Mary E. Dudley was the eldest daughter of John "Jack" Dudley and Julia Ann Reese Dudley of Autauga and Dallas counties, Alabama. Jack & Julia Ann were rather prolific--Mary had eleven brothers and sisters ! Luckily, the Dudleys were affluent planters, with kin spread out over several counties. On her mother's side, Mary Ellen had close family ties to several well-known Georgia and Alabama politicians including Bolling Hall and Dixon Hall Lewis.
 

I have recently discovered that there are inconsistencies regarding Mary's middle name. Although many researchers have indicated that it was Mary Ellen Dudley, cemetery records for her son James Lewis Moor indicate that  that her name was actually. Mary Elizabeth. She named her eldest daughter Mary Elizabeth; her son James named his daughter Mary Elizabeth, purportedly after his mother. Since Mary herself always signed her name "Mary E." there is probably no way to resolve this question.

Mary E. Dudley and Lewis Moor were married in Carlowville, Alabama on April 2, 1840¹. She was nineteen and Lewis was thirty-seven.

She was in her early 30s at the time of Lewis' death in 1854, with five children--all under the age of ten.  Mary gave birth to her sixth child, Lula, eighteen days after she buried her husband.

My great-grandfather, James "Jim" Moor--the only son--was three years old when his father died. Obviously, he would not be able to take his father's place for a very long time. Born and bred a planter's daughter, Mary decided to manage the Moor plantation herself. The 1860 Lowndes Co. census (Hayneville P.O.) lists her as Mary E. Moore, the head of the household and lists her occupation as "farming." ²

Mary appears to have been a good manager. She and children must have been comfortably well-off, because the value of her real estate was $66,250  and her personal estate was valued at $149,345.³
 

^{Over the years, her home would shelter her sister-in-law, Sarah A. Moor and her son-in-law, John H. Underwood--and doubtless many other family members. The 1880 Lowndes Co. census (Collirene Beat) still lists Mary as the head of household but occupation is listed as keeping house.} 4 ^{Her unmarried daughter, Sarah "Sallie" Moor,  John H. Underwood, and her grandson Green Underwood lived with her. Two little girls, Maymie and Julia D. Kirkland are listed as boarders. Based on the available information, I believe that Maymie and Julia were the daughters of Julia Ann Dudley, Mary's youngest sister.}
 

^{Towards the end of her long and challenging life, Mary moved in with her son Jim. She was a matriarch in the finest and truest sense of the word and had provided well for her family despite the loss of her husband. By the time that she passed away in 1906, she had outlived two daughters and a grandchild. Mary E. Dudley, daughter of a planter, wife of a planter, and ultimately a planter herself was buried in the cemetery next to the church her husband had helped to build more than half a century before. She lies there still, surrounded by her family and her neighbors in the rich black earth she loved so well.}

^{-- Stephanie M. Stoermer, 2001}