Moore, Ennis Valentine (1895–1935) and Arabella (James) (later, Williams) (1896–1997)

Ennis and Arabella Moore were Seventh-day Adventist writers, editors, and educators, who served as missionaries to Brazil and Peru.

Early Life

Ennis Valentine Moore was born to James and Mary (Cox) Moore on May 23, 1894, in Anderson, Indiana, U.S.A. When his brother, Fred, was three years old and Ennis was six months old, their mother died. Their father married Emily Jane Barker in 1897, and soon the boys had two younger brothers, Charles and Chauncey. The boys attended church school, and Ennis was baptized at age thirteen.¹

Arabella Madeline James was born to Arthur and Amalie (Griehl) James on March 5, 1896 in Middletown, Connecticut, U.S.A. She was their first child, soon followed by Golda (1898-1979) and Clotilde (1905-2003).² The family moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1908, where Arthur W. James taught in the public schools there. It was in Chicago that the James family became Seventh-day Adventists, and Arabella was baptized in 1913 at age 17.³

Education

Both Ennis and Arabella attended Emmanuel Missionary College at the same time. After a brief attendance of the college in 1910, Ennis began the four-year commercial course in 1913. He was president of his graduating class.⁴ Arabella began the college literary course in 1913, finishing her bachelor’s degree in the spring of 1917.⁵ In the summers, she did colporteur work, calling it “delightful…to carry the truth to others”. This work was done in connection with M. H. St. John’s and Ira Woodman’s work in Chicago, Illinois.⁶

Ennis and Arabella also worked together as associate editors of the college’s biweekly paper, The Student Movement (which is still published today).⁷ During this time, Arabella submitted articles for publication to The Youth’s Instructor.⁸

In 1917, both of them went to work in the Indiana Conference. Ennis worked with Claude E. White in Marion, Indiana,⁹ and Arabella taught English and German and was the assistant preceptress further south at Beechwood Academy.¹⁰

Marriage and Career

Ennis and Arabella married on May 22, 1918, in Chicago, Illinois.¹¹ Together they had four children: Robert James (1920-1922), Madeline Maurine (1922-2007), Ennis Mario (1925-1991), and Wandyr James (1928-2003).¹² The Moores spent the summer months after their wedding working in tent efforts in Lafayette, Indiana, with Ennis preaching and Arabella doing Bible work and playing the piano.¹³

In the autumn of 1918, the Moores moved to Holly, Michigan, after Ennis was called to work as the secretary of the East Michigan Conference’s Sabbath School and Missionary Volunteer Department. Arabella worked teaching English at Adelphian Academy.¹⁴ Of this early work in Indiana and Michigan, Ennis wrote, “The Lord has abundantly blessed our work here and we are very grateful to Him. The results have been good, but I wish I might have done better.”¹⁵

In 1920 Ennis was called as secretary of the Home Missionary and Sabbath School Departments of the South Brazil Union Conference. After Ennis attended the Home Missionary Convention as a delegate, the Moores (Ennis, Arabella, and their newborn, Robert) traveled to Brazil, arriving sometime in the autumn.¹⁶ Arabella took training and became a licensed midwife in Sao Paulo, where the Moores made their home.¹⁷ Sadly, their son Robert succumbed to tropical diseases in early 1922. Though sorrowing, the Moores wrote that Robert, “in his childish way was a reverent worshipper of the Saviour. True, we have had him but a short time, but he has done his work in our lives. He has brought us many hours of happiness, and although now we are passing through the valley of sadness, we cannot say that we are discouraged.”¹⁸

In 1925 Ennis was ordained to the gospel ministry, along with L. Braun, at a joint meeting of the South Brazil Union and the East Brazil Union.¹⁹ He was subsequently appointed superintendent (today, director) of the Parana Mission in Brazil.²⁰

The Moores began a seven-month furlough on March 28, 1927, resting and visiting family in Indiana and Illinois. Delayed due to illness, the Moores returned to Brazil in early 1928, where Ennis took up the role of president of the Sao Paulo Conference. In 1930 Arabella began teaching music (largely piano) at the Brazilian Seminary and did so until 1933.²¹ Ennis remained conference president until September 1934, when he was called to be the superintendent (today, president) of the Inca Union Mission.²²

The Moores moved to Lima, Peru, and Ennis began visiting every part of the area he was now responsible for. His last trip was to the Lower Amazonas Mission to visit Fernando Stahl and the other workers there in Iquitos. By all accounts, the trip was grueling, though apparently improved from earlier years when it would take a month of travel to arrive. For Ennis Moore, it took “one whole day by train, about five hours by automobile, then two and one-half hours by airplane and five and one-half days by river boat”.²³

At one point on this journey, Ennis contracted what is now known as Carrion disease and known then and now as verruga peruana.²⁴ Increasingly ill, he cut the trip short and returned to Lima, arriving home on Friday, September 6, 1935. As the story was later told by Arabella, Ennis planned to rest over the weekend and then return to the office on Monday. He spent part of his last Sabbath at home reading to his family from his diary about his trip to Iquitos.²⁵ However, his condition worsened, and instead of returning to the office, he was taken to the British-American Hospital in Lima for treatment. Despite receiving “the very best care that could be given,” Ennis Moore died, at age 41, on September 27, 1935.²⁶

Later Life

After Ennis’s death, Arabella, who had been working at the Lima Training School as an instructor of “Normal Subjects” and English, decided to return to the United States with Maurine, Mario, and Wandyr. They sailed from Lima on December 16, 1935, headed to Angwin, California, where Arabella enrolled the children for their second semester of school.²⁷ After an invitation from the General Conference, Arabella attended the 1936 General Conference session as a delegate from the Inca Union Mission.²⁸ In response to the invitation, she wrote to M. E. Kern, “Yes, I had been planning on going to [the] General Conference [session] and indeed have often thought how different it is going to be from what we had planned. Ennis was looking forward to it so eagerly, neither of us had ever been to one, and now I must go alone. How completely such an event changes the course and paths of one’s life. I feel as though I am living in a different world. The past has been a lovely dream and now stern reality faces me.”²⁹

She taught German at Pacific Union College in 1937.³⁰ During this time she studied for and obtained a master’s degree in “Romanic languages” from Stanford University, which she was awarded in October 1938.³¹ That same year, the family moved to Berrien Springs, Michigan, where Arabella began teaching German at Emmanuel Missionary College, which she did for nearly a decade.³² While in Michigan she participated in the leadership of the Emmanuel Missionary College Alumni Society as its alumni editor.³³

In 1947 Arabella moved to Takoma Park, Maryland, where one of her sons attended Washington Missionary College. She began work as an assistant secretary in the General Conference’s Educational Department, overseeing the Parent and Home Education section of that department’s work.³⁴ Her duties included editorial work for The Journal of True Education as an associate editor and The Church Officers’ Gazette as an assistant editor, as well as travel to various churches to speak.³⁵

On May 10, 1949, Arabella married a second time, to Will Herbert Williams, under-treasurer of the General Conference.³⁶ In addition to her continued work in the GC Education Department, Arabella regularly contributed short articles to the Review for its “Comments on Choice Quotations” column between 1949 and 1951, which were brief contemplations on excerpts from the writings of Ellen G. White.³⁷

Retirement

The Williams retired in 1957 and moved to Escondido, California in 1958. They took a long sightseeing tour of Europe in 1960. Will died the next year in 1961.³⁸

Arabella kept extremely busy in her retirement. She volunteered at Palomar Memorial Hospital, running its gift shop on the first, third, and fifth Sunday of each month for nearly thirty years. In her seventies, she learned to waterski and was once featured at age 86 as the “oldest woman water-skier in the [United States]”. She also became a member of Maranatha Flights International and participated in at least thirty-three projects, traveling all over the United States and around the globe to do all sorts of tasks, including carrying bricks, climbing ladders, and putting “cap tiles on roofs”.³⁹ To stay fit for all these activities, she jogged two miles a day and kept to a strict vegetarian diet.⁴⁰

Arabella remained in California until she died, at age 101, at her home on June 30, 1997.⁴¹

Legacy

Both Ennis Moore and Arabella (James) Moore Williams exemplify a cheerful willingness to volunteer and to be totally involved wherever they went. The sacrifices they made in Brazil and Peru led in at least part to the growth of the Adventist Church in those places. Beyond that, however, Ennis Moore was adamant in particular that local workers could accomplish things that foreign missionaries would be able to. Typing out his answers to a “foreign missionary questionnaire” on the reverse side of letterhead from his father’s business, Ennis wrote, “Foreign missionaries must adapt themselves to their new country…However all this can not take the place of a native ministry. In this new day all lands are coming into their own and as missionary organizations we must realize this fact in our missionary efforts. Prepare a native ministry is the need and call of the hour. They will do a work that foreign missionaries can never accomplish. They must be developed and given an opportunity.”⁴² Arabella adapted herself to each “new country” that she found herself in, whether it was Brazil, Peru, a college classroom, an editorial office, or the gift shop of her local hospital. Wherever they went, Ennis and Arabella Moore did what they could, even as they wished to do more and to do better. Starting in 1978, their son Ennis and his wife Marceil set up a scholarship, the Ennis Valentine Moore and Arabella Moore Williams Memorial Scholarship, at Andrews University, the school where Ennis and Arabella met in 1913, and it was endowed in 1985.⁴³

Sources

Applegate, J. A. “Field Experiences.” Lake Union Herald, July 22, 1914.

“Biographical Information Blank.” Ennis Valentine Moore, March 23, 1920, Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A.

“Biographical Information Blank.” Mrs. Ennis V. Moore, March 23, 1920, Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A.

Brodersen, P. E. “General Meetings in South America.” ARH, December 3, 1925.

Colburn, H. M. “Gleanings From the Inca Union.” South American Bulletin, February 1, 1936.

General Conference Committee minutes, April 3, 1936.

Graham, L. W. “The Home Missionary Convention.” ARH, July 29, 1920.

“Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871–1920.” Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2010. Illinois Department of Public Health records. "Marriage Records, 1871–present." Division of Vital Records, Springfield, Illinois. Accessed 12 September 2023 via ancestry.com.

“Information on Returning Missionaries.” February 15, 1927, Ennis and Arabella Moore Appointee File, Secretariat Appointee Files, RG 21, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A.

“James obituary.” ARH, August 24, 1944.

“James obituary.” ARH, March 30, 1961.

James, Arabella. “The Wonder of Egypt.” The Youth’s Instructor, July 18, 1916.

Kern, M. E. “The Land of Opportunity.” ARH, January 8, 1925.

“Madeline Maurine (Moore) Carpenter Grove obituary.” Focus: The Andrews University Magazine, Spring 2007
“Moore, Ennis M. obituary.” Lake Union Herald, March 1, 1991.

“Murray, Golda J obituary.” ARH, February 21, 1980).

Neilsen, N. P. “Ennis V. Moore.” ARH, November 14, 1935.

Neilsen, N. P. “Obituary Elder Ennis V. Moore.” South American Bulletin, December 1, 1935.

Pons, Maria J., Claudia Gomes, Juana del Valle-Mendoza, and Joaquim Ruiz, “Carrion’s Disease: More Than a Sand Fly-Vectored Illness.” PLoS Pathog. 2016 Oct; 12(10): e1005863. Published online 2016 Oct 13. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005863. Accessed 12 September 2023 via https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5063350.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1916, 1918, 1920, 1921, 1926, 1931, 1936, 1939, 1948

Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., U.S.A.; Social Security Death Index, Master File. Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014.

Unsigned editorial note. ARH, December 23, 1920.

Unsigned editorial note. ARH, May 28, 1936.

Unsigned editorial note. ARH, September 6, 1984.

Unsigned editorial note. ARH, March 7, 1985.

Unsigned editorial note. Journal of True Education, December 1, 1947.

Unsigned editorial note. The Keynote, October 1, 1947.

Unsigned editorial note. The Keynote, April 1, 1960.

Unsigned editorial note. Lake Union Herald, May 26, 1942.

Unsigned editorial note. South American Bulletin, November 1935.

Unsigned news article. Atlantic Union Gleaner, March 9, 1948.

Unsigned news article. The Bradford Era (Bradford, Pennsylvania), May 20, 1949.

Unsigned news article. Daily Palo Alto Times (Palo Alto, California), August 13, 1938.

Unsigned news article. Inter-American Division Messenger, February 1, 1936.

Unsigned news article. Lake Union Herald, July 26, 1938.

Unsigned news article. Lake Union Herald, March 26, 1985.

Unsigned news article. North County Times (Oceanside, California), July 3, 1997.

Unsigned news article. These Times, June 1, 1983.

Untitled note under “Pacific Union College”. Pacific Union Recorder, November 10, 1937.

“Wandyr Moore Obituary.” San Diego Union-Tribune (October 19-20, 2003). Accessed September 19, 2023 via legacy.com.

Walker-Colburn, Edna. “Another Missionary Grave in South America.” Lake Union Herald, October 15, 1935.

Watts, Kit. “A Thousand Times Over: The stories of three Adventist people who live heartily for the Lord,” ARH, October 15, 1987.

Westcott, H. B. “Robert James Moore.” Lake Union Herald, July 19, 1922.

Williams, Arabella Moore. “Good Men.” ARH, June 15, 1950.

Williams, Arabella Moore. “More Thanksgiving—More Power.” ARH, November 24, 1949.

“Williams, Will Herbert obituary.” ARH, October 5, 1961.

Notes

1. N. P. Neilsen, “Ennis V. Moore,” ARH, Nov. 14, 1935, 21.↩

2. “Murray, Golda J.,” ARH, Feb. 21, 1980, 23; “Clotilde T. Walls,” Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., U.S.A.; Social Security Death Index, Master File, U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, accessed 20 September 2023 via ancestry.com.↩

3. “James,” ARH, Mar. 30, 1961, 25; “James,” ARH, Aug. 24, 1944, 21; “Biographical Information Blank,” Mrs. Ennis V. Moore, March 23, 1920, Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland.↩

4. N. P. Neilsen, “Ennis V. Moore,” ARH, Nov. 14, 1935, 21.↩

5. “Biographical Information Blank,” Mrs. Ennis V. Moore, March 23, 1920, Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland.↩

6. J. A. Applegate, “Field Experiences,” Lake Union Herald, July 22, 1914, 3;↩

7. “Local Periodicals,” 1916 Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1916), 199; “Biographical Information Blank,” Mrs. Ennis V. Moore, March 23, 1920, Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland.↩

8. See, for example, Arabella James, “The Wonder of Egypt,” The Youth’s Instructor, July 18, 1916, 3-4.↩

9. Edna Walker-Colburn, “Another Missionary Grave in South America,” Lake Union Herald, Oct. 15, 1935, 1.↩

10. “Beechwood Academy,” 1918 Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1918), 188; “Biographical Information Blank,” Mrs. Ennis V. Moore, March 23, 1920, Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland.↩

11. “Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871–1920.” Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2010. Illinois Department of Public Health records. "Marriage Records, 1871–present." Division of Vital Records, Springfield, Illinois. Accessed 12 September 2023 via ancestry.com.↩

12. H. B. Westcott, “Robert James Moore,” Lake Union Herald 14:29 (July 19, 1922), 10; “Madeline Maurine (Moore) Carpenter Grove,” Focus: The Andrews University Magazine 43:2 (Spring 2007), 34-35; “Moore, Ennis M.,” Lake Union Herald 83:3 (March 1, 1991), 29; “Wandyr Moore Obituary,” San Diego Union-Tribune (October 19-20, 2003), accessed 19 September 2023 via legacy.com.↩

13. “Biographical Information Blank,” Mrs. Ennis V. Moore, March 23, 1920, Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland.↩

14. Edna Walker-Colburn, “Another Missionary Grave in South America,” Lake Union Herald, Oct. 15, 1935, 1. See also the Seventh-day Adventist Yearbooks for 1920 and 1921.↩

15. “Biographical Information Blank,” Ennis Valentine Moore, March 23, 1920, Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland.↩

16. L. W. Graham, “The Home Missionary Convention,” ARH, July 29, 1920, 32; “Special Prayer,” ARH, Dec. 23, 1920, 23.↩

17. “Arabella Williams, 101,” North County Times (Oceanside, California), July 3, 1997, 21.↩

18. H. B. Westcott, “Robert James Moore,” Lake Union Herald, July 19, 1922, 10. See also M. E. Kern, “The Land of Opportunity,” ARH, Jan. 8, 1925, 13, for a brief secondhand look at what Ennis felt about the loss of Robert five years after the fact.↩

19. P. E. Brodersen, “General Meetings in South America,” ARH, Dec. 3, 1925, 13.↩

20. “Parana Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1926 (Takoma Park, Washington, District of Columbia: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1926), 178.↩

21. “Information on Returning Missionaries,” February 15, 1927, Ennis and Arabella Moore Appointee File, Secretariat Appointee Files, RG 21, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland; “Brazilian Seminary,” 1931 Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination (Takoma Park, Washington, District of Columbia: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1931), 282 (as “Mrs. Ennis V. Moore”).↩

22. N. P. Neilsen, “Ennis V. Moore,” ARH, Nov. 14, 1935, 21.↩

23. N. P. Neilsen, “Obituary Elder Ennis V. Moore,” South American Bulletin, Dec. 1, 1935, 1-2. Neilsen appears to have quoted this directly from a letter sent to him by Moore, published in part under the heading “Our Work Among the Indians,” ARH, Jan. 2, 1936, 13.↩

24. Maria J. Pons, Claudia Gomes, Juana del Valle-Mendoza, and Joaquim Ruiz, “Carrion’s Disease: More Than a Sand Fly-Vectored Illness,” PLoS Pathog. 2016 Oct; 12(10): e1005863. Published online 2016 Oct 13. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005863. Accessed 12 September 2023 via https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5063350. The article notes that, prior to antibiotics (such as in 1935 when Ennis Moore died), the lethality of this disease was 40 percent to 88 percent.↩

25. Arabella Moore Williams, “Good Men,” ARH, Jun. 15, 1950, 14. Parts of Ennis’s diary appear to have been edited by N. P. Neilsen and published as “Leaves From a Diary” first appearing in the Youth’s Instructor, Mar. 29, 1938, 4, 12-13.↩

26. N. P. Neilsen, “Ennis V. Moore,” ARH, Nov. 14, 1935, 21; “Pastor Moore’s Untimely Death,” South American Bulletin (Nov. 1935), 11:11, 1.↩

27. “Lima Training School,” 1936 Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination (Takoma Park, Washington, District of Columbia: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1936), 256 (as “Mrs. E. V. Moore”).; “News Notes,” Inter-American Division Messenger, Feb. 1, 1936, 16; H. M. Colburn, “Gleanings From the Inca Union,” South American Bulletin, Feb. 1, 1936, 4.↩

28. “Seven Hundred Seventy-Seventh Meeting,” April 3, 1936, General Conference Committee, 1930; “Delegates to the General Conference,” ARH, May 28, 1936, 6 (as “Mrs. Ennis V. Moore”).↩

29. Arabella Moore to M. E. Kern, April 13, 1936, Ennis and Arabella Moore Appointee File, Secretariat Appointee Files, RG 21, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland.↩

30. Untitled note under “Pacific Union College,” Pacific Union Recorder, Nov. 10, 1937, 6.↩

31. “Advanced Degrees Await List of 91,” Daily Palo Alto Times (Palo Alto, California), August 13, 1938, accessed September 20, 2023 via newspapers.com.↩

32. “Emmanuel Missionary College,” 1939 Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination (Takoma Park, Washington, District of Columbia: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1939), 254-255; “Emmanuel Missionary College News,” Lake Union Herald, Jul. 26, 1938, 8.↩

33. “Notice—E. M. C. Alumni,” Lake Union Herald, May 26, 1942, 8.↩

34. “Introducing,” The Keynote 10:10 (Oct. 1947), 2; “School News,” Journal of True Education 10:2 (Dec. 1, 1947), 25.↩

35. 1948 Yearbook of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination (Takoma Park, Washington, District of Columbia: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1948), 308, 309; “News Notes,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, Mar. 9, 1948, 3.↩

36. “Corydon News Notes,” The Bradford Era (Bradford, Pennsylvania) May 20, 1949, 7. Accessed 20 September 2023 via newspapers.com.↩

37. See Arabella Moore Williams, “More Thanksgiving—More Power,” ARH, Nov. 24, 1949, 11, for one example of this column.↩

38. “Other Items of Interest,” The Keynote 23:4 (Apr. 1960), 7; “Williams, Will Herbert,” ARH, Oct. 5, 1961, 26;↩

39. “South American,” ARH, Sep. 6, 1984, 20; Kit Watts, “A Thousand Times Over: The stories of three Adventist people who live heartily for the Lord,” ARH, Oct. 15, 1987, 14. To see an image of Arabella Williams on her water skis, see “Oldest Woman Water-skier Makes Ripley’s Column,” These Times 92:6 (Jun. 1, 1983), 15, at https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/WM/WM19830601-V92-06.pdf.↩

40. “Oldest Woman Water-skier Makes Ripley’s Column,” These Times 92:6 (Jun. 1, 1983), 15.↩

41. “Arabella Williams, 101,” North County Times (Oceanside, California), July 3, 1997, 21.↩

42. “Foreign Missionary Questionnaire,” undated, 2, Ennis and Arabella Moore Appointee File, Secretariat Appointee Files, RG 21, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland.↩

43. “Moores Establish Memorial Scholarship,” Lake Union Herald, Mar. 26, 1985, 17; “Andrews University,” ARH, Mar. 7, 1985, 23.↩