Descriptive Summary
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Biographical Note / Administrative History
Alfred William "Jack" Moore, Presbyterian minister and foreign missionary to North India, was born on June 23, 1885 in Middletown, Ohio, the son of Baptist deacon Frank Cheney Moore and Kate Marston Moore. He graduated from the College of Wooster in 1907 and briefly attended McCormick Theological Seminary. In 1911, he graduated from Auburn Theological Seminary. In March of the same year, he was appointed by the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of Foreign Missions to the North India Mission and sailed for Bombay, India on August 18, 1911. He was ordained by the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Presbytery of Cayuga in March 1912. For the entirety of his missionary service, Alfred Moore worked as a superintendent of evangelistic work. He traveled throughout the rural villages of Northeastern India, ministering to the “outcast and low-caste village groups” during the “mass movement” period initiated and led by Mahatma Gandhi. From 1911 to 1913, he served in Etah. On April 23, 1913, he married fellow missionary Louise Marshall Keach while in India. The couple was transferred to Mainpuri until their first furlough in Middletown, Ohio, in 1919. From 1920 to 1921, Alfred remained in the United States and worked in the Candidate Department of the Board of Foreign Missions.
Louise Marshall Keach Moore, Presbyterian missionary to North India, was born on December 17, 1885 in Carl Junction, Missouri, to parents Edwin Parker Keach and Julia M. Keach. She was appointed to the North India Mission by the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of Foreign Missions on April 17, 1911 and sailed for India on September 5, 1911. She graduated from the Presbyterian Training School in Chicago, Illinois in May 1913. In 1922, Alfred and Louise persuaded the Board to divide the Mainpuri district and established the Shikohabad station in the western half. The couple had four children: John William (b. 1914), Theodore Marston (b. 1916), Margaret “Mark” (b. 1919), and Julia Louise (b. 1920). Louise died shortly after giving birth to the couple’s fifth child, Katherine, on January 13, 1924. Katherine died soon after on May 20, 1924. All of the Moore children attended the Woodstock School, a Christian, international, co-educational, residential school located in Landour. After completing their education at Woodstock, the Moore children moved from India to Middletown, Ohio. John was the first of the Moore children to leave in 1929.
Theodore was the only Moore child who became a missionary. He and his wife, Jeannette Whittlesey, were appointed to the North India Mission in 1946, at which point they joined Alfred and Marion at the Mainpuri Mission Station. Together they supervised mission work throughout the rural villages in the area and served as the Directors of Community Health Service, an educational program that sought to educate Indian villagers in health and sanitation. The couple retired in 1981.
On July 1, 1924, Alfred married fellow missionary Dr. Marion Dwight Lockwood. The couple had one child, Mary Ann (b. 1927). Alfred and Marion continued to work in the Shikohabad District until their furlough in 1939, which was spent travelling throughout the United States. In 1940, Marion accompanied Alfred when he was transferred to Fatehgarh. In 1945, they were transferred to the Mainpuri District. The couple took another furlough in 1948 and returned to Fatehgarh in 1949. Alfred died suddenly from a heart attack on June 25, 1950 while worshipping in Kellogg Memorial Church in Landour, Mussoorie, India.
Marion Dwight Lockwood Moore, medical missionary to North India, was born on January 15, 1894 in Asheville, N.C., the daughter of Isabel Dwight Ingersoll Lockwood, a Presbyterian home missionary, and Hanford Nichols Lockwood, an elder in the First Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, California. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1916 and the University of California Medical School in 1922. She was appointed to the North India Mission on March 4, 1921 and sailed on September 2, 1922. She was first stationed in Fatehgarh where she was in charge of the Memorial Hospital. After her marriage to Alfred Moore in 1924, Marion moved with him to the Shikohabad station, where she traveled throughout the surrounding villages in a Ford station wagon with her medical dispensary. Marion also worked to promote public health causes, campaigning for improvements in sanitation and spreading awareness of common diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis. In 1940, she moved back to the Fatehgarh Station with Alfred and rejoined the staff of the Memorial Hospital. After her husband’s death, Marion continued her medical work at the Mainpuri Station until her retirement in 1959. She died in April 1993.
Collection Overview
The Moore Family Papers, 1910-1997, bulk 1920-1950, primarily document the life and work of Alfred and Marion Moore while they served as missionaries for the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. North India Mission from 1911 to 1959. The majority of the collection consists of personal correspondence between Alfred and Marion Moore, their five children, and the Moore and Lockwood grandparents, created while the family was together in India, while the missionaries were on furlough in the United States, and after the Moore children moved from India to Middletown, Ohio, starting in 1929.
The collection consists of three series: Correspondence and photographs; Writings, reports, and printed matter; and Diaries.
The Correspondence series consists of two subseries of personal correspondence which primarily document the daily lives and familial relationships of the Moore family: Alfred, Louise, and Marion Moore correspondence, 1922-1943; and Moore family correspondence and photographs, 1924-1957, 1971-1973, 1984-1997.
Subseries 1 is arranged chronologically and contains personal correspondence from Alfred to Louise Moore, 1922; from Marion to Alfred Moore, 1924-1925, 1936-1938; and from Alfred to Marion Moore, 1941, 1943, during periods of separation in India.
Subseries 2 is arranged chronologically and contains correspondence between Alfred; Marion; their children; the Moore, Lockwood, and Keach grandparents; and some extended family and friends, 1924-1957, 1971-1973, 1984-1997, while the Moores were stationed throughout North India, on furlough in the United States, and after their children moved from India to Middletown, Ohio. The majority of the correspondence from the Moore children is from Margaret Moore, later Margaret Gottlieb. Correspondence between Alfred, John Moore, and Frank A. Jones, the family’s accountant, 1936-1941, documents the management of the Moore family’s real estate in Middletown, Ohio, and the funds allocated to support the Moore children while they lived apart from their parents. There is a small amount of correspondence with fellow missionaries, such as North India medical missionary Adelaide Woodward, as well as some official correspondence with the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of Foreign Missions. Two letters from 1971 and 1973 discuss Theodore and Jeanette’s mission work. There are a few newspaper clippings related to India and Alfred Moore’s parents, Frank Cheney Moore and Kate Marston Moore, interspersed within the correspondence. Correspondence between the adult Moore children and their spouses, 1984-1997, documents the establishment of the Moore Memorial Scholarship Fund, intended to support medical school education, as well as their reflections on their childhood in India. Also included in Subseries 2 is one folder containing photographs. Four photographs are from India, one of which depicts Alfred presiding over a communion service at Church of the Cross, Shikohabad, India, circa 1936. There are three unidentified and undated photographs, and one photocopy of a 1928 photograph of children at a mission meeting.
The Writings, reports, and printed matter series is arranged alphabetically and dates from 1916 to 1957 and from 1991 to 1993. This series includes undated autobiographical essays by Margaret Moore Gottlieb, including an essay titled, “The Anguish of India” and biographical information about Marion Moore, including an essay written by Jeanette Whittlesey Moore. A notebook binder contains undated essays and speeches written by Alfred William Moore. Included in the folder with Marion Moore's station reports, are her poems and essays, some relating to her medical work in India. There is one folder of undated documents handwritten in an unidentified Indian language. Printed matter includes two North India Mission publications: “Bed Rock Foundations: The Mass Movement Missionary’s Job,” by G.B. Ogden, and “The Man at the Bottom, or the Mass Movement Bulletin,” and ephemera also printed in India.
The Diaries series is arranged alphabetically and contains a total of fifteen bound diaries kept by Alfred Moore, Louise Moore, and Marion Moore. Alfred's diaries include ten bound, yearly volumes spanning a portion of the time he spent serving as a missionary in North India, from 1936 to 1950, just a few days prior to his sudden death in Landour. In his diaries he lists his and Marion’s daily activities, meetings, visitors, and travels, as well as brief accounts of his daily frustrations, challenges, and reflections on his work and on life in India. Alfred’s diaries from 1939 and 1948 also cover the couple’s furloughs in the United States. Some years contain almost daily entries while others are almost empty. One diary belonging to Louise Moore covers the short period between Margaret Moore's birth and the couple's first furlough in Middletown, Ohio, 1919-1920. Four diaries belonging to Marion Moore begin in her teenage years up until a year prior to Alfred’s death, 1910-1949. Marion recounts the story of Louise’s death and is often detailed in her descriptions about her daily activities. Her diary from 1945 to 1949 also includes information about Theodore Marston Moore and Jeanette Whittlesey Moore's activities as missionaries at the Mainpuri District. This volume also includes a lock of hair.
Organization and Arrangement
SERIES I: CORRESPONDENCE AND PHOTOGRAPHS, 1922-1997
Subseries 1: Alfred, Louise, and Marion Moore correspondence, 1922-1943
Subseries 2: Moore family correspondence and photographs, 1924-1957, 1971-1973, 1984-1997
SERIES II: WRITINGS, REPORTS, AND PRINTED MATTER, 1916-1957, 1991-1993
SERIES III: DIARIES, 1910-1950
Alternative Formats
To browse this collection's digitized content visit Pearl.
Materials marked "Digital" in the Collection Inventory may not have been digitized in their entirety.
Administrative Information
Received in 2012 from Peter Gottlieb, Penny Chesluk, Rachel Samoff, and Stephen Gottlieb, grandchildren of Alfred and Louise Moore.
Collection processed and guide prepared in June 2013 by Natalie Shilstut, Preservation Specialist.
Preferred Citation
Moore Family Papers, RG 489, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Catalog Headings
Collection Inventory
Box | Folder | Description | Alternative Format |
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1 | 1 | Guide to Record Group 489 | |
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| SERIES I: CORRESPONDENCE AND PHOTOGRAPHS, 1922-1997 | |
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| Subseries 1: Alfred, Louise, and Marion Moore correspondence, 1922-1943 | |
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1 | 2 | Moore, Alfred W. to Louise K. Moore, 1922 | |
1 | 3 | Moore, Marion L. to Alfred W. Moore, 1924-1925 | |
1 | 4 | Moore, Marion L. to Alfred W. Moore, 1936-1938 | |
1 | 5 | Moore, Alfred W. to Marion L. Moore, 1941, 1943 | |
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| Subseries 2: Moore family correspondence and photographs, 1924-1957, 1971-1973, 1984-1997 | |
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1 | 6 | Moore family correspondence, 1924-1927 | |
1 | 7 | Moore family correspondence, 1930-1935 | |
1 | 8 | Moore family correspondence, 1936 | |
1 | 9 | Moore family correspondence, 1937 | |
1 | 10 | Moore family correspondence, 1938 | |
1 | 11 | Moore family correspondence, 1939 | |
1 | 12 | Moore family correspondence, 1940 | |
1 | 13 | Moore family correspondence, 1941 | |
1 | 14 | Moore family correspondence, 1942 | |
1 | 15 | Moore family correspondence, 1943 | |
1 | 16 | Moore family correspondence, 1944-1945 | |
1 | 17 | Moore family correspondence, 1946 | |
1 | 18 | Moore family correspondence, 1947-1949 | |
1 | 19 | Moore family correspondence, 1950-1957 | |
1 | 20 | Moore family correspondence, 1971, 1973 | |
1 | 21 | Moore family correspondence, 1985-1994 | |
1 | 22 | Moore family photographs, 1928, circa 1936, 1946, circa 1950 and undated | |
1 | 23 | Moore Memorial Scholarship Fund correspondence, 1984-1997 | |
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| SERIES II: WRITINGS, REPORTS, AND PRINTED MATTER, 1916-1957, 1991-1993 | |
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1 | 24 | Gottlieb, Margaret Moore -- autobiographical essays, undated | Digital |
1 | 25 | Handwritten Indian language documents, undated | |
1 | 26 | Moore, Marion L. -- biographical essays, 1940-1941, 1954, 1991, 1993 and undated | |
1 | 27 | Moore, Marion L. -- writings and reports, 1920-1957 and undated | |
1 | 28 | Printed matter, 1916, 1925, 1941, 1943, and undated | |
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| SERIES III: DIARIES, 1910-1950 | |
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1 | 29 | Moore, Alfred William diaries, 1936, 1939 | |
1 | 30 | Moore, Alfred William diaries, 1940-1941 | |
1 | 31 | Moore, Alfred William diaries, 1942-1943 | |
1 | 32 | Moore, Alfred William diaries, 1944, 1948 | |
1 | 33 | Moore, Alfred William diaries, 1949, 1950 | |
1 | 34 | Moore, Louise Keach diaries, 1919-1920 | |
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2 | 1 | Moore, Marion Lockwood diaries, 1910, 1912 | |
2 | 2 | Moore, Marion Lockwood diaries, 1915-1925, 1945-1949 |