The C.H. Moore Homestead

Located on ten acres of rolling ground on the north edge of Clinton, Illinois, the C. H. Moore Homestead is not only the home to both the restored, fully-furnished Victorian Mansion House, once owned by Clifton H. Moore, in addition to the DeWitt County Museum; it also includes the Homestead’s original 1860’s carriage barn, a working blacksmith shop exhibit, period herb and flower gardens, a replica covered bridge, a museum of farm implements and machinery, railroad items, and vintage wagons, buggies, and carriages.

Construction was started on the Mansion in the 1870’s by John and Minerva Moore Bishop. Soon after Minerva Bishop’s death in 1880, Mr. Bishop sold the house to his brother-in-law, Clifton H. Moore, Clinton’s premiere attorney and wealthy land speculator.

Moore added the west wing to the Mansion in the 1880’s, mainly to house his impressive personal library which eventually surpassed 6,000 volumes. These he left to the city of Clinton upon his death in 1901 to become the basis of the city’s Vespasian Warner Public Library, where that collection is archived today.

The Homestead, which had fallen into disrepair over the decades following Moore’s death, was occupied and restored by the newly formed DeWitt County Museum Association in the 1960’s.

In 1979 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It is also represented on the Looking for Lincoln website, and is designated an official Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area passport stamp location.