From Mat/gen website
www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txmatago/
William E. More was born in Rahway, N. J., Oct. 26, 1837, but came with his parents to Texas immediately after its annexation in 1845, and lived several years at Indianola.
William E. Moore died at his home at Ashby, in Matagordo County - where he lived for more than 30 years and became a prominent businessman - June 5, 1902.
He was a Confederate veteran, having left his home at Indianola, August, 1861, in company with James and Joseph Collins, Hays P. Yarrington, John Collins, and Daniel Hoffman, expecting to go to the front in Virginia.
At Houston, however, he and his friends enlisted in the Eighth Texas Cavalry, better known as Terry’s Texas Rangers, and were sent to Bowling Green, Ky., where the regiment was fully organized.
A braver set of men never lived.
When Gen. Zollicoffer was killed, at Fishing Creek. W.E. Moore was one of the party sent under flag of truce to recover his body.
Three horses were killed under him during the war.
One held a very high head, which in fact saved his rider’s life.
He was dangerously wounded at Murfreesboro, shot through the body, and was taken to a plantation and left for some time in charge of an old negro man.
He was afterwards moved to the home of a kind family in the neighborhood.
When convalescing the lady of the family sent him some of her husband’s clothes to wear.
He was so impatient to rejoin his command that he left before his wound was thoroughly healed, and it broke out afresh.
He declined a discharge from the army on account of his severe wounds.
His old comrade Yarrington writes of him: “We went out and served together until my capture, which occurred near Nashville three weeks before the war ended.
“He was dangerously shot in the thickest of the fight near Murfreesboro, on July 13. I got him to a place of safety.
“The tide of battle turned against us, and we moved from there to McMinnville, via Woodbury. . . . He was a brave and efficient soldier, and very popular with his regiment.
“The few of our noble band left now are feeble and old, past taking part in the active struggles of life.”
It was a great pleasure to him to attend the reunions of his regiment and meet again the remnant of his old comrades.
Moore and his wife, joined the M.E. (Methodist Episcopal) Church August 11, 1873, at a camp-meeting near Elliott’s Ferry, on the Colorado, under the ministry of Rev. St. Johns Phair and others.
He lived at Ashby for over 30 years, and during that time all the Methodist preachers found a welcome at his home.
Though Ashby may have had a church as early as 1869, it did not receive a post office until 1890, when Moore opened a general store on the banks of Tres Palacios River.
Moore named the community after his commanding officer in the Eighth Texas Cavalry.
Boats made regular stops at his general store; at that time the river was navigable to Deming's Bridge (later known as Hawley), about six miles upriver.
Moore, who built a 12-room house called the Oaks at Ashby to accommodate his large family, donated two acres of land for a Methodist church and cemetery.
At one time the Ashby church, served by ministers on the Matagorda Circuit, had as many as 100 members; it was destroyed by fire in 1902.
In 1892, Ashby reported a population of 100, a barber, a carpenter, and a physician, and by 1896 the community had a daily stage to El Campo.
Initially Ashby's economic mainstays were rice and cotton, which were warehoused on the banks of the Tres Palacios.
He was one of the directors of the First National bank of Port Lavaca, and had many friends in Calhoun county.
Additionally, he owned and managed a 1,500-acre farm which was well stocked with cattle.
Moore had died suddenly at his home at Ashby at the age of 65, a little while after arising for the day.
Moore was about 65 years of age and “leaves a great many near relatives, both in Bay City and Matagorda county to mourn his death.
“He was a good man, was highly respected by all and will be greatly missed by all who knew him,” one obituary at the time read.