AMOS M. GORE. Since a youth of twelve years the subject of this notice has had some part in the affairs of the rural community near Chico, Wise county, where his parents settled more than thirty years ago. Although comparatively infantile at first, his efforts grew in extent and importance until he assumed his station in life as freeholder and accepted its responsibilities with an abiding faith in the result.
Mr. Gore was born in Moore county, Tennessee, August 18, 1863, and as already stated, accompanied his parents to Wise county, Texas, when a boy not yet in his ‘teens. He acquired a fair education in the country schools near his home and, at twenty-two years of age, he began life independently as a renter on his father’s place. At the end of three years as a tenant he purchased a small place two miles north of Chico and for eight years he made his home there. Selling this at a profit he bought land in the northeast corner of Jack county, occupied it a year and then sold and repurchased in Wise. He made two or three quick sales about this time and finally bought the ninety-six acre tract where he now resides, a piece of Cooke county school land and a fertile and profitable tract.
December 13, 1891, Mr. Gore married Susan Neely, a lady who was reared in Wise county and a daughter of James A. and Tabitha (Witherspoon) Neely. Mr. Neely came to the county in 1880 from Ellis county, Texas, but migrated to the State in 1876 from Warren county, Tennessee. He was born November 26, 1837, in Rutherford county, Tennessee, his parents being John and Mary (Boles) Neely. These families were all farmers and people with Southern sympathies and sentiments during the war between the states. Mr. Neely was captured at Fort Donelson as a member of Company G, 4th Tennessee Infantry, was imprisoned at Camp Butler, Springfield, Illinois, and successfully escaped in a few months. He re-entered the Confederate service and was with the Army of the Tennessee through the Chickamauga campaign, the Atlanta campaign and through to Savannah, surrendering with his command in North Carolina.
Mrs. Neely was born in Tennessee, in 1844, and was a daughter of Winfrey and — (Thompson) Witherspoon. She and Mr. Neely are the parents of John W., of Wise county; Belle, wife of Claud Smith, of Wise county; Mrs. Amos Gore and Miss Lela Neely.
Mr. and Mrs. Gore’s children are: Meda, born June 17, 1893; Lela E., born November 28, 1897, is deceased; Nina, born April 16, 1901, and Lee, born November 18, 1903.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, pp. 541-542.