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Pliny Moore, the founder of the Town of Champlain, was born
in Sheffield, Massachusetts on April 14, 1759. He served with the American
military forces during the Revolution, starting with his enlistment as a private
in 1776, when he was just seventeen.
His re-enlistment in 1781 was the first step on the road that
led to the founding of Champlain. When his regiment rewarded recruits with land
bounties apportioned on the basis of rank, Moore qualified for 1,000 acres. In
1782 he began acquiring additional land, either by purchasing the land claims of
soldiers in his regiment or by sharing their claims as a reward for locating
their land.
Moore went north in 1785 and marked out 11,600 acres on the
Canadian border. That November, the State of New York granted a patent, known
as the Smith and Graves Patent or the Moorsfield Patent, to Pliny Moore and
twenty-six other petitioners.
Moore married Martha Corbin in early 1787 at Bennington,
Vermont. Their first child, Noadiah, was born in 1788. Between that date and
1806, Pliny and Martha produced ten children, three of whom died in infancy.
Moore and his family settled in Champlain permanently in the spring of 1789.
Even before his move, Moore had been instrumental in the formation of Clinton
County and had been appointed assistant justice on the Court of Common Pleas.
From the beginning, Moore was a major presence in his
community. He owned a saw-mill, engaged in lumbering, manufactured and sold
potash, and, with his brother-in-law Royal Corbin, operated a retail store in
Champlain. He later built a grist mill and a carding and a fulling mill for the
production of woolen fabric. He raised cattle and sheep and produced
substantial quantities of honey with his bees.
In 1797, when the federal government established post offices
in small towns all over the country, Moore was appointed postmaster for
Champlain. He also served many years as the superintendent of highways. In
1807 he was made first judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Throughout his life,
Pliny Moore remained active in business and political affairs. He died on
August 18, 1822.
Between 1808 and 1811, Pliny and Martha’s two eldest
daughters, Anna and Sophia, along with their adopted sister, Harriet Hicks,
executed three very unusual floor coverings. All of the materials for the
project were produced on the farm except the canvas backing, which was procured
in Montreal. One of the floor coverings now resides in the collection of the
Metropolitan Museum in New York; one has disappeared; and third, with its
hunting design, is on display at the Clinton County Historical Assn Museum along
with the watercolor of the Pliny Moore house in Champlain painted in 1829 by
C.T.
Moore.
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