In honor of Black History Month, students at Valley Prep Charter School in Fresno are preserving the memory of an ex-slave who died in 1880.

From Carole Lester, Fresno County Historical Society:

Four months ago, a class of history students from Valley Prep Charter School in Fresno discovered the broken and battered tombstone of Gabriel Bibbard Moore in the Akers Cemetery near Centerville. The young historians are going to correct an injustice by placing a marker beside his vandalized tombstone that will tell folks who he was.

Beneath this broken tombstone lies
Gabriel Bibbard Moore
Born a slave in Alabama, July 2, 1812
Drowned in the Kings River, May 25, 1880
A FREE MAN!

In cooperation with the Fresno Historical Society, a ceremony will be conducted by the 15 teenage historians who will be joined by the entire student body of Valley Prep Charter School and many local dignitaries Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 10AM, Akers Cemetery, Centerville,

The launching of Fresno County’s Sesquicentennial celebration in April 2006 included a wagon train trek, which began in Firebaugh and ended in Fresno. This unique community effort drew over 300 young pioneer 5th graders out of their classrooms and onto the trail to help ring the bell for Fresno County’s 150th birthday.

In the course of that journey, the wagons happened by the Akers Cemetery on Trimmer Springs Road in Centerville. As the mules and kids took a breather, Bill Coate, educator and coordinator of the educational project, walked over to the old graveyard and spied an old, broken tombstone. The top portion carrying the name had been knocked off and taken away, but the remaining inscription told that whoever was resting beneath that marker had died on May 25, 1880 and was 67 years, 10 months, and 23 days in age.

Bill remembered an account he’d read about Gabriel Moore, an ex-slave and Fresno County’s first and most successful African-American cattleman. This positive identification was made possible from research completed by June English forty years earlier and recorded in an issue of The Ash Tree Echo.

In 1965, Ms. English went to the Akers Cemetery to record the names of the pioneers buried there. When she came to Gabe Moore’s tombstone, it had already been vandalized; however, the broken off portion containing his name was lying on the ground, allowing her to record the complete inscription.

Moore had been the slave of the Glenn family in Arkansas. He was brought to California by Richard and William Glenn in 1853 with the Akers wagon train. After settling in freedom on the Kings River, Gabe proceeded to make himself into a wealthy free man—first by farming and then by cattle raising. By 1860, just seven years out of slavery, Gabe had accumulated $3,000 in personal property.

An account from the Fresno Expositor dated January 4, 1871 told of a county clerk refusing to allow Gabe to vote, even though the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution had given black men the right to vote nearly a year earlier, although his name shows up on the Fresno County voter registration list in 1872. According to Ms. English, Gabe Moore was drowned in 1880 while attempting to drive his cattle across the King’s River. He left a wife, a son, 4 adopted children and a $15,000 estate.

In August 2007, Mr. Coate challenged his new class at Valley Prep Charter School with a research project that would attempt to discover the life of Gabe Moore. The class has met and formed a partnership with Jill Moffat, Executive Director of the Fresno Historical Society, and Sharon Hiigel, the Society’s Curator of Collections and Education, for the purpose of completing this project. Students visited the Society’s archives and retrieved and examined the United States Census reports, 19th Century Newspaper archives (the Expositor and Republican); 1882 History of Fresno County by Wallace Elliot, Fresno County tax records, voter registration lists, grantor/grantee land records and probate records. The students are communicating with Crawford County, Arkansas, in an attempt to search the county records there, including the 1850 Slave Schedule, via the internet. They are fitting these pieces together and constructing a documented chronology of Moore’s life. Later they will write his story and present it at the end of the school year.

Jill Moffat stated that they plan to take this project as an example of engaging children in learning a subject and share the curriculum with other schools.

This month, in honor of Black History Month, there will be a ceremony of remembrance at Gabe Moore’s grave and an unveiling of the new grave marker next to Gabe’s original marker.