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Caswell County Genealogy
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 1836 - 1876 (39 years)
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| Name |
Moore, Adolphus G |
| Birth |
4 Dec 1836 |
Caswell County, North Carolina  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Reference Number |
I68003 |
| Death |
27 Jan 1876 |
| Burial |
Linwood Cemetery, Graham, Alamance County, North Carolina |
| Person ID |
I68003 |
Caswell County |
| Last Modified |
16 Apr 2024 |
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| Notes |
- Adolphus G. Moore (1819-1883)
(for larger image, click on photograph)
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Adolphus G. Moore (born 1836 in Caswell County, North Carolina) was killed 27 January 1876 in Haw River, Alamance County, North Carolina, by George William Swepson (1819-1883), husband of Virginia Bartlett Yancey (1826-1901). She is the youngest child of Bartlett Yancey, Jr., and Ann (Nancy) Graves.
Moore and Swepson were competitors in the North Carolina textile business (cotton mills). Apparently Swepson was never charged with a crime.
Adolphus G. Moore was a one-third owner of the Granite Cotton Factory in Haw River. His partner and two-third's owner was his brother-in-law, Thomas Michael Holt (1831-1896), who invented "Alamance Plaids", and served as North Carolina's Governor in the 1890s. This Holt family had many Caswell County connections. By virtue of Moore's will, his sister and wife of Thomas Michael Holt, became owner of one-third of the Granite Cotton Factory, thus consolidating ownership between husband and wife.
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"In the Eastern counties the polls were literally surrounded by negroes, so that often many decent white men who could vote were unwilling to make the effort, women were in terror, and chaos was imminent. The white people organized to regulate matters, and the Ku-Klux Klan came into existence. Governor Holden retaliated by proclaiming martial law in the counties of Alamance and Caswell. Adolphus G. Moore, Esq., was arrested by Colonel George W. Kirk upon the charge of belonging to the Ku-Klux Klan and for complicity in the murder of J. W. Stevens, of Yanceyville. The prisoner's attorneys, A. S. Merrimon and E. S. Parker, sued out a writ of habeas corpus before Chief Justice Pearson. To the
demand of the officer of the law for the delivery of the prisoner under the great writ of the State, Colonel Kirk made this reply, 'Tell your judge that such things have played out. My orders come from the Governor, and I will obey none others.'
"Upon reading the return of the officer, Judge Pearson directs the Marshal of the Supreme Court to exhibit the writ to Governor Holden and to say to him that he had no power to disobey the writ of habeas corpus. The pity of it is that our great Chief Justice further added that if the Executive does disobey the writ, the power of the Judiciary is exhausted and the responsibility must rest with the Governor. Holden refuses to honor the writ, and sets forth his reasons for so doing at great length. Nothing now remains but the trial of Mr. Moore by a drum-head court martial; but not so. Graham, Badger, B. F. Moore and Judge Battle, and his two sons, Kemp P. and Richard H., hold a conference in the city of Raleigh to consider this weighty matter. The minds of all of them instinctively turn to General Ransom on his Northampton farm. They telegraph him to come to Raleigh. A conference is held, and Ransom suggests that the rights of the prisoner are protected by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which had but lately been ratified.
"Armed with the petition for the writ of habeas corpus, signed by Josiah Turner, and also with a copy of this new amendment to the Constitution, which assuredly had not been intentionally passed for the purposes to which it was now to be put, Ransom hastens to Elizabeth City, the home of George W. Brooks, District Judge of the United States. For several days and nights General Ransom and Judge Brooks discuss the matter and construe the new amendment. The writ is finally granted and is made returnable at Salisbury. The court convenes. The prisoner is brought into court by military escort under the command of Colonel Kirk. The brave judge looks up from the bench, and observing these minions of a tyrannical and self-sufficient government in his court of justice, indignantly orders them out, discharges the prisoner, and taxes the costs of the entire proceeding against George W. Kirk. This brave act of Judge Brooks will be handed down in story and in song till the latest syllable of recorded time. He was not a profound judge, but he was an incorruptible one, and he was as firm as he was honest."
Source: Dedication of the Bust of Matt Ransom (paragraph breaks added)
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However, Kirk had not furnished the court with all his prisoners. Prior to appearing in Salisbury, he had taken another group of detainees to Raleigh and surrendered them to Chief Justice Pearson instead, claiming that that the writ of habeas corpus issued by Pearson took effect first and “had always remained in full force and effect.” The group included suspects in the Outlaw and Stephens murders, such as Adolphus G. Moore, James R. Fowler, and J. S. Mitchell.
Source: Chen, Zirui (Jerry) (2023). "The Great North Carolina Ku Klux Klan Trials: Habeas Corpus, Due Process, and the Southern Redemption of the Fourteenth Amendment, 1870-1871." [Undergraduate Senior Thesis, Columbia University]. Department of History, Columbia University in the City of New York, April 5, 2023.
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1850 US Federal Census
Name: Adolphus G Moore
Age: 13
Birth Year: abt 1837
Birthplace: Caswell
Home in 1850: Caswell, North Carolina, USA
Gender: Male
Family Number: 526
Household Members:
Name Age
Saml Moore 52
Mary A Moore 39
Mary E Moore 19
Louisa M Moore 16
Laura C Moore 15
Adolphus G Moore 13
Corina J Moore 11
Ellen V Moore 10
Saml P Moore 8
Stephen J Moore 6
William F Moore 4
Robt Z Moore 2
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