Howard W. Moore
Papers, 1915-1993

SC20795

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Biographical Note:

Howard Wilber Moore was born February 9, 1889, in Sing Sing (now Ossining), Westchester County, New York. His parents, Frank Moore and Gertrude (Wilber) Moore, were originally from Cherry Valley, Otsego County, New York, but had moved to New York City and, subsequently, Sing Sing shortly after they married. Moore lived on his uncle's farm in Cherry Valley from 1895 through 1901. In July 1903 he moved back to New York City, and in 1906 he began work for the New York Telephone Company in New York City; he stayed with the company until early 1918.

On December 28, 1917, he sent a "formal deposition" to the local draft board stating that he was not a member of "any religious sect or organization whose creed forbids me to participate in war, but the convictions of my own conscience as an expression of my social principles forbid me from so doing and [thus, I] claim the same rights accorded under the law to members of a well-recognized religious sect or organization whose principles forbid their members to take part in war."

On April 29, 1918, Moore was dispatched to Camp Upton, New York, where he refused to accept the uniform issued to him and "ignored the whistles and shouts to line up for reveille and retreat."  Moore and about 55 other absolutist conscientious objectors (COs) who had refused any form of service, including farm furloughs or home parole, were soon transferred to Fort Riley, Kansas, and then Camp Funston. On Armistice Day, November 11, 1918, he was sent with a number of other COs to the Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks. "For refusing to work in the prison [he] was placed in solitary confinement, shackled to the bars of [his] cell in a standing position for nine hours each day, on a bread and water diet."

While he was in prison he received a letter from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission informing him "that in recognition of your heroism [in rescuing May Hanney from drowning in 1915] the commission has awarded you a bronze medal and the sum of five hundred dollars for a worthy purpose to be approved by the Executive Committee."

In June 1919 most of the remaining 150 or so COs in Leavenworth were moved to Fort Douglas, Utah, at the edge of the Wasatch Mountains overlooking Salt Lake City.  Here they published "Barbed Wire Entanglements," twenty-seven typewritten pages of prose and poetry with a strong Socialist slant.

On the day before Thanksgiving 1920 Moore and Henry Schmeider were the last COs released: "Along with my dishonorable discharge I received from the government a train ticket home." He spent about a year with his family in Cherry Valley and then again moved to New York. Eventually, he paid off the mortgage on the family farm, established a nursery business in Cherry Valley and reforested some of the family pasture land. In 1932 Moore opened the Takaharawa American Indian Camp for Boys, a summer camp. The camp closed after the 1933 season. He worked for the Works Project Administration during the Depression and by 1939 had permanently settled in Cherry Valley.

In December 1941 he wrote a letter to Attorney General Francis Biddle informing him that he would refuse to comply with the law requiring … registration. On May 31, 1942, he was ordered to report for registration at the draft board in Cooperstown, New York, not later than June 3. After a two-hour talk with the assistant district attorney, the U.S. Marshall addressed him: "You are under arrest. Now you are free." Moore then went home.               

From the 1950s to the 1990s, he spoke out against the peacetime draft, aided draft resisters in any way he could during the Vietnam war, and wrote letters to the editor and commentaries on a wide array of issues relative to government, politics, culture and society.

Moore lived with his wife Louise on their farm in Cherry Valley until his death on June 9, 1993.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers of Howard W. Moore relate chiefly to his beliefs and experiences as a conscientious objector (CO) to war and military action of any kind. Included are letters, military service records, printed material, and photographs. Much of the material appears to have been compiled by Moore for his autobiography, Plowing My Own Furrow. The book, however, does not diminish the value of these papers.

The bulk of material here relates to the consequences of Moore's refusal to perform any kind of service on behalf of the United States Army during World War I. Included is a summons from the local draft board, court martial trial proceedings, and military prison records. Moore's correspondence with family, fellow COs, and various government officials provide a vivid depiction of the squalid living conditions of military prisons and the treatment of prisoners by authorities that was unduly harsh. Materials of related interest include printed pamphlets, periodical articles, news clippings, and a copy of "Barbed Wire Entanglements," twenty-seven typewritten pages of prose and poetry written by the prisoners at Fort Douglas, Utah.

The remaining portion of papers mostly concern Moore's opposition to military conscription mandates of the United States government during World War II and Vietnam as well as peacetime drafts. It includes copies of many of the letters he sent to editors of newspapers and other periodicals. Notable correspondents included Jeannette Rankin, John Haynes Holmes, John Nevin Sayre, and Julius Eichel.

Some other papers of note include letters and articles recounting Moore's rescue of May Hanney from drowning in Long Island Sound, off the shore of Norwalk, Connecticut, on July 18, 1915, and subsequent nomination for the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission Award; printed literature and photographs related to Takaharawa American Indian Camp for Boys that Moore ran in 1932 and 1933; a screenplay and other writings of Moore written during the 1930s.

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