Author: Karen Sikes Collins
Both Elizabeth White and Martin Moore came to the tiny village of Austin when it was selected for the Capitol of the new Republic of Texas. She and her four sisters, parents, and at least eight slaves were originally from Dallas County, Alabama, and Martin came across the ocean from Ireland. Elizabeth inherited this land on which the Farmstead stands after her father Gideon White was killed by Native Americans in 1842 on nearby Shoal Creek. A short time after her father’s death, she married Martin Moore, an up and coming store owner who liked to gamble, who sued and was sued, and who was not shy about fighting to settle disagreements.
Twenty-two year old Martin began his career selling food to the hungry gangs (most of them Irish and German) who were constructing the log government buildings along Congress Avenue. On Oct. 17, 1839, the president of the Republic Mirabeau B. Lamar and his cabinet arrived to occupy the buildings. Martin ran an advertisement in the first issue of the first newspaper printed in Austin in October 1839.
According to Noah Smithwick, Martin became Austin’s first mercantilist. He was among the first to buy lots when Austin was surveyed, and then constructed a store on E Pecan (6th Street). Among the goods he hauled from the docks in Galveston and Houston and sold in his store were window glass, liquor, clothing, glue, nails, trinkets for Indian trade, wine, and groceries. The round trip by cart took five to six weeks. In 1841 he helped equip one of President Lamar’s pet projects, the Santa Fe Expedition, with rope, horseshoe nails, butcher knives, pen knives, and shoes.
When Texas was invaded by Mexican General Rafael Vasquez in 1842, Moore served in the Republic military to repel the invaders.
Unconvinced of the army’s ability to keep the Capitol city secure, President Sam Houston moved the government out of Austin for several years. Moore was selected by citizens of Austin to make a deal to reopen the Land Office in Austin since feisty citizens had forced Houston to leave behind all the documents recording deeds to land.
“Clarksville Standard, Austin, March 28th 1843
To the citizens of Travis County-Your commission
appointed to wait upon Thomas William Ward Esq., Commissioner of the General Land Office, with a
communication tendering the papers and documents belonging to the General Land Office, beg leave
to report duty performed, and that Col. Ward returned as answer to your committee that he did not
deal with ruffians and had no written reply to make to the aforesaid commission and would have
nothing more to do with them. JOHN GRUMBLES, MARTIN MOORE”
Moore’s store, located in the 200 block of East 6th, Northside, sold supplies like ink, matches, and candles to the orphaned Land Office on credit and also supplied the Texas Ranging companies trying to keep the nearly abandoned town safe (gunpowder, lead, caps, cornmeal, coffee, sugar, salt, bacon, and flour).
Martin and Elizabeth built their first house in front of and down the hill from the French Legation. In late 1845 when Texas became a state, and it became safe again to venture a few miles beyond the safety of town, Martin began raising cattle on his wife’s land. He and Elizabeth already had two children when they decided to build a new house on that land. Living in their new log home meant Elizabeth would be within walking distance of her sisters and mother, and Martin would be closer to his growing livestock business.
Martin owned a small tract in the Balcones hills just west of Shoal Creek where he harvested the cedar logs for their house. After branches were trimmed off, over 100 big logs were hauled to the house site for walls and porch posts. Another 100 smaller logs were harvested for rafters and braces. A 2’ wide and nearly 1.5’ high foundation of rock was laid on bare bedrock for the log joists to rest on, possibly built by Martin who may have been a rock mason. The Moores hired a builder or more likely they borrowed the White family slave Sterling who built an identical log family home on Shoal Creek in 1839 for Elizabeth’s family. Making dovetail notches at the end of each log was a specialized skill. The dovetail notches held the log walls firmly in place, and wooden pegs in holes secured the rafters and braces. Rock chimneys were built at both ends of the house which was roofed with shakes. They purchased pine boards from Bastrop for the floors and trim. When the logs were chinked and the inside whitewashed, they moved in. Meanwhile a rock summer kitchen, a small log barn, and an outhouse were constructed behind the house.
Elizabeth sold her inherited slaves, who were all children, and bought a young black woman slave, Harriet, to help her in their new country home. For help with the livestock, Martin also invested in slave labor, including Renty Lott. As a resident along the Upper Georgetown Road, Martin and his workers were required to help maintain the road along with their other chores.
On Sundays the Moores drove four miles to attend St. Patrick’s Catholic Church services at Brazos and Ninth. Their two daughters Mary and Sarah were baptized here and Elizabeth herself converted and also was baptized. Martin was a member and occasionally an officer of the Odd Fellows, Milam Lodge, which met Tuesday evenings in town. In 1848, in anticipation of frequent travel into town, the Moores purchased a buggy. And the next year a wagon.
Martin was a shrewd land investor. He bought and sold at a profit numerous tracts of land in Washington, Harris, Hays, Burnet, Travis, Bexar, San Patricio, Lampasas and Fannin counties. In addition to his land and livestock business, he got the contract worth $4,500 to build the foundation for the 1853 Capitol building.
“…and in the spring of 1852 work was commenced. The foundations were laid by Martin Moore and completed sometime in April so that work was begun on the main walls about the first of May.”
After several good years for livestock, drought set in and lasted three years. A very severe winter and plague of grasshoppers forced Martin to keep some of his cattle on his land in Lampasas County but he pastured his 45 horses nearby. Martin was the father of five children when one of his horses killed him.
Reported by the Southern Intelligencer (Austin, Texas), 4 Jan. 1860: “Died At his residence, three miles from Austin, on the 17th inst [December] Martin Moore. Mr. Moore was one of the first settlers in this city. He left Austin on Tuesday evening on a young horse, carrying a gun and other articles, when, about half way home it appears that his horse took fright and threw him- his foot hanging in the stirrup until he was dragged some distance, when the stirrup leather broke. He was found speechless on Wednesday morning, and lingered until Saturday night about 12 o’clock. He leaves a wife and five children to mourn his loss.”
He was 43 years old. At his death, his and Elizabeth’s assets amounted to $13,400 (over half a million dollars today). Elizabeth’s separate property, mainly this farmstead, was valued at another $10,000. They both were considered wealthy.
Elizabeth stayed in her log home probably through the Civil War then moved into town. She sold her homestead with house and outbuildings to neighbor Judge John Hancock possibly as part of an agreement for him to defend her new son-in-law on murder charges. Her son-in-law, Ben Thompson, was tried for the murder of John Coombs in 1865 and found not guilty.
Widow Elizabeth increased the horse herd to over 70 and kept more than 100 head of cattle until well after the Civil War. After selling her farmstead, she pastured her horse herd in Austin on land where William Saunders lived. She judiciously sold livestock and tracts of land over the years to support her family. For example, in 1868 she sold ten brood mares with colts for $200 cash [$4,400 in 2025].
Despite her best efforts, only one of her five children, daughter Kate, would carry on the family line. Daughter Louisa died unmarried at age 18, and her son James, a troublemaker and an addict, never married. Her two youngest daughters, Mollie at age 18 and Sallie at age 14, married but had no children. Elizabeth herself died at age 51.
Elizabeth and Martin Moore were founding pioneers of Austin, on the ground and engaged from its very beginning. Austin’s earliest written records show Martin serving on grand juries, getting fined for gambling or fighting, suing his friends and neighbors, jumping in to defend his town, failing to pay his taxes, active in some way in all the early adventures. There are very few records of Elizabeth’s contributions, but this land and house were her separate property, and the Moore-Hancock Farmstead is Austin’s only lasting reminder of their lives and efforts.
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