Arthur Cotten Moore 1854 - 1926 |  his parents 
& Johnnie Florentine Rayner 1863 - 1926 | her parents
of Powellsville, NC 
(actually lived in Hertford Co just over the line at Maple Lawn.) 

ca 1925 Arthur & Johnnie Moore    

          This is my working hypothesis - the way I see it as of this moment!! 

   Arthur Cotten Moore and Johnnie Florentine Rayner were married 24 October 1886. They made their home with his parents at Maple Lawn.

   Arthur Cotten Moore, son of John Wheeler Moore and his wife Ann James Ward, was born 28 July 1854. He had received an appointment to West Point, NY--but despite his Great Uncle Junius Wheeler being the math professor there--Arthur failed his math exam and returned to the family farm and farmed the family land.  (Julia and I discovered his math book with a bullet hole in it this spring.)

   He was an extremely well-read farmer. At night he would read to the family by the oil lamp the Waverly Novels and Shakespeare's Plays--all the books from his father’s library. He was interested in the latest ideas in agriculture and involved his son Raynor in the Corn Club that is known as the first 4-H Club. Raynor  won the award for the best record, thanks to his father's insistence that he write down everything he did.

 
Arthur Moore at home ca 1909
new barn and well in background

   But, by the time Raynor was a teen-ager he sometimes was called upon to remove his father from situations such as the time--wearing his new metal-soled shoes, he decided to attend the protracted meeting then going on at the Baptist church in Powellsville. Arriving late having visited with a friend who had supplied him with a generous nip, the only spot he could see to sit was the chair behind the man preaching in the pulpit and being Mr. Arthur Moore; he thought, in his daze, he should take that chair--Wrong!

   Years of over-indulgence rendered him an invalid for his last years. Arthur died 11 March, 1926 of "pernicious anemia" [so stated Dr. J B Ruffin Sr.] and was buried in the family cemetery at the Jones' Hole.

   Johnnie Florentine Rayner, daughter of John Alexander Rayner and his wife "Molly" Mary Winifred Rayner, was born at the family home 14 December, 1863. My father recalled that she was a very fine seamtress.  She had stitched him the suit for which Uncle Marc gave the material.   Also there was the time the axe slipped when Raynor was chopping wood, they poured some of grand-dad's liquor over the gaping wound in his leg and then she stitched him up. "Better than any doctor!" Daddy would brag years later. She enjoyed fishing in the swamps with her children catching supper on their bamboo poles and lines.

Johnnie Rayner Moore and her dogs

   Aunt Julia told of the time she had come home from nursing school and her mother asked her to talk to he father about his drinking problem. "What problem?" "Why he's drunk as a fish right now and I will prove it to you."   With that she went and put on one of Arthur's suits and appeared at the front door. Arthur cordially greeted  his guest  who introduced himself as Prof. MacNutty   who was an admirer of the family. He  invited the Prof. into the parlor and carried on a conversation for about 30 minutes. His guest then took  leave without Arthur ever suspecting anything fishy.  "See!" Johnnie exclaimed to her daughter, "I told you he was drunk!"

   Exactly ten days after her husband's death, Johnnie died 21 March 1926 of pneumonia. Mother says she had worn herself to nothing looking after her husband. Physically she was a very small woman--size 3 shoe.

How Daddy got his first Trousers  or "When Raynor wore dresses"
 
ca 1897 The Arthur Moore family

Children of Arthur Cotten Moore and Johnnie Florentine Rayner:

1. Elizabeth Jones Moore (Bess) 17 July 1889 - 18 Nov 1959
     married 15 Sept 1909  Robert Russell Pierce  insurance agent
2. John Raynor Moore (Raynor or J.R.) 19 Mar  1892- 21 Jan 1969 farmer
     married  20 May 1925  Gladiola [Ola] Parker school teacher
3. James Ward Moore 17 Aug  1894 - 14 Oct 1962 book-keeper 
     married 12 June 1940  Gladys Whitfield 28 July 1894 - 15 Feb 1981
                dau of Thomas Japeth Whitfield & Annie A Benton
4. Arthur Cotten Moore Jr. 8 Dec  1896- 30 Nov 1965 logger 
     married 18 July 1926  Evelyne Wright 1 May 1902 - 30 June 1991
                 dau of Leighton A Wright & Lucie Pierce
5. Percy Raynor Moore 25 Mar  1900- 28 June 1964 odd-jobs 
          a horse rolled on top of Percy when he was a young teen; afterwards he usually walked with a limp 
          was a member of Raynor and Ola's household until his marriage
     married  ca 1936  Irma Dunning 6 Aug 1900 - 16 July 1972
6. Julia Wheeler Moore 21 Jan  1905 - 4 June 1961 Government nurse
        Major Julia W. Moore never married

Other Children raised by Arthur and Johnnie:

1. Rosa Holloman 21 Jan 1886 - 10 Oct 1969 Lewiston-Woodville, NC
              buried Ahoskie Cemetery
     married 27 April 1921 Lisha G Skinner 1866 - 1932
       a. Rosa Lee Skinner 13 April 1924 - 22 Nov 1945
           married Scott
       b. Joe Skinner

   While calling on her neighbor one day "Miss Annie" Ward Moore felt Rosa's mother was mistreating Rosa; so Miss Annie said, "Rosa, you get your things and you come right on home with me." Rosa made her home with the Moore family for the next 25 years until she married Mr. Skinner.

2. Joe Moore, a mulatto, was born in 1900, the son of  "Uncle" Peter Moore's daughter Sadie [and Julian Moore, my father said]. This time it was Arthur who felt Joe's mother's family was picking on the boy--so he brought him to the" big house" to live with his sons who all slept in the building known as the office located at the right corner of the fenced yard.

   On 24 June 1914 as Joe, Cotten, Jim, and Raynor were working in the fields down at the old house, a sudden storm came up. Joe and Cotten jumped into the wagon with their hoes on their shoulders, Jim and Raynor came running from another field to catch them.  "There was a sudden bolt of lightning, the mules bolted and ran off for home throwing  Joe and Cotten out onto the ground. When we got there they were both lying there dead still." Raynor would tell us with tears in his eyes. "Jim ran to get Daddy and I jumped on Cotten and was able to bring him around and then I turned to Joe--my Dad had gotten there by that time as he had rushed out to find us when the terrified team arrived at the barn alone-- 'No, Son,' he said, 'Look at Joe!' -- And I looked and saw that Joe was beyond recall: the lightning had run down his body literally stripping the flesh from his bones."