Rusk county's oldest citizen will celebrate one hundred years of living Saturday, Feb. 9.
He is John Moore, a resident of Bruce for the past 40 years and a living landmark in the community which he has helped to build.
Grandpa Moore, as he is called, reaches the century mark with a well preserved body and a mind which lingers in a past vivid with memories of pioneering days. As for his longevity - well, Grandpa Moore is like most old timers. He has a recipe. It is very simple - just clean living. No whiskey, no tobacco. He gave up both years ago.
Perhaps he could add to this the recommendation to be active. For Grandpa Moore scorns the advice of those who say snow shoveling is not for men past forty. He not only shovels snow, but splits wood and does other tasks despite a bad leg and foot which he got from stepping on a railroad spike years ago.
John Moore started his hundred years of living at Spring Prairie, Walworth county, Wisconsin, where he was born Feb. 9, 1852, to Scotch and Irish parents. With them and his two sisters and three brothers, Mary, Lizzie, Alex, George and Tom, he moved to Columbia county when he was 12 years old. All other members of his family are now dead. Tom was killed in his youth; the others died in their seventies.
Grandpa Moore received his meager education in Columbia county, but had to go to work as a young man. He worked as a carpenter and lumberjack. In 1873 he married Ida May Daggett. They became the parents of three sons, Warren and Alex Moore, both of Aberdeen, Wash., and L.V. Moore of Bruce, all of whom are still living.
After the death of his wife in 1900, Grandpa Moore moved to Ladysmith, then known as Warner. There he continued his work as a carpenter, and many of the homes he built are still in use. One of Grandpa Moore's little jokes is that he didn't come to Rusk county; Rusk county came to him. When he settled here, this area was still a part of Chippewa county, but was later separated and became Rusk county.
He bought his present house and moved to Bruce about 40 years ago. His entire life has been spent in Wisconsin, and although he has not been regularly employed for a number of years, he has kept busy with odd jobs and at 80 could put much younger men "in the shade." As he reviews the past, his mind lingers casually over such things as clearing 100 acres of land at Caley Lake and other things which sound to the present generation like monumental achievements. The march of agriculture and the gradual disappearance of the virgin pine forest are part of his memory.
Although his lifetime spans most of the nation's major wars except the Revolution and the War of 1812, Grandpa Moore has not had a military career. He was too young for the Civil war, and too old for the Spanish-American.
Besides his sons, the centenarian has seven grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. These, with hundreds of friends in the community, will join in wishing him well as he reaches the century mark Saturday.