Title: Wirt E. Moore Papers,

Date (inclusive): 1899-1949

Collection number: Mss133

Creator: Reginald R. Stuart

Extent: 0.3 linear ft.

Repository: University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections

Shelf location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.

Language: English.

Collection is open for research.

[Identification of item], Wirt E. Moore Papers, Mss133, Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library

Wert Emmit Moore was an Oregon, Washington, and California educator and Mayor of Grants Pass, Oregon. His father was Glaudius Wilbur Moore, whose family had settled in Marysville, California in the early 1850s. Glaudius Moore went to Texas to "ride the range" when but fifteen and there met and married Annie E. Buttery. The couple had three children, Wert Moore being the eldest (b.1878). The family moved to Silver City, New Mexico (1882), where Glaudius Moore prospected for gold, then to Oregon (1885), where Moore's father again sought gold. From 1887 to 1889 the family farmed on several Eastern Oregon land claims, then, in 1890, the Moores moved to Gardiner, Oregon, where the father was proprietor of a hotel. Wert went to school in Gardiner and became interested in pioneer history. In 1892 the Moores moved to Drain, Oregon, where Glaudius was again a hotel proprietor. The family remained there until 1937, although Glaudius Moore left at times to prospect in Montana and Canada. In June 1899 Wert Moore graduated from the Central Oregon State Normal School. He then began a teaching career as head teacher at Lebam, Washington. In his subsequent early career he was Principal at Toledo and Kalama, Wash. and County High School, Enterprise, Oregon. He then taught at Puyallup High School, Wash., was Principal at Washington School, Olympia, Wash. and a high school teacher at Everett, Wash.

From 1915 to 1937 Moore was employed in the Oakland (Calif.) Public Schools. His different positions included: teacher at Oakland Technical High School; teacher at the Evening High School; Penmanship Supervisor in city schools; Principal, Oakland Evening High School; Director of Americanization Classes in schools; Principal of Longfellow School; teacher at Roosevelt School; and, Instructor at Merritt Business School. For six years he was a member of the Summer Session faculty at the University of California, both in Berkeley and in Los Angeles.

Moore earned an D.Ed. from the University of California at Berkeley following his retirement (1937). In 1941 he settled in Grants Pass, Oregon. There he served as Manager of the Chamber of Commerce; Mayor; Superintendent of Josephine County General Hospital; President of the Southern Oregon Hospitalization Board; and Chairman of the County Tax Budget Committee. He resigned as Mayor of Grants Pass to accept a position at Oregon State College in Corvallis. Moore and his wife, Martha Catherine, had four children: Elsie Bell Moore Abbott; Minnie Mona Moore Marsh; May Moore Smith; and, Wilbur Ransford Moore.

The Wirt Moore papers consist chiefly of letters of recommendation and other correspondence pertaining to Moore's teaching career. They also include autobiographical and creative writing.