Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Biography
Scope and Content
Descriptive Summary
Title: Wirt E. Moore Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1899-1949
Collection number: Mss133
Creator:
Reginald R. Stuart
Extent: 0.25 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.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Wirt E. Moore Papers, Mss133, Holt-Atherton
Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
Biography
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.
Scope and Content
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.