Description
Business and personal papers of Joseph Mora Moss. The collection includes receipt, record
and ledger books, photographs as well as papers of Dr. Joseph Mora Moss, III.
Background
Joseph Moravia Moss was born in Philadelphia, PA on March 1, 1809, the son of Samuel and
Eleanor Titterway Mercer Moss. He arrived in California about 1850. He was a partner in
the banking firm of Pioche and Bayerque until 1859. J. Mora Moss was the first
vice-president and the third president of the San Francisco Gas Co. (later to become
P.G.& E.) and a trustee of the Sacramento Valley Railroad Co. in the early 1860s. In the
late 1860s, his business interests expanded to include the California State Telegraph
Co., Market Street Railroad and the Sitka Ice Industry. He was a Regent for the
University of California and one of the directors of the School for the Deaf and Blind.
In 1867, he married his housekeeper, Julia Wood. On November 21, 1880, he died at his
estate, Mosswood, in Oakland.