Representative Laban Theodore Moore

Laban Theodore Moore (January 13, 1829 – November 9, 1892) was a U.S. Representative from Kentucky, a Civil War officer, and a state legislator who later participated in revising Kentucky’s constitution. He was born in Wayne County, Virginia (now West Virginia), near Louisa, Kentucky, on January 13, 1829. Raised in the trans-Appalachian region along the Kentucky–Virginia border, he came of age in a period of rapid political and economic change in the Ohio River Valley, influences that would shape his later legal and political career.

Moore pursued a substantial formal education for his time. He attended Marshall Academy, now Marshall University, then located in Virginia, where he received his early higher education. He subsequently enrolled at Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio, from which he was graduated, further broadening his exposure to the intellectual and political currents of the antebellum Midwest. Intending to enter the legal profession, he went on to study law at Transylvania Law College in Lexington, Kentucky, one of the leading legal institutions in the region.

After completing his legal studies, Moore was admitted to the bar in 1849 and commenced the practice of law in Louisa, Kentucky. Establishing himself as an attorney in this eastern Kentucky community, he quickly became involved in public affairs. In 1857 he sought elective office as a candidate for the Kentucky House of Representatives, though he was unsuccessful in that bid. His early political activity nonetheless positioned him within the emerging Opposition Party coalition that challenged Democratic dominance in the late 1850s.

Moore was elected as an Opposition Party candidate to the Thirty-sixth Congress, serving as a U.S. Representative from Kentucky from March 4, 1859, to March 3, 1861. His term in Congress coincided with the mounting sectional crisis that preceded the Civil War. He did not seek renomination in 1860, returning instead to his legal practice as the nation moved toward conflict. During his time in Washington he was part of a short-lived but significant political realignment, as former Whigs and other anti-Democratic elements attempted to navigate the increasingly polarized national debate over slavery and union.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Moore took an active role in the Union war effort from Kentucky. He established and enlisted in the 14th Kentucky Infantry, a Union regiment, and on November 19, 1861, he was elected colonel of the unit. His service as a regimental commander was relatively brief; he resigned his commission on January 1, 1862. After leaving military service, Moore moved to Catlettsburg, Kentucky, a growing river town at the confluence of the Big Sandy and Ohio Rivers, where he resumed the practice of law and became a prominent local figure.

Moore’s personal and civic life in Catlettsburg deepened over the following decades. In 1868 his wife purchased the Catlett House in Catlettsburg, a notable local residence. Once the property came under his ownership, Moore renamed it “Beechmoor,” combining a reference to a large beech tree that stood on the grounds with a play on his own surname. The house became associated with his family and reflected his established status in the community. During the postwar years he also underwent a political realignment, becoming a Democrat after the Civil War as Kentucky’s party system shifted in the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction eras.

Building on his earlier national experience, Moore returned to elective office at the state level. He served as a member of the Kentucky Senate from 1881 to 1885, representing the 32nd district, which comprised Boyd, Elliott, Greenup, and Lawrence Counties in northeastern Kentucky. In the Senate he participated in shaping legislation affecting a region undergoing industrial and transportation development along the Ohio River. Later, he was chosen as a delegate to the Kentucky State Constitutional Convention of 1890 and 1891, contributing to the deliberations that produced a new state constitution and helping to define the legal and governmental framework that would guide Kentucky into the twentieth century.

Laban Theodore Moore remained in Catlettsburg through his later years. He died there on November 9, 1892. He was interred at Ashland Cemetery in Ashland, Kentucky, a regional center not far from his longtime home. His career, spanning antebellum law practice, service in the U.S. House of Representatives, Civil War command, and influential roles in the Kentucky Senate and constitutional convention, reflected the complex political transformations of Kentucky and the nation in the nineteenth century.