ARTHUR S. MOORE was born in Bay City, Mich., March 7, 1879. He attended the public schools and graduated in that city, afterward graduating from the Medical Department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1901. He was surgical intern at Ann Arbor Hospital one year, following which he was assistant at the Criminal Insane Asylum at Ionia, Mich., removing to Middletown in October, 1903. He is now connected with the Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital. Dr. Moore was married to Martha McCartney, of Bay City, Mich. He is a member of Knights of Pythias of Ionia, Mich., and of Ann Arbor Lodge, F. & A. M.
JONATHAN OWEN MOORE, son of Alexander and Hannah (Owen) Moore, was born in Washingtonville, Christmas Day, 1833, at the Moore homestead. As a young man he accepted a position in the Bank of Albany, where he remained until his enlistment as a soldier in the Civil War. He had the distinction of being the first man from New York State to receive an army commission. He was promoted from time to time and at the close of the war returned as captain of his regiment, known as the Wide-Awakes. He then married Miss Helen, daughter of Van Rensselaer Wilbur, of Albany. Returning to Washingtonville, he engaged in the furniture business for a number of years, and was also elected to the office of justice of the peace. Mr. Moore, familiarly known as "Owenie" Moore, has been a life-long staunch republican, working enthusiastically for the election of party candidates. In later years he lived in retirement in New York City, devoting his time to the settlement of estates. His daughter, Bertha, now Mrs. O. B. Stillman, of New York, has her country place at what is known as the Goldsmith homestead, near Washingtonville. Mr. Moore died in New York City in 1908.
JOHN W. MORLEY, son of James and Anna (Vought) Morley, was born at Cornwall, Orange County, N. Y., in 1867. After finishing his studies at the schools of Newburgh, he learned the hatter's trade, in which he was engaged for twenty years. In 1904 he established a grocery store at Gardnertown, which he is conducting with much success. Mr. Morley takes an active interest in politics and in 1905 was elected commissioner of the City and Town Home.
Socially he is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the Junior Order of American Mechanics and the International Hatters' Association. He was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Van Buren.
DAVID A. MORRISON, secretary of the Orange County Agricultural Society, 1858-1908, belongs to one of the old representative families of Orange County, where his entire life has been passed. He is of Scotch-Irish and Dutch ancestry. His paternal ancestors emigrated from Scotland to the north of Ireland during the seventeenth century. His great-great-grandfather, John Morrison, was born near Belfast, Ireland, in the year 1700, and came to this country prior to the Revolution. His son John, the founder of the family in America, had preceded him several years and settled on what is now known as the Morrison Homestead, in the town of Montgomery. He married Elizabeth Scott. They had nine children, one of whom was Hamilton, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, who inherited the home farm. He married Lydia Beemer, who was of Dutch descent, whose ancestors came from Beemersville, N. J., who lived to the advanced age of one hundred and three years. They had eight children, of whom Hamilton, the father of our subject, was the youngest but one.
Hamilton Morrison, the father of David A., was born August 24, 1804, at the Old Homestead which he inherited, and which has descended from father to son for five generations, or nearly one hundred and fifty years. He was one of the founders of the Orange County Agricultural Society, and continued to be one of its most devoted friends until his death in 1881. He filled at different times every office in the society except treasurer. He was elected a member of its executive committee eight times, was corresponding secretary from 1851 to 1857 inclusive, was vice-president twenty years, and president twice. He married Maria Mould, daughter of Jonathan Mould, of the town of Montgomery, and a lineal descendant of Christoffel Mould, one of the earliest Dutch settlers of the Wallkill Valley.
David A. Morrison is the second in a family of seven children. Jonathan M., of Montgomery, who was widely known and highly esteemed and who died in 1898; David A., George H. and John G., prominent and intelligent farmers who reside on the Homestead Farm, which contains nearly three hundred acres, and is now one of the best improved estates in the town of Montgomery; William H. H., a well-known, progressive and successful farmer on an adjoining farm; Mary J., who married Elijah C. Thayer, of Hamptonburgh, and died in February, 1901; and Elizabeth M., wife of William C. Hart, of Walden, N. Y.
Mr. Morrison was educated in public schools and the Montgomery Academy, and at the age of seventeen years became a teacher. He taught district schools in the towns of Montgomery, Hamptonburgh and Blooming Grove, and was principal of graded schools in the villages of Walden and Montgomery—in all about thirty terms.
In 1867 he was elected school commissioner for the First District of Orange County, serving until 1894—in all five terms, or fifteen years, a record that has never been paralleled in the State.
He has been secretary of the Orange County Agricultural Society for fifty years, and has attended every fair held by it since its organization in 1841. He is one of the mainstays of the society, and a man of education and ability.