thomas, his first teacher in school, taught him to write, and under his instruction the pupil became a good penman, and at the age of ninety-two years his manuscripts were not only legible but good specimens of handwriting for any age. He was also thoroughly grounded in elementary mathematics by his first public instructor. His father died when he was twelve years old. From this time he depended upon his own exertions for a livelihood. The four years preceding his admission to Harvard College in 1795, were spent in alternate study and manual labor. He was obliged to practice the strictest economy in order to meet the expenses of his preparatory course and to put himself in respectable condition to appear before
the faculty of Harvard college for examination. The coat which he wore on important occasions for the first two years of college life was made from one which was given to his father at the age of twenty-one years as a freedom coat and by him worn as a best garment until his death or for a period of thirty-one years. He maintained a good position in college and graduated with the class of 1799. There was a vacation of four weeks preceding commencement and not wishing to lose this time he engaged a school in Bath, Maine, to continue six months. Not being present at commencement in 1799, he did not receive the degree of A. B. until the following year.After closing his school in Bath in December, 1799, he became a student in theology with Dr. Backus, of Somers, Connecticut, who was accustomed to train young men for the ministry, there being
at that time no theological school in the country. After the usual course in divinity he was licensed to preach by the association of which Dr. Backus was a member. He was settled as pastor of the church in Milford, Oct. 13, 1802, and sustained that relation one third of a century. April 5, 1803, he was united in marriage with Hannah Peabody, third daughter of the late William Peabody. Of this marriage there were three daughters and one son. Two daughters survived him. He remained in Mr. Peabody’s family one year, looking for a good farm upon which to settle, it having been his purpose from boyhood to till the soil with his own hands.In April, 1801, he was successful in negotiating for the farm upon which he moved that year and which he occupied the remainder of his life. His choice was wisely made. It had an ample acreage, was made up of a variety of soil, with wood lots and pasturage and an interval area of twenty acres. It was situated in the immediate vicinity of the village and a considerable portion of it is now covered with dwelling houses, having been sold from time to time for house lots to meet the demands of the increasing business of his adopted town. The elms in front of the mansion, which he lived to occupy so long, and above and below it, were planted by him, as well as the central tree upon the public square.
In the winter of 1803 and 1804, he taught the school in his own district in addition to his other duties, and until the close of his life maintained the deepest interest in the schools of the town. He fitted many young men for college during the earlier years of his ministry. Most of his students gave some portion of their time to the cultivation of the soil, some of them to recompense him for board and tuition and some for the health and pleasure it brought.
At the distance of ninety years it is difficult to understand how the young clergyman could perform so much labor in so many departments. He gave his personal attention to all his farming operations, working in the field nearly as constantly as any man he hired, occasionally taking a day for a parochial visit, generally at some season of the year other than the busiest. The larger part of his sermons were thought out while he was engaged with some tool of agriculture in his hand and written out, with rare exceptions, at night after the companions of his day’s labor were asleep. As a consequence, his discourses were practical and easily understood by the masses who listened to him. His illustrations were never brought from far but came out of the ordinary experience of an average human life. He was a good writer; could say in a few words what he desired to express; was logical in argument and pointed in application; was ready at repartee and a formidable opponent in skimish or protracted controversy. During his pastorate of a third of a century he was held in the highest estimation by his professional brethren and by general consent was counted a very strong preacher. He had a slight lisp in his speech but it was so slight that it did not impair his force as a public speaker as he uniformly spoke with deliberation. He possessed a commanding presence, his height was something more than six feet and his body seemed to have been framed for the performance of the best possible work. His physical and mental equipment was fortunately dominated by a gentle and devout spirit. It is the testimony of those nearest to him that in his protracted life he was never betrayed into the utterance of a hasty or unkind word. He was generously endowed with wit, but used this gift in such manner as to leave no sting behind.
In 1808 he purchased a second farm adjoining the first. Subsequently he made other purchases until he had, at one time, more than three hundred acres of improved land under his control. In the year 1820, he built the brick house which he lived to occupy fifty-one years. The house cost, exclusive of what was done by himself and his team, four thousand dollars, and was at that time one of the best residences in the county. The same year the legislature constituted a State Board of Agriculture, for the purpose of making an annual publication in the interest of agriculture. He was one of the committee of publication. In the report of 1822, 
which was the first report made, he was the author of one hundred and fourteen out of one hundred and twenty-eight pages. Fifty years later, James O. Adams, secretary of our State Board of Agriculture, reproduced a large part of Dr. Moore’s work, saying: “The author from whom I quote discusses with so much good sense the very questions which interest the farmer of today, that I copy freely.” But farming was not, in his own language, his primary object, and in 1824, he published a volume of four hundred pages, entitled, “A Treatise on the Divine Nature, Exhibiting the Distinction of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Previous to this time he had published a pamphlet of eighty-four pages in fine type entitled, “A Reply to a series of letters on the Mode and subject of Baptism addressed to the public by Stephen Chapin.” The same year he espoused the cause of total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks, and never after used any spirituous liquor. He entered into this reform, as into everything he undertook, with his whole heart, writing and speaking much upon the subject. He had ten temperance lectures, one of which he delivered in twelve towns in the state. A barn which he raised in 1827, was the first building raised in Milford without the aid of some kind of intoxicating liquor. In the year 1829, he was appointed by the governor to preach the election sermon before the legislature, and performed the duty at the meeting of the body in June. In 1830 he buried his wife, with whom he had lived nearly twenty-seven years. Of her he wrote: “She was a faithful and affectionate wife. She was a kind and watchful mother. She brought up her children to diligence in business and to correct habits. She taught them morality and religion, and accompanied her instructions with a corresponding example. She was remarkable for industry and frugality, and was successful in whatever she undertook.”He subsequently married Mary J. French, the daughter of the late Stephen French, of Bedford. She died Nov. 23, 1898, at the advanced age of 90 years. (A biographical sketch of this noble woman appears elsewhere.)
He closed his labors as pastor of the church January 10, 1836, but continued to preach as occasion offered, until he reached the age of nearly fourscore years. He was a good pastor; large additions were made to the membership of the church during his pastorate and he left the office he had so long filled at a time when the church was united and strong. After the close of his pastorate his active mind found employment in scientific experiments upon his farm. He never fed his ground highly, but all the material he put upon it was perfectly prepared to assist nature in the perfection of a crop. He received one or more first premiums for the most profitably cultivated farm. He interspersed these labors with the mental exercise of lecture-writing, preparing and delivering in Milford and adjoining towns between thirty and forty addresses upon popular subjects. He lectured twenty-eight times before the Milford lyceum. Thirteen of his occasional sermons were published, and eight addresses.
Although in no sense a politician, never having attended a caucus or convention in his life, the anti-slavery party insisted that he should allow his name to be used as a candidate for the House of Representatives in 1840, and again as a candidate for the State Senate in 1841. To his surprise he was elected to both positions by the joint action of the Whigs and the anti-slavery men of all parties.
During his service in the House there were referred to that body by our governor copies of resolutions passed by the legislature of the state of South Carolina. These resolutions mere sent to the judiciary committee and a report was made to the House in the form of resolutions setting forth the duty of the several states to return fugitive slaves. Upon this report the struggle in the legislature of New Hampshire between the friends and opponents of human slavery began, and in the protracted debate Dr. Moore was a leader, crossing swords with the ablest lawyers in the state.
The same subject came up in the Senate the following year, and he again stood four square for human freedom. Of him it can be truthfully said that “he never concealed his opinions or took counsel of his fears.”
Dr. Moore left an auto-biographical sketch of one hundred and thirty closely written pages of manuscript. The following is the record of his experience in the House of Representatives in 1840, at the time the slavery resolutions were under discussion:
“I was requested by several to speak. It required but a few words to persuade me to comply. No sooner had I begun than there was great excitement and confusion in the House. A majority of the members had no sympathy with the remarks I made. They used every imaginable effort to put me down. They shuffled and stamped with their feet. Some kicked the spit boxes which were near them. There was a roar of confusion. But I was neither intimidated nor embarrassed. I raised my voice to its highest pitch and to its greatest strength, but it was overwhelmed by a flood of mixed noises. When I could not be heard on account of the tumultuous confusion in different parts of the house, I appealed to the speaker by expressive looks. He commanded order. But no sooner was it restored, and I began to speak than the same farce was acted over again. At length an enraged opponent, to sweep me from the floor, called me to order. The speaker decided that I was in order, and that I might go on. I went on till I had finished my speech amidst the clamor of the opposition.”
The resolutions passed the House by a decided majority, and went to the Senate where they were referred to the next session. In 1841 while Mr. Moore was a member of the Senate, resolutions of the same character passed the House but were indefinitely postponed by the Senate.
In 1845, contrary to his inclination, but yielding to a stern sense of duty and to the repeated suggestion that in a cause so unpopular the names of the candidates upon the ticket must be men well known throughout the state as the tried friends of the cause of human freedom, he allowed his name to be used by the Free-soil party as a candidate for Congress. The state was then entitled to four members, and they were elected upon a general ticket. His associates were Reuben Porter, Joseph Cilley, and Jared Perkins. This ticket received a little less than five thousand votes.
John P. Hale at the time ran as an independent Democrat, his nomination by the regular Democratic party having been revoked. Mr. Hale received more votes than anyone on the regular Free-soil ticket, defeating one of the Democratic nominees without being elected himself, a majority of votes at that time being required to secure an election.
In the year 1845, he received the honorary degree of D. D. For the last twenty years of his life, which ended April 8, 1871, he gradually withdrew from active public work. He continued, however, to write sermons, lectures, and essays, and to attend the meetings of his ministerial and agricultural associations until the infirmities of age prevented. Few men have found their latter years so pleasant, or reaped so much satisfaction in a field usually so barren. Few have found their last their best days, but it was so with him. He never found fault with anything. To him, the divine order of events was satisfactory. His purpose from the beginning was to fill a man’s place in the world. This gave character to all his actions. When the late rebellion came upon the country, he hired a substitute to represent him for three years in the war saying, “I desire to have a part in this conflict.”
Dr. Moore was orthodox in sentiment and preached the doctrines usually held by the churches of his denomination at the time he was a settled pastor, but he held these doctrines in a most catholic spirit.
The creed of the church in Milford, written by him soon after his settlement, has never been altered.
His sermon preached at the ordination of Rev. Abel Conant at Leominster, Mass., some twenty years after his own ordination, and which was printed, reads well today notwithstanding the theological changes of the last three-quarters of a century.
At the Centennial celebration in June, 1894, the speakers, without exception, assigned to the beloved pastor a large share in placing Milford, where the town has stood, upon all the great questions which have agitated the public mind for the past seventy-five years.
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