Page 7 - News On 7 March 2022 Edition

HAZZARD'S HISTORY NOTES

by Grant Ketcheson
JOHN AND AGNES “NANCY” MOORE

A very large white stone, leaning at a precarious angle, was an obvious target as our cemetery restoration project began. In
fact, this stone was the first and the most expensive monument repaired to date. This imposing column bears the name
“Moore.” Now, history tells us that in bygone days, monument size was an important measure of the financial success of an
individual or family in the community. A large immigrant family like the Moores, establishing a farm in a tree-covered land,
would seem to have little prospect of wealth. We were curious, did some research, and an interesting tale unfolded.

John Moore was born in 1802, in or near the village of Ahoghill, County Antrim, Ireland. He married Agnes Nancy Burns and
from 1820-1839 they had seven children: Eliza, James, John, Nancy, Robert and Alexander. In 1844, the Moore family made
the decision to move to Canada, not a surprising one with a potato famine beginning in their homeland. Along with the
Moore family came Agnes Moore's brother, Alexander Burns. In the party as well were John's sister, Nancy and her
husband John Nickle. (Perhaps this is a clue to the origin of the Nickle clan in Madoc Township.) The Moores settled on a
farm in the area that would later become Eldorado. Their farm was adjacent to that of another Irish immigrant, Thomas
Scott, and to the farm of John Richardson. In 1866, gold was discovered on the Richardson farm.

It is hard to imagine the hysteria that the discovery of gold brought to the area. When the news of the find broke,
thousands flocked there. Madoc Township and village soon had a population of over 4,000. Eldorado alone boasted over
eighty buildings, four of these being hotels! The value of the farms of the Richardson, Scott and Moore families rose
dramatically, bringing great change to their lives. Thomas Scoot sold his farm for mining claims, joined a survey crew and
was off to western Canada. (He later became a footnote in history when he was executed by Louis Riel.) John Moore hired
Madoc surveyor, C.F. Aylesworth, to survey his farm into 1/2 acre building lots and streets, to provide the basis for a future
town site. We assume that most of these lots were sold to get-rich-quick speculators. Rumour had it that Eldorado would
soon become a full-blown town, probably larger than the village of Madoc. When the mining lot that John Moore retained
for himself failed to produce the expected bonanza, the Moores moved to a farm a mile further west in Madoc Township,
on what is now Robinson Road.

Some years later, grandsons of John and Nancy, Robert Moore and John Moore Rupert, joined the North West Mounted
Police and saw years of service “maintaining the right” in western Canada. (Perhaps these young men were inspired by
tales of the first mounted police troop in Canada that was recruited to police the gold fields of Eldorado.)

Like so many gold strikes, the quantities of gold found was less fact than fable and the Eldorado gold rush soon fizzled.
Perhaps the large and imposing monument of John and Nancy Moore in Hazzard's Cemetery represents some of the “real”
profit from Ontario's first gold rush.

The largest of the four hotels in Eldorado,
The Royal, was located at the junction of
Hastings Road (Hwy#62) and Rimington The restored monument of The “town plan” for the town of
Road. The lady in bottom right is Mary John and Agnes Nancy Eldorado as surveyed by C.F.Aylesworth.
VanKleeck Conlin, the inn keper. The hotel Moore in Hazzard's
was locally known as “Mary's Hotel” Cemetery.