Response from Cousin Judith Bilrey

Judy is Martha Rutherford's second sister Eva's daughter. She is about my age. I sent Judy the link to the blog because I thought she might be interested about entries concerning the Moore Family. I also thought she might be a source for some good stories. This is her initial response. I will try to get more in dept stories from her.

Great idea, have some more info for your page. How do I include it and how much do you want to know about Great grandma Webb? You can include this if you want to. Bell as she was called wasn't her first name. I looked for her grave and found out that it was Mary Bell. She also had another child named Julia or Julie I can't remember what the spelling was on the grave stone. Bell had two children out of wed lock Grandma Agnes was one of them and Julie was the other one. I have a picture of Daddy Miles. I have since found out that there were a family of Miles' in Hoopeston. She was going to marry him but her family when he showed up to pick her up for the wedding told him that she didn't want to see him. She married Webb right before or right after Grandpa and Grandma Moore got married then, when grandma was 21 Charles was born. I think Bell was either 15 or 16 when she had Grandma. How much do you know about the feud between Grandpa Moore and his dad? I was 13 when I found out that great grandpa Moore was still alive. He died when I was 17. I went to his funeral. It is quite a story. Even to carrying guns because of what happened. The family feuds were quite interesting. I almost caused Grandma Moore to loose her life. If you want some of this information I have it. Aunt Eva tried to take her life over an adoption that didn't go through. We have a bunch of 1/2 cousins in Illinois. The original Moore farm is still over seen by a Moore descendent and they have a family gathering every year at Rooseville. Great Grandpa Moore is buried there. I guess I should have written down all that I know before I had my head trauma that caused me to loose so of the memories. It takes me telling some stories to help me recall other stories. Like lightning hitting the barn and grandma was on the ladder going up to get hay. It knocked her off the ladder and sent her sailing across the barn. It broke her false teeth in half and broke her ribs. She chased great grandpa Moore off of the farm with a buggy whip, because he called grandpa a name. Details are fussy but I can still remember some of them. I have written written several free verse poems about the farm and life with Grandpa and Grandma Moore. What all do you want???

Judy,