... no part of his character was more lovely than its gentle, sweet, childlike humility and simplicity, which could not fail to win every one who has ever seen or known him.From The Church Journal, July 15, 1863; found in the archives of Historical Newspapers at GenealogyBank:
DR. CLEMENT C. MOORE.—Thousands will be grieved to read—as we did in the daily prayers of Monday evening—that the venerable and beloved Dr. Moore, after a brief illness, died on Friday last at Newport, in the 84th year of his age. He had survived,—the last of the noble three who had been connected with the General Theological Seminary almost from its first conception. We believe he was the oldest, he certainly was in appearance the frailest and feeblest; yet he stood chief among the mourners by the open grave of Dr. Wilson, who had resigned his active professorial duties in the same year with himself (1850); and afterwards, bowed with age and infirmity, he stood beside the coffin of Dr. Turner in S. Peter's church, and mingled his tears with those of younger mourners. A few times since then he has been seen in the streets near the Seminary, slowly and tremblingly drawing one foot after another in shortening steps, as one ready to lay down his life at a moment's notice: and now he too is gone, and the Three so long associated together in the service of the Church on earth, are doubtless reunited once more, and are rejoicing together among the spirits of the blest in Paradise. His funeral was celebrated on Monday, the 13th inst., in Trinity church, Newport, by the Rev. O. S. Prescott, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Ogilby, of this city.
To the munificence of Dr. Moore the Seminary is indebted for the whole of its landed estate in this city. And a few years ago, when the lien given him in return for pecuniary advances made by him long ago became an incumbrance dangerous to the interests of the Seminary in its embarrassed condition, he generously extinguished the lien without consideration,—the amount being nearly $50,000. His personal services, as Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature, were modestly and unpretendingly rendered, for a long series of years, and for the most part gratuitously. His literary taste and power were well known, though entirely free from the least tinge of ambition. Perhaps, next after a singular liberality, large even in proportion to his large wealth, no part of his character was more lovely than its gentle, sweet, childlike humility and simplicity, which could not fail to win every one who has ever seen or known him. He has earned a perennial place in the Christmas rejoicings of children: and so long as the General Theological Seminary remains a fountain of usefulness for the Church, and so long as children rejoice in keeping up their traditionary observance of their favorite Christmas-tide, so long will the memory of the learned and munificent Professor, and love for the gentle and childlike soul, remain, among the generations of Churchmen, ever green.
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| The Church Journal - July 15, 1863 via GenealogyBank |
I cannot help recording on pay humble page the name of another, precious to the Church, who has gone in ripe old age, Clement C. Moore. L L. D. etc., son of a Bishop, the first my childish eye ever saw, and whose kind hand, I have heard, was wont to lift me to his knee. The son in his modest, honorable and devout life has been worthy of his sire, as the Christian scholar and gentleman, learned in a large sense for depth and extent, critically familiar with the languages of the Bible, a well read Theologian, accomplished in music and art, and adorning in his life the doctrine of God, his Saviour. In the early years of the General Seminary in New York, which owes to his munificence her valuable domain, Dr. Moore was Professor of Hebrew, and we used the Grammar and Dictionary which he had himself written and published, one of the earliest American efforts in that department. He always presented a copy to each student; and I keep mine with the later gift of his collected poetry. In that, he is the Poet Laureate of Santa Claus, with dancing rhymes to make childrens' hearts merry, and old ones young again. How wise and good and kind he seems to me now, as I look back through those long years, and group him with Onderdonk, Wilson, Turner, and the honored living layman Gulian C. Verplanck, who, at that day, also cast his rich offering of graceful learning into the new Training School of the ministry. --Bishop Henry J. Whitehouse on the late Clement C. Moore, "Poet Laureate of Santa Claus,"; from the Journal of the Annual Convention (1863) of the diocese of Illinois, Protestant Episcopal Church.Link to obituary of Clement C. Moore in the New York Herald:
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