James Wilson Moore (1797–1873)

James Wilson Moore was a Presbyterian minister, missionary, and educator who is most remembered for being the “Father of Presbyterianism in Arkansas.”

James Wilson Moore was born on September 14, 1797, near Milton, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, to James Moore and Mary Ann Woods Moore. He was orphaned by the age of eighteen. His early education began at Milton, where he eventually pursued a literary course. He then entered the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey, in the fall of 1824, where he studied for more than two years, and his fervor for ministry and evangelism was evident through his activities as a student. Northumberland Presbytery at Milton licensed him to preach on October 18, 1827, and on November 21, ordained him as a missionary for Arkansas.

He arrived in Little Rock (Pulaski County) on January 25, 1828, and preached his first sermon there on January 27. He organized what became the First Presbyterian Church on July 27 of that same year in a log schoolhouse on 3^rd Street that was owned by a man named Jesse Brown. In 1829, Rev. Moore began serving as corresponding secretary of the Arkansas Bible Society—an auxiliary of the American Bible Society founded in 1816 in New York City. He also served as a member of the Little Rock Temperance Society, organized in 1831.

In 1830, Moore returned briefly to Trenton, New Jersey, where he married Elizabeth Guild Green on October 28. (Some sources erroneously state that they married in Pulaski County.) Green was a descendant of several Presbyterian ministers, which likely made her familiar with the role of a minister’s wife. After a return trip that took approximately two months, the couple arrived in Little Rock. Deed records indicate that Rev. Moore purchased all of city block 41 in two separate transactions in 1833 and 1836. He and his wife eventually had six sons and two daughters, several of whom also became prominent, well-connected citizens of their native state. All six sons served the Confederacy during the Civil War; the oldest, William Enoch Moore, died at the Battle of Chickamauga.

During Moore’s time in Little Rock, he became acquainted with prominent men of the community such as Chester Ashley, Roswell Beebe, Elias N. Conway, and Albert Pike. In 1837, a group that included Moore and these men, among others, proposed to form an association “whose object shall be the collection and preservation of whatever natural and artificial curiosities are valuable in themselves, or will tend to throw light upon the history and antiquity of our country.” This was the Antiquarian and Natural History Society of Arkansas.

Moore and his family left Little Rock in 1840 to relocate to Sylvania (Lonoke County), and in 1843, he organized the Sylvania Church. He also purchased several tracts of land in the area during this time. The Moores’ home place, which he named “Ruralia,” remained his and his wife’s residence for the remainder of their lives.

Known to be a “fine Latin and Greek scholar,” Moore founded the Sylvania Academy, one of the first classical schools in Arkansas for boys and young men, where he taught for several years. The school relocated from its original site by the late 1850s to Oakland Grove—now known as Old Austin (Lonoke County)—and a separate school for girls and young women, named the Sylvania Female Institute, was advertised in the Arkansas Gazette as “occupying the site of the school formerly taught by Rev. J. W. Moore.” By 1860, the male academy was under the superintendence of a Dr. D. McFadyon or McFadgen.

Moore continued pastoring Sylvania Church for thirty years, being its only pastor up until the time of his death. He died at Ruralia on January 28, 1873, and is buried at Sylvania Cemetery, along with his wife and several of their descendants, next to the church he founded.

For additional information:
James Wilson Moore Papers, RG 439. Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Finding aid online at https://pcusa.org/historical-society/collections/research-tools/guides-archival-collections/rg-439 (accessed June 18, 2025).

Moore, Charles Beatty. The History of Presbyterianism in Arkansas, 1828–1902. N.p.: n.d.

Moore, James Wilson. “Presbyterianism in Arkansas.” Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society 3 (June 1905): 57–70. Online at https://www.jstor.org/stable/23322675 (accessed June 18, 2025).

Sipes, Sherron. “Reverend James Wilson Moore.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 13 (Spring 1954): 132–135.

Melissa A. Nesbitt
Texarkana, Arkansas