Charles Beatty Moore (1836–1911)

An attorney and founder of Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock (Pulaski County), Charles Beatty Moore made his home in Little Rock and then Texarkana (Miller County) and served two terms as attorney general of Arkansas.

Charles Beatty Moore was born on March 31, 1836, in Little Rock, one of eight children of Presbyterian minister James Wilson Moore and Elizabeth Green Moore. (Another of the eight was Henry Moore.) In 1840, the family relocated to their home near Sylvania, which they named Ruralia, in present-day Lonoke County. Like his parents, he actively served in the Presbyterian faith throughout his life. He likely received his early education from his father at Sylvania Academy, which his father founded circa 1840. In 1855, he was listed as a student at Washington College (present-day Washington and Lee University), and in 1857, he was listed as a graduate of Princeton.

By 1860, Moore and one of his younger brothers, physician James Wilson Moore Jr., were living in Monroe County in the household of a wealthy planter named George Washington, and Charles was practicing law. His older brother William Enoch Moore, a merchant, also lived in Monroe County at that time.

During the Civil War, like his five brothers, Moore served the Confederacy. He was a major and quartermaster under Sterling Price’s Division, with Brigadier General Dandridge McRae’s staff, having been appointed on January 21, 1863. He also served under the command of General Thomas James Churchill and General John Bankhead Magruder and was in service through the close of the war, being paroled at Shreveport, Louisiana, on June 7, 1865.

After the war, Moore settled in Little Rock, where he married Louisa Booker Green on November 7, 1865. Their home was at 619 West 2nd Street, and his law offices were located at 112 West Markham. The couple had five children, though only two survived to adulthood. Their second son, Carl Moore, drowned in the Arkansas River while swimming with friends on June 12, 1885. He had celebrated his sixteenth birthday five days prior to the accident.

A lifelong Democrat, Moore was elected prosecuting attorney of Prairie County in 1866. During the turbulent period of Reconstruction and the Brooks-Baxter War, Moore was a supporter of Elisha Baxter, alongside his former commanding officer Thomas James Churchill and other prominent citizens of Little Rock, such as Uriah Milton Rose, with whom he was closely associated. In 1878, Moore announced his candidacy for Arkansas attorney general. He won the elections of 1880 and 1882 and served two terms, from 1881 to 1885, being succeeded by Daniel Webster Jones of Washington (Hempstead County).

Among his many civic pursuits, he served with the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, as an alderman representing the fourth ward on the Little Rock City Council, and in various capacities with the Little Rock Library Association and the Little Rock Relief Society. He worked for the betterment of public schools in Little Rock and was a charter member and recording secretary of the Arkansas Historical Society, which was founded in 1878. He served as a founding board member of the Little Rock Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), and he also became a member of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) and worked in support of its postwar projects in service to Confederate veterans.

Margaret Rose, wife of attorney Uriah Milton Rose, mentioned Moore in a historical sketch of Second Presbyterian Church of Little Rock. According to Rose, First Presbyterian Church had intended to start a mission and was in the process of erecting a building on Fourth and State Streets. Wanting to keep pace with Little Rock’s growth, however, the church instead turned the property over to a new congregation, which was called Second Presbyterian. Moore was made elder upon the founding of the church in April 1882, and Rose detailed that Moore was “for some time the only elder and surely no church ever had a more efficient one. He looked after everything that concerned the church’s welfare.”

In 1902, the Arkansas Democrat Co. published The History of Presbyterianism in Arkansas, 1828–1902, which was compiled by Charles Beatty Moore, Margaret Rose, and others.

Around 1903, Moore moved with his wife to Texarkana, where he continued practicing law and served on several boards, including the State Insurance Company, the American Investment Company, and the State Investment Company. He also served as a referee in bankruptcy, which was a federal position created by the Bankruptcy Act of 1898 until it was abolished by the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978.

Moore died on December 6, 1911, in Texarkana. His funeral was conducted at Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock with the Reverend Hay Watson Smith officiating. He is buried at Mount Holly Cemetery, along with his wife, Louisa Moore, who died in 1912, and three of their five children.

For additional information:
“Funeral of Major Chas. B. Moore Today,” Arkansas Democrat, December 7, 1911, p. 3.

The History of Presbyterianism in Arkansas, 1828–1902. Little Rock: Arkansas Democrat Co., 1902. Online at https://www.logcollegepress.com/charles-beatty-moore-18361911/ (accessed February 27, 2026).

“Major C. B. Moore is Dead.” Arkansas Gazette, December 7, 1911, p. 7.

Melissa A. Nesbitt
Texarkana, Arkansas