HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Moore House

Seguin, Guadalupe County, Texas

Marker Inscription

John Moore (1866-1909), a native of Ireland, was an early Seguin newspaperman and civic leader. Through family ties, he was also a friend of Rough Rider and U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1895, a year after his marriage to Kate Peck (McClaugherty) (1871-1943), Moore constructed a three-room frame house at this site. In 1900 he commissioned John Goodrum to build the present Queen Anne residence, incorporating the earlier structure. The home was later occupied by Moore's descendants, including his son Roger (1902-1965), who served as mayor of Seguin for 22 years. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1981

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

John Moore, an Irish-born newspaperman and civic leader, settled in Seguin and, through family ties, counted Theodore Roosevelt among his friends. In 1895 he built a modest three-room house here, then in 1900 commissioned a fine Queen Anne residence that wrapped the earlier structure inside it. His descendants carried on, including a son who served as Seguin's mayor for twenty-two years.

Why it matters

The house traces an immigrant's rise into local leadership and the civic dynasties that shaped small Texas towns for generations.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • · John Moore
  • · Kate Peck
  • · Theodore Roosevelt
  • · Roger Moore
  • · John Goodrum

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Joseph Sonka House

Seguin, TX

Joseph Sonka left Czech-speaking Central Europe and reached Seguin in 1878, bringing a stonemason's skill to a growing Texas town. He ran a brickyard and cotton gin, and beginning in 1881 he spent more than a decade building this Italianate-trimmed brick home from his own bricks, finishing it the year he married Annie Klicka. For two years the house even served as a community hospital before settling into generations of Sonka family life.

Henry Troell

Seguin, TX

A young immigrant from Wichmannshausen, Germany, Henry Troell settled near Seguin before 1860 and, after service in the Confederate Army, parlayed a freighting business into a web of local enterprises. His dam and grist mill on this site grew into something remarkable for a small Texas town — he added hydroelectric generation and, in the 1890s, gave the city its first municipal water and electric systems.

Clear Spring Hall and Store

Seguin, TX

German immigrants settled this Guadalupe County area in the 1840s and 1850s, near a clear spring later swallowed by Lake Dunlap. Clear Spring never became a town but thrived as a rural settlement anchored by a store that Johann Andreas Breustedt built in the 1870s. With a saloon, a community hall, and a nearby cotton gin added over the years, the store grew into the social and commercial heart of the surrounding farm country.

Site of Muelder Store

New Berlin, TX

New Berlin grew from German settlers who reached this part of Guadalupe County in the 1840s. In 1898 a partnership opened a general store, saloon, and cotton gin here, and by 1916 the Muelder family had taken it over, extending credit that kept cash-crop farmers afloat. The store survived the founder's fatal 1927 hunting accident and a 1946 fire—reopening within days—before leaving the family in 1993 and being demolished a year later.