22—Lancaster Farming. Saturday. May 5, 1973 I By Mrs. Charles McSparran Farm Feature Writer One of Lancaster County’s senior citizens, Mrs. Martin A. (Barbara) Moore, 905 Orchard Road, Lititz is the only surviving charter member of Farm Women Society 1 which organized in 1917 so has the indisputable record of longest membership of all the Farm Women in the county. She also has kept a written record of all the early Farm Women ac tivities. Mrs. Moore has a perfect record of attending all the county annual meetings. The first one, even though there was just the one society, was held in July 1917. The husbands and children of the members were included For a few years these annual meetings were held at homes of members and Mrs Moore entertained the third one in her home These county annual meetings now meet in November and include 31 societies with well over 1000 members. Families are not a part of it now and quite naturally the format has changed. Mrs. Moore served as president of Farm Women Society 1 twice, also treasurer, secretary and on various committees. She served as county president and as pin custodian for 25 years. She also served as state treasurer and state secretary. She remembers when the first state meetings met in the Governor’s living room at Harrisburg, then later in an assembly hall in the state capitol. She never missed a meeting in those days - and in fact hasn’t missed too many since they meet Mrs. Moore admires her Brenneman grandfather’s clock, formerly owned by her grandmother Richard, which is at least 140 years old. Mrs. Moore 1$ A Busy, Contented Senior Citizen at the state Farm Show Building and The Forum. Mrs. Moore relates that Mrs. Flora Black of Somerset County was the original organizer of Farm Women and that was in her home county. It was through a Farmers’ Institute meeting which was held at Lititz High School that the idea caught on in Lancaster County and Mrs. Black assisted in organizing Farm Women Society 1 in Lancaster County. At that time Mrs. Moore was living on a farm near Mount Joy and became interested in joining through a sister-in-law. Sometime later she assisted in organizing Farm Women Society 4 in the Mount Joy area. Mrs Moore, the daughter of the late Nathaniel and Annie Risser Leaman, was born on the 63 acre farm where she now resides. Her grandfather owned this farm and one on Newport Road and her father’s brother farmed and lived on the one on Newport Road When he left it Nathaniel moved there but when Barbara was 10 years old the family moved to Lititz. So Barbara attended Huber’s one-room school, then the Warwick School in Lititz. She graduated in 1902 from Elkhart Institute in Elkhart, Indiana. She took a teaching and a business course there. Her main courses were shorthand and typing but also rhetoric and some bookkeeping. She was the first secretary for the Animal Trap Company in Lititz and worked there about three years before marriage. Mrs. Morre still uses her typing skills to write letters Mrs. Martin A. Moore, Lititz, spends much time braiding wool rugs. Mrs. Barbara Moore plays the piano and organ for her own amusement. and other papers. Mr. Moore was a miller by trade and also farmed their 12- acre farm near Mount Joy. Unfortunately the mill burned so he used the water power to make electricity which provided current for Salunga, Landisville and the Landisville Camp Grove for a number of years. The power company bought the utility and he worked for them later. In 1939 the Moores bought Barbara’s birthplace and planted all except the meadow in fruit trees. Since that time the farm has been known as “Pine Hill Fruit Farm.” They planted peaches, apples, pears and plums. While the trees were young they grew strawberries and melons in the orchards. Mr. and Mrs. Moore, assisted by two sons and one daughter, attended Arcade and Fulton markets in Lancaster and Roots Country auction regularly and sold their fruits and some flowers they grew. In recent years Moores have not sold fruits but get enough for their own use. They lease part of the orchards to a dog training club. The grandson now owns the farm and his family also lives there. Moores’ marriage was blessed with four children. John lives in Ephrata, Anna Moore Flanigan in Arizona, Martin in Lititz and Julia Moore Vahn in West Chester. There are nine grand children and 13 great grandchildren. Mrs. Moore edited the women’s page of the Farm Bureau Review for several years while Thomas Metzger was the editor. She in cluded Farm Women reports, recipes and other things of in terest to women. On one occasion she appeared on a radio show originating from the Kutztown Dutch Festival in which she gave some Penn sylvania Dutch recipes. Im pressed by the notable Clementine Paddleford, foods and recipes editor of the New York Herald Tribune, who was in the process of writing the book “How America Eats” which was published in 1960 she included a few of Mrs. Moore’s recipes and made mention of hearing her at the festival. Mrs. Moore worked in the Lititz High School cafeteria for 10 years, then served as a com panion to elderly people for about six years. She also spent one winter baby sitting for a young child near Lititz. Mr. and Mrs. Moore spent one winter in California. Mrs. Moore enjoys traveling. She has been in Florida four times. She was there this winter on a tour, was in North Carolina in October and plans to visit her daughter in Arizona later this summer. In 1965 she went by car with friends to Utah, then flew to Arizona and also was in California and Spokane, Washington. Mrs. Moore used to make her own dresses, did tatting and some embroidery but she says “My biggest hobby is photography”. She has taken pictures since their first child was nine months old. She takes black and white and colored snapshots and has loads of albums. Another hobby in which she spends many hours is braiding wool rugs. She has made about 20. She sold one at a Brandywine Fair and one in California but most of them are given to her daughters and grandchildren. Mrs. Moore relaxes by playing her piano and electric organ but confides it’s just for her own satisfaction. She has a number of beautiful antiques, mostly heirlooms which have come down from the Leaman and Moore families. Mrs. Moore says “I like to cook and I like to entertain.” In her time she has done a lot of canning (Continued On Page 24)
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