Register of the Wirt E. Moore Papers, 1899-1949

Processed by Don Walker & Daryl Morrison; machine-readable finding aid created by Don Walker
Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections
University Library, University of the Pacific
Stockton, CA 95211
Phone: (209) 946-2404
URL: http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections.html
© 1998
University of the Pacific. All rights reserved.



Register of the Wirt E. Moore Papers, 1899-1949

Collection number: Mss133

Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections

University Library

University of the Pacific

Contact Information

Processed by:
Don Walker & Daryl Morrison
Date Completed:
5-98
Encoded by:
Don Walker
© 1998 University of the Pacific. All rights reserved.

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
Stockton, CA 95211
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.

 

BOX 1: WIRT E. MOORE PAPERS

 

1.1 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS

 

1)-Autobiography, 10-49 [2 pp.]

 

2)-Untitled reminiscence when he was fifteen working on the lower Umpqua river in Oregon in 14 chapters, Dedicated to Grant Balderree, unpaginated, [81 pages] [describes jobs in logging industry, dishwasher and as dairy ranch hand at Alfred Oar ranch and the Grant Baldrey ranch. The Oar ranch was on marshland on the mouth of the Scofield River. Reedport now occupies the marsh where the dairy herd used to roam]

 

1.2 COOPER CORRESPONDENCE

 

1)-Mrs. J.F. Cooper, Kellogg, Oregon, Douglas County, 3-16-04 [7 pp.; envelope] [responding to WEM letter regarding history of Gardiner on the Umpqua River]

 

1.3 BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE TO WEM

 

1)-Western Union Telegraph Company J.M. Green, 6-30-0?

 

2)-J.Y. (?) Bridges, United States Land Office, Roseburg, Oregon, 1-26-00

 

3)-E. H. Anderson, To Whom It May Concern, 3-10-00

 

4)-R.E. Bennett, County Superintendent, 4-13-05

 

5)-G.M. Boyles, To the Board of Directors, South Bend, Washington, 2-16-06

 

6)-G.M. Boyles, Toledo, Washington To Whom It May Concern, 2-14-07 [copy on Puyallup High School letterhead]

 

7)-John W. Kerns, County School Supt. Enterprise, Ore., 5-12-08 [2 copies on Puyallup High School letterhead]

 

8)-Enterprise, Oregon. Public Pres- News Record, 6-8-08. [2 copies on Puyallup High School letterhead; Notice of Moore's resignation as Principal of the Wallowa County High School]

 

9)-ASM Phenor(?)Office of County Superintendent of Schools, San Bernardino, California, 6-30-09

 

10)-April 3, 1910. J.M. Layhue, Olympia Wash. to Whom it May Concern, 4-3-10 [copy on Puyallup High School letterhead.]

 

11)-D. P. Frazier (?) Superintendent, letterhead Everett Public Schools, 4-4-11

 

12)-Edward Hyatt by RC Gaskill (?), State of California, Office Superintendent Public Instruction, Sacramento California, 5-11-17 [Grants Special High School Life Diploma]

 

13)-Fred W. Hauts (?) Board of Education, Oakland, California, 9-12-17

 

14)-Fred M. Hunter, Oakland Public Schools, 6-24-19

 

15)-University of California, Berkeley, 6-12-20

 

16)-N.M. Hart, Dean, University of California, Summer Session, 6-12-20

 

17)-Fred M. Hunter, Oakland Public School, 1-8-21

 

18)-Fred M Hunter, Oakland Public Schools, 1-8-21

 

19)-Walter Morris Hart, 1-28-21

 

20)-Fred M. Hunter, Supt. Oakland Public Schools, 4-26-21 [thanks him for serving as President of the Oakland Teachers' Association]

 

21)-M.H. Douglas, Lbn., University of Oregon Library, 4-27-21

 

22)-Walter Morris Hart, Dean, University of California, Summer Sessions, 10-31-21

 

23)-Walter Morris Hart, University of California Summer Session, 10-31-21

 

24)-B.M. Woods, Dean of the Session in Los Angeles, University of California, Summer Sessions, 11-14-21

 

25)-B.M. Woods, University of California, Summer Sessions, 10-6-22

 

26)-Harold L. Bruce, Dean of the Session in Los Angeles, University of California, Summer Sessions, 10-22-24 [2 copies]

 

27)-Mrs. Albert Harisen, President, Longfellow Parent-Teacher Association, Oakland, California, 6-15-27 [regrets that Moore is leaving after seven years as principal]

 

28)-Willard E. Givens, Superintendent of Schools, Oakland Public Schools, 1-24-30

 

29)-Willard E. Givens, Superintendent of Oakland Public Schools, 5-22-31

 

30)-H.L. Forkner, 10-24-34

 

31)-W. H. Graham, Secretary and Chief Examiner, Oakland Civil Service Board, 2-19-37

 

32)-C.R. Frazier, Principal, Seattle Public Schools, Edison Vocational School, 4-30-37

 

33)-Eugene Hilton, 6-7-37

 

34)-Charles Wade Snook, Nannie S. Cramer, et al., Oakland Public Schools, 6-12-37 [letter of acceptance of WEM retirement from Oakland Public Schools effective June 30, 1937]

 

35)-Ray Wall Fisher, 6-16-37

 

36)-Blanche Lavictory, 9-15-37 [telegram; pencil note]

 

37)-W.H. Graham, Secretary, Civil Services Board, Oakland California, n.d.

 

1.4 WEM WRITINGS

 

1)-"William Wordsworth-- Poet and Philosopher" in The Theosophical Forum,n.d., pp. 192-198.

 

2)-Second copy in typescript pp. 1-[10] last two pages vary

 

3)-The Village Blacksmith synopsis. [handwritten note states "synopsis of a play written by Wert E. Moore in 1899. Staged and played in Drain, Oregon"; copy torn]

 

4)-"Vision Land," 1899 [poem]

 

5)-"Mount Hood," 1910 [poem]

 

6)-"The Old Place," 1921 [poem]

 

7)-"Recollections," 1933 [poem; 3 pp.]

 

8)-"My Garden," 1935 [poem]

 

9)-"Town of Drain," 1935 [poem]

 

10)-"Not One Sweet Dream," n.d. [poem]

 

11)-"Handwriting, What About It?" [5 pp.]

 

12)-"Problems in Commercial Education" [6 pp.]

 

13)-"Whither Education," February 1938 [10 pp.]

 

1.5 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

 

1)-Letterhead, City of Grants Pass, Oregon. J.A. Slover, Mayor

 

2)-New York Life Insurance Company. Agreement for Change in Manner of Payment of Premium, 10-14-18, [Company and WEM and wife]

 

3)-Railway Express Agency. Receipt, 9-18-37