Butte County
Biographies
CHARLES A. MOORE
CHARLES A. MOORE.--An historical figure in the past of Gridley, who is
still an important factor in the upbuilding of the
bustling town, is Charles A. Moore, the popular mayor, who was born in Lowell,
Wis., on September 22, 1863, and was reared in Iowa. He was educated at Marble
Rock, in that state, and went into the jewelry business there as a young man.
Even in the Middle West he made a reputation for originality and enterprise,
and all the conditions were favorable to his achieving whatever success he
might reasonably wish. Having heard, however, of the still greater
opportunities for men of courage and balance in California, he bade Iowa adieu
in 1885, and came into the state as one of the advanced guard of the great boom
migration. Wasting no time in other parts of the state, he soon located in
Gridley and opened a jewelry store in the same block in which is present famous
establishment is now located.
Since then, Mr. Moore has done his full
share towards building up the town on lines and foundations worthy of
endurance. He now owns eleven houses in the city, nine of which he himself has
built. He is also serving his third term as a member of the board of trustees
of Gridley, to which he was first elected in 1906. He has really been on the
board since the town was incorporated, and this is record enough for any modest
man. He is filling his second term as chairman or acting mayor, and since he
has come into power the town has forged rapidly ahead and has taken an
honorable place among sister incorporated cities.
Mayor Moore is one of the four men who
started the annual canners’ picnic twenty years ago, and he has been in charge
of the same festivity ever since. He was one of five men who originated the
plan to beautify the old city park in 1889, the same committee securing the
donation of the land from the Southern Pacific Railroad Company for park
purposes. A drama was given to obtain the funds for starting the park. Mayor Moore
was also active in securing land for the new municipal park, twelve and a half
acres, which cost $7,500.
That Gridley has already become one of the
really progressive cities of California may be seen from an interesting fact or
two. It has a municipal waterworks that cost $33,000, and a municipal lighting
plant that cost $17,500. It spent $30,000 for its sewer system, and $72,000 for
its street paving. It boasts a Carnegie Library that was put up at an outlay of
$7,500, and has two city parks, each costing $7,500. All of the municipal
investments have proven successes, and the town is now almost self-supporting.
Few men in the high position of the
mayoralty have had the honor to preside over a more attractive municipality, or
a more promising one, than Gridley, and few cities have been so fortunate in
the selection of their first citizen. Mayor Moore, therefore, has already made
a place for himself in the history of California, and especially in that of
Butte County, and it is a pleasure to accord to him the place he deserves in
the historical records of the community. He is a Mason and member of Gridley
Lodge, No. 230, F. & A. M., of which he is Past Master; he
is also affiliated with the Marysville Lodge, No. 783, B. P. O. Elks.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
02 August 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages
1002-1005, Historic
Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's
Butte County Biographies