Illion Everett Moore (1866-1962)

Portrait from the January 23, 1962 edition of the Zanesville Times Recorder.

   A lifelong resident of Muskingum County, Ohio, Illion Everett Moore was long distinguished in agricultural circles in the Buckeye State, later gaining additional notoriety as a member of the Ohio State Constitutional Convention of 1911-12 and as a Socialist candidate for the Ohio legislature. The son of Samuel Anderson and Rosanna Moore, Illion E. Moore was born in the small settlement of Carlwick on February 8, 1866.  Little could be found on his early life or education, though during his youth he entered the employ of a government contractor in "the rebuilding of locks at the dam at Philo." Moore was later employed as a Pullman conductor for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and later, the Pennsylvania Railroad.

  During a long life that extended almost 96 years, Illion Moore remained a bachelor and was the proprietor of a farm near Carlwick, Ohio. His interest in agricultural pursuits within Muskingum County extended over seventy years and included work as a member of the Carlswick Grange (of which he was a member for 75 years), a demonstrator for the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, and a correspondent for the Ohio Agricultural Department.

  In addition to agriculture, Illion Moore entered politics in the early 1890s, being a delegate to the People's Party (also referred to as the Populist Party) Conventions of 1892 and 1896, held in Omaha, Nebraska and St. Louis, Missouri, respectively. Moore reentered politics in 1908 when he became the Socialist candidate for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives from Muskingum County. One of four candidates vying for the seat, Moore polled only 373 votes, compared to Republican Winfield Scott Gregg's winning total of 7,900. An electoral result from that contest is shown below.

  Following his defeat for the legislature, Illion Moore resumed his agricultural activities until November 1911, when he and fellow Muskingum County resident Lawrence Kunkle were elected as that county's delegates to the 1912 Ohio State Constitutional Convention that was to be held in Columbus. Moore joined the other delegates at the convention's start in January 1912 and sat on the following convention standing committees: Agriculture, County and Township Organization, Initiative and Referendum. The Zanesville Times Recorder reported on Moore's service in his 1962 obituary, relating that he "wrote an amendment providing for forestry as a public project." 

  After his service at the convention, Moore returned to Muskingum County to resume farming.  Beginning in the 1920s he served as township clerk and justice of the peace for Wayne Township, continuing in the latter office well into the 1930s. Illion E. Moore died at his home in Zanesville, Ohio on January 22, 1962, two weeks short of his 96th birthday. Never having married, Moore was survived by a niece and was interred at the Reeve-Crumbaker Cemetery in Salt Creek Township, Ohio.

From the January 23, 1962 edition of the Zanesville Times Recorder.