Gabriel Moore was one of Fresno County’s earliest pioneers, and played an important role in local agriculture. He was an early cattle rancher, planted some of the area’s first orchards and developed some of the earliest water infrastructure in the area. He was also an African American. His remarkable story, today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots.
Moore was born in Alabama in 1812, enslaved. In 1850, a slavery register shows him living in Arkansas, enslaved by a white woman named Margaret Glenn. In 1853, Moore and two of Glenn’s sons came to California with the Akers wagon train, taking the southern route to the Central Valley.
It’s not clear when Moore gained his freedom, but by 1857 he was homesteading a farm along the Kings River near today’s Centerville. He became a cattle rancher, and reportedly planted the first fig and apple orchards in Fresno County. He was also reportedly one of the first pioneers to divert water from the Kings River for irrigation. But he also faced discrimination and inequality.
After the 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870, giving African Americans the right to vote, Moore went to the county seat of Millerton to exercise his new right. But county clerk Harry St. John Dixon, a Confederate veteran, turned him away, saying California had not ratified the new amendment.
Moore drowned in 1880 attempting to take livestock across the Kings River. He left behind a wife, four sons and a ranch of around 350 acres worth around $15,000. His grave in the old Akers Cemetery was reportedly vandalized in the 1960s. In recent years, students from Madera have recovered pieces of his original headstone and created a new memorial to honor his memory.
