parents and family were so mad that they said they would never darken the doors of the Hopewell Church as long as John Moore was on the Session there. So Grandpa moved his church membership to the Huntersville Presbyterian Church. With Grandpa It was either clearly right or definitely wrong; there was no "gray" area when it came to morality. However, Grandpa's reputation did not suffer, for people recognized him as a man who would stand up for his own convictions. It must have been about this time(1866 or 1887) that he was elected by the people of Mecklenburg County to the house of the North Carolina Legislature. There it is said he would forget and address the chair as "Mr. Moderator" rather than "Mr. Speaker". What we do not remember is that a man whose deep convictions about God, and the rightness of things usually has quiet courage which we weaker folks do not have, but deep down In our hearts greatly admire and wish we also had. This is almost always true even if we may not agree with the man's position. We cannot help admiring his willingness to "stand up and be counted". I fear this is not the popular thing to do these days. Is it because we do not have the deep convictions of our Grandfathers?
When I was either 14 or 15, it must have been 15, Grandpa told me when I got home to spend the summer months between the school years at Westminster School, outside of Rutherfordton near Old Britain Presbyterian Church, he said, "John, you had better get you job". I did not of course question his decision about working. The first year or two I worked at loading box cars with the bark front the chestnut trees, which was used in the tanneries in those days to take the hair off of hides in the treatment of leather. This was not very hard work except that the rough bark would cut your hands until you had toughened them up. For this work which was not heavy, done mostly by boys, we got 25 cents a day for 10 hours of work. I worked here for think two summers; then I was able to got a job with a veneer mill. This is where they slice or saw or peel logs to make thin sheets of wood which is then used to cover cheaper woods in furniture making. This was hard work most of the time and very hot as much of the day we had to help fish out the logs, which had been in the vats, with water and steam to soften the wood. With the sun above and the steam coming up from below, it was hot and I do mean HOT. By this time I was making 50 cents an hour for ten hours. Part of our time was spent In the woods cutting down trees for the vat; also in stacking lumber, for the firm also ran a saw mill. Much of the lumber gas fresh oak - which was rough, not planed and was just heavy. After spending a day "hacking" lumber you would be ready to quit most any time and you were glad to hear the whistle blow for "quitting time". If the stack of lumber got high where you had to push it up,, or if you were upon the top of the pile and had to help pull it up you were "extra" tired. It was a mile and a half from Grandpa's to the mill so my feet were real heavy by the time I walked the mile and a half back home after 10 hours of work. I was so tired after supper