Jealous and Armed: The Murder of Ruth Moore

Ruth Moore’s life ended in violence after suspicion and jealousy turned her husband into a murderer.

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George E. Moore (1841-1912) was born in Hamilton County, Ohio. Very little can be gleaned from the historical record regarding George’s early years, but by January 1862, he had arrived in Tuscarawas County and married Ruth Amanda DeLong (1844-1892). Ruth was the daughter of Tuscarawas County farmer Solomon DeLong (1808-1889) and his wife Emeline Kelley (1824-1894). George and Ruth Moore quickly began a family that grew steadily in the years to come. Amid the turmoil of the Civil War, in May 1864, Moore enlisted in the 170th Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company B, for a brief 100-day service before he mustered out that September.

George returned to civilian life in Uhrichsville, Ohio, where he supported his growing family through work as a boilermaker and laborer in the railroad shops in nearby Dennison. It was hard work, and George was known to drink to excess when the work day was done. He and Ruth had three children by 1870, and a decade later, the Moore household had expanded to include six children. Moore’s trade remained consistent, and by 1892, he was still employed in Dennison’s bustling railroad shops. That same year, the family home also sheltered a boarder, Edward McClelland (1859-1940), reflecting the working-class life of many in the region.

Edward McClelland was born in Steubenville, Ohio, the son of Richard McClelland (1824-1862) and Sarah Denbow (1819-1904). After the early death of his father in 1862, Edward grew up in a household shaped by the resilience of his widowed mother. He married Prudence Coleman (1860-1887) in May 1881 in Tuscarawas County, but their union was cut short when Prudence succumbed to tuberculosis just six years later. Edward worked as a saloon keeper when he boarded in the Moore household in 1892.

The weekend of April 23, 1892 George Moore got drunk and he fought with Ruth about her being too “familiar” with Edward and George’s belief that Edward had designs on one of the Moore’s daughters. George left that weekend but returned early Monday morning enraged and armed with a revolver. Moore fired two shots at Edward McClelland, grazing his scalp and tearing through his sleeve as McClelland fled. Moore then fatally shot his wife Ruth in the head before he attempted to take his own life; the bullet missed his brain however, and he was taken to the hospital and survived.

Several days later, George Moore was transferred from the hospital to the county jail, and he was formally indicted for first-degree murder in the death of his wife. Moore’s trial took place over the course of a week in November 1892, and ended with the jury convicting him of second-degree murder. After the trial Moore’s attorneys requested an insanity evaluation before sentencing, but he was declared sane and so received a life sentence in the Ohio State Penitentiary. A decade later, in October 1903, Moore petitioned the state for a pardon, and in July 1904, his sentence was commuted and he was released after twelve years of incarceration.

Less than a year after the shooting, Edward McClelland married one of the Moore’s daughters. The couple later worked as household staff for a United States Congressman in Licking County, Ohio. Edward died there in 1940, and his wife followed twenty years later. After his release in 1904, George Moore returned briefly to Tuscarawas County before he moved to the Soldiers’ Home in Sandusky, Ohio, in April 1907. He died there in December 1912 and was buried in the Soldiers’ Home cemetery. Ruth Moore was laid to rest in Union Cemetery in Uhrichsville with other members of the DeLong family.

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© Noel B. Poirier, 2024.