Family:Jesse Moore and Emelia Stone (1)

Parke County Indiana Churches

Rocky Fork

This church was organized about 1832 by Lemuel Branson, Michael Pruett, and a few others. The society's first and only house was a hewed log structure about twenty by twenty-eight feet, with a clapboard roof, a batten door midway in one side of the house, and a high pulpit opposite the door. It was warmed by a wood-burner stove in the center of the room. Mrs. Mary A. Hunt, aged eighty-six years, says the first church services and first school that she attended were at this house, which was located in section 9, Jackson Township.

A few of the members were Jesse and Amelia Moore, Zopher and Telitha Coleman, George and Rebecca Branson, and B. F. Irwin. The largest membership was eighteen. Some of their ministers were George Branson, from Virginia, I. W. Denman, John Leatherman, and Joseph Skeeters, the last regular pastor, whose service ended in 1863. In 1864 and '65 the church sent no letters and messengers to the Danville Association. The council then dissolved the society, which, like some of the others, did not survive the controversies incident to the Civil War.

A cemetery was located on the hill near-by, probably before the house was built. Here are twenty-five graves marked by shapeless pieces of sandstone; very few of them can be identified. This cemetery was abandoned many years ago, but a half mile north of it is the Moore Cemetery. Between these is a private burial lot on the George Hansel farm. Mr. Hansel, a soldier of the War of 1812, is buried here. He was drowned in 1840 while rafting logs.

Check out the Rocky Fork Church Records for more information.

MOORE, Jesse and Amelia, both born in South Carolina emigrated to Kentucky. in a very early day and in 1826 sought a home in Jackson Township. They started October 8, and arriving here leased 70 acres of the northeast 1/4 of Section 9, agreeing to build a house, set an orchard, besides clearing the 70 acres. They had the privilege of using the whole quarter. There were 3 families of them: the old folks, Jesse and Amelia; Naoma Pruett and husband with family of two children; Thomas Moore and wife, with one child; and Job, a single man. Jesse and his son Joab worked one half the land, and Thomas and Stephen the other half. Thomas is now the wealthiest man in Jackson Township. Taken from: The 1880 History of Parke County, Indiana. J. H. Beadle. Chicago: H. H. Hill

1. ↑ or South Carolina