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Edie's Family

Chapter 13, John Franklin and Cynthia Susam (Holland) Moore


With the marriage of Edie's parents, the Moore and the Hamrick families would come together.

Edie's grandfather, John Franklin Moore, grew up on a family farm near the present day town of Rutherford.  As with many farm boys, he mastered carpentry, both as a general builder and a cabinetmaker.

These skills provided the impetus for his coming to Boiling Springs to work on the home being built by Elijah Bly and Galena Green Hamrick, Edie's paternal grandparents.

While in Boiling Springs, he met and married Cynthia Sue Holland, the aforementioned daughter of Gold Griffin Holland and Cynthia Ann Moore.  They moved west to Rutherford County near the village of Henrietta and started work on establishing a farm of their own.

Shortly thereafter the railroad came through and split their farmlands.  This forced John Franklin and Cynthia Sue Moore to give up on this first farm and return to Boiling Springs where John Franklin Moore would purchase the old Holland homestead, which in our day would become known as "Grandpa Moore's place."

Just as the Hamricks had established a family compound on the southwest side of Boiling Springs, so now did John Franklin Moore do so to the north of the village .

Being a master carpenter, John Franklin Moore would eventually build out his own farm and then  --  over time  --  build the nearby houses and associated farm buildings for his extended family.

As these events unfolded John or Susan Moore could only have marveled at the coincidence that their daughter, Marietta, would marry Thomas Carl Hamrick, who as the eldest son of Elijah Bly and Galena Green Hamrick was raised in the very house the building of which had originally brought John Franklin Moore to Boiling Springs.


After John Franklin Moore and Cynthia Sue Holland returned to the Boiling Springs from Henrietta, they first lived in the old Holland house.

This house fronted what is now Patrick Street running out of Boiling Springs towards Shelby.  In Edie's formulative years it was still a dirt road fording the Little Broad River about halfway to Shelby.

In those days it was traveled mainly by horse-drawn conveyances  --  the first automobiles coming about the time of the marriage of Edie's parents.

There is a photograph of John Franklin and Susan Moore standing outside of the old Holland farmhouse with some of their young children  --  I remember Marietta, Ollie, Kate and Dan though perhaps there were others present that day.  The house had already acquired a covering of weatherboard siding as a veneer over its original log walls.

This old house would go on to play a large role in the lives of Edie's kinfolks surviving until the early 1990's when Edie's cousin, Dan Moore, Jr.  --  the house now situated on his lands  --  thought it unsafe and had it razed.
 
John Franklin Moore, in addition to being a farmer and blacksmith, remained an active carpenter and cabinetmaker throughout his productive life.

The old Holland homestead accrued various barns, sheds and a blacksmith shop.

A master of many trades, John Moore wrought his own farming implements as well as the tools he used in carpentry.  Edie fondly remembered this as a place where she would often visit and watch "Grandpa" Moore while he worked at his billows and anvil.

He built a new house for his family about an eighth of a mile north of the Holland house in the direction of Shelby beginning the collection of homes that would become his family's enclave.

Over time "Grandpa" Moore would construct homes for Edie's parents, her uncle Dan W. Moore, Sr., and her brother Felix and the old Holland home would go on to acquire its moniker as various of the children of John Franklin and Susan Holland Moore lived there at the start of their marriages.

The T. Carl Hamrick house was built not long before Edie was born. 

It was a large house with expansive porches modeled after a house in the nearby town of Gastonia.  Modern for its time, the house featured a battery building to provide electricity before Boiling Springs was "on the grid" and a large interior closet to accommodate a future indoor toilet which was not yet available. 

The house's yard eventually featured large live oak trees, now gone, and Edie's sister Sadie remembers how their mother always would maintain a beautiful flower garden in the side yard.  This may have been the source of Edie's own love of flowers and gardens.

A match of the house was built as the parsonage in Boiling Springs and the pastor's son, having grown up in this duplicate, now owns the Hamrick house.

A home for Dan W. Moore, Sr. and his wife, Blanche Bridges, was later built directly across the street from the Moore house.

Architecturally the house was less ambitious than the Hamrick house  --  more in the cottage style of the day than the bungalow style of the Hamrick house  --  but it was still a comfortable and well-built home featuring a wonderful screened-in front porch.

Lastly, when Edie's brother Felix married to Irene Bogue, T. Carl Hamrick had "Grandpa" Moore build them a small home next door to the Hamrick house.  This is the house later the retirement home of Edie's sister  Helen is now owned by Jack Hamrick's son.

After the death of John Franklin Moore, the Moore-Holland-Hamrick compound continued to grow. 

Upon returning from World War II,  Edie's cousin Dan W. (DW) Moore, Jr. and his wife Betty built a home down the road from the old Holland house and across from the Hamrick home.

Several years later Edie's Uncle Vic, Dr. Victor Holland Moore, and his wife, Elizabeth, built a home next door to "Grandpa" Moore's house.

Finally, Edie's sister Mett built her retirement home behind the Hamrick house. 

Now, the old Holland home is gone and both the Moore houses and the Hamrick house have been sold.  Their barns and outbuildings are long gone along with any semblance of their having been "working" farms.  Patrick Road has been subdivided and is dotted with the "ranch" houses so common to suburban America in the 2nd half of the twentieth century.

Much has changed in the seven generations since William Holland (1725 - 1780) and Margaret Harrison arrived in Cleveland County sometime in the late 1700's from Pennsylvania via Mecklenburg County.

Which brings us back to the Hamrick house and where we left off with the Hamrick generations.


Next chapter    Chapter 14, The Marriage of Thomas Carl Hamrick and Marietta Holland Moore

Previous chapter    Chapter 12, The Scotch-Irish Migration

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