Born on the 7th of September, 1832, at London, Madison county, Ohio. Napoleon Bonaparte Moore, from the age of eight years, was brought up in his father's dry-goods store until he was fourteen years of age, when he went to school at the Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, where he remained till he was eighteen, when his health began to fail him, and he went upon a farm near London, where he became interested in stock raising, and remained till about twenty-one. When nineteen years old he married Miss B. W. Webster, daughter of a prominent Methodist minister of the Cincinnati conference. Partially restored to health, he left the farm and went into mercantile pursuits at Charleston, Ohio, where he remained in business until the fall of 1855. Here he had prospered in business, but through financial aid extended to others he became greatly involved, to an extent of at least ten thousand dollars; so again failing in health and ruined in finances he came to Iowa and settled at Eddyville, on the Des Moines river, where he and his wife taught the district school, and he began the study of law, and in two years was admitted to the bar, when he left Eddyville and settled at Bedford, Taylor county, Iowa. Teaching school at Eddyville simply produced enough of an income to supply a most frugal subsistence for himself and family, so that when he had determined to remove to Bedford he prospected the place before removal of his family. He owned no horse, could get no conveyance and had to walk the three hundred miles there and back. Having determined upon the removal, a wagon was obtained, into which he put all his worldly effects, including his wife and one child, and commending himself to the care of an all-wise Providence, he commenced the journey of one hundred and fifty miles. The little girl of four years was ailing when they started, and died when they were seven days out, but the mother kept it until they reached Bedford, where Mr. Moore and his father dug a grave and gave it burial. He remained in Bedford, practicing law, until September, 1860, with great success, commencing life as it were anew. He had two dollars and a half in money and owed ten thousand dollars. Our subject removed to Clarinda in 1860, continuing the practice of law. In the fall of 1861 he was elected county judge, which office he filled for four years. In the fall of 1865 he established the first banking house in southwestern Iowa. In 1866 he was elected state senator, and while serving on the judiciary committee framed the bill relative to the present circuit court system, and was among the most earnest supporters of the plan for the erection of the present state capitol building at Des Moines, which justly ranks among the grandest architectural piles on this continent. In 1871 he established the First National Bank of Clarinda. In 1867 he completed the payment of the ten thousand dollars indebtedness imposed upon him in Ohio. In 1872 he established the banking house of Moore and Webster, at Shenandoah, which is now known as the First National Bank of that place, and also established the banking house of Crum, Moore and Van Fleet, at Bedford, in January, 1873, now succeeded by the Bedford Bank. In 1867, his health again failing him, the result of too close confinement to sedentary labor, he sought relaxation in a diversion of body and mind, and conceived the idea of a stock farm in lieu of stock banks, and he bought a farm situated ten miles south of Clarinda. This farm seems to have been a favorite matter of concern to him, for he continuously developed it. Amid all this busy business life Mr. Moore has ever been a strong devotee to his church. Since 1862 he has had charge of the Sabbath school, excepting only two years of absence. He was a member of the general conference of the Methodist church which met at Baltimore in May, 1876. He has been an active Mason; has taken thirty-two degrees since 1859, and is now prelate to the Commandery here. Mr. Moore may be summed up in all truthfulness as a thorough business man, governed in his every action toward his fellow-men by all the graces of a practical Christian gentleman.
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