05/26/2026
Henry Moyle was born in Cornwall, England on January 23, 1846. However, there are additional records that indicate he was born in 1845. He emigrated with his parents to America in 1848, when he was just a little boy. They settled in North Carolina where his father was employed to oversee the work crews at Gold Hill, a gold mine near Charlotte, North Carolina. On April 20, 1861, one week after Fort Sumter was fired upon, Henry, then a 15-year-old, stating that he was 16, enlisted at the inception of Company C of the 1st North Carolina Volunteer Regiment. The regiment was renamed the 11th North Carolina Troops and became part of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia with Company C engaging in all of that Army’s battles, including Pickett’s Charge up Cemetery Ridge. As stated in Martin and Outlaw’s treatise, “At Gettysburg, Company C went into battle with three officers and thirty-four men and lost two officers killed and thirty men killed or wounded, probably a greater loss than any company has had in any battle since recorded losses have been kept since Thermopylae. At Lee’s surrender, the entire 11th had only 93 survivors.” Henry was seriously wounded below the right knee by a rifle mini-ball, in the Battle of Bethel Church, Virginia.
After the war he went to Omaha, Nebraska where he worked to construct the transcontinental railroad to the connecting points at Promontory, Utah. On May 20, 1869 he moved to White Station, Butler County and built a log cabin on the Walnut River, northeast of Augusta. The only building in Augusta at the time was the C. N. James Trading Post.
Henry married Josephine Sanders in 1870, sold his land in 1875 and moved to Augusta. Henry and Josephine opened a hardware store in Augusta and later started a grocery store. He also invested in farm land, amassing 720 acres. This proved to be very lucrative because oil was soon discovered on some of his land.
Certainly, the word entrepreneur comes to mind when thinking of Henry. In addition to the grocery and hardware stores, he also started an ice business. The ice, cut by his crews from the Walnut River, was sold from his icehouse located at the present site of the Moyle Building. In Burl Allison’s book, Augusta, Kansas 1868-1990, Burl recounted that in the winter of 1882 and 1883, Henry and Timothy Sexton (later to become Gazette editor) had a contract to sell thirty carloads of ice to the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway. The ice was shipped to Springfield, Missouri. The Gazette commented, “They are getting out four carloads a day, and of fine quality – eight inches thick and as clear as crystal. They expect to complete their contract this week.” (It’s hard to imagine ice being eight inches thick on our little Walnut River!)
Henry and his son, John, wanting to aesthetically improve the appearance of downtown Augusta, undertook one of the largest construction projects in the history of the city by commencing the building of the Moyle Block, pictured below, at the NW corner of Sixth and State Streets. Mr. Moyle’s project was the five-story office building with an elevator and operator. John’s project was the two three-story office buildings abutting to the north. The buildings were completed in 1918 almost concurrently with the death of the elder Mr. Moyle. Sadly, the damages from the 1924 tornado resulted in the family removing the top two floors of the five-story structure, and in 1979, the north three-story building was destroyed by fire.
Henry was very involved in developing Augusta and was elected mayor on seven different occasions – more times than any other mayor in Augusta’s history. He also served on the City Council a number of times with the Council meeting in Henry’s parlor for the first formal council meeting following a fire in the Augusta City Council chambers on August 18, 1890. After that, they met in a room over a store downtown. Henry donated land to the city for a baseball field, the golf course, the swimming pool and a hospital. He also left money to various organizations and churches. Giving back to Augusta was something that Josephine and Henry felt strongly about and instilled in their children. Their son, John, continued the family’s legacy of enhancing Augusta’s livability, by giving lots in Moyle Addition to many of Augusta’s churches. Even after his death, John’s last will made considerable bequests to the Augusta Chamber of Commerce, the Boy Scouts, the American Legion post and several churches.
Henry and Josephine had 6 children: Grace, John, Matthew, Beulah, Harry and Fannie. Several streets in Augusta are named for their family! The Moyle Building still stands at the corner of 6th and State. It can be said that the city of Augusta was fortunate when the young Confederate soldier, Henry Moyle, came to Butler County, settling among mostly northern homesteaders and sympathizers. Nothing could better illustrate his friendly and kindly character than the fact that he became known among his younger contemporaries as “Uncle Henry”.
Henry died in 1918 at the age of 72 and Josephine died in 1939 at the age of 84 and both are buried in Elmwood Cemetery. The Moyle family was here in the very beginning and their legacy to Augusta lives on with each year’s ‘play ball’ at Moyle Field and children’s laughing and splashing at our Municipal Swimming Pool.
(Pictured is their home at 802 State, their grocery store and a picture of Henry Moyle.)
