Pueblo County CO Archives Biographies.....Moore, William 1827 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 December 28, 2008, 12:46 am

Author: R. M. Stevenson (1881)

HON. WILLIAM MOORE.

    On the 31st day of October, 1827, the subject of this history was born on a
farm at Carrollton, Carroll Co., Ohio. Up to the age of fifteen, he attended a
district school and there obtained the education which, in after years, was to
become an invaluable aid to his modest, yet resolute mind, in the direction of a
uniform and unfailing success in all affairs of a business nature with which he
had to do. A moment is spared to go back to his youth-to see him a boy
persevering in all his undertakings and precise in all particulars-to see him
with that noticeable precision which is conspicuous in the strong features of
the gentleman of fifty-four, and which doubtless has been instrumental, as much
as any other trait, in obtaining for him the position and influence of one of
the wealthy men of the county of Pueblo. At fifteen he left school, laid away
his books, and began on a farm in his native State, the active life which has
resulted in his popular and financial aggrandizement. With excellent results, he
gratified in Ohio his love of farming until he was twenty-five, when he removed
to Kansas to farm, and improved on his Ohio success. During his residence in
Kansas, he made several visits to Ohio on pleasure and business, and bought and
sold many tracts of land and town properties, having engaged in the real estate
business soon after his arrival in the State. In 1860, with an ox train of ten
teams, he came to Colorado, intending to remain only a year and then return to
Kansas, but Colorado's climate, people and business opportunities pleased him so
much more than he expected they would, that he did not hesitate to pronounce
them superior to any he had elsewhere met with and to decide to make his
permanent home within her borders. Mining was the business to engage in 1860,
and Mr. Moore perceiving at once its sure returns if properly managed, turned
his attention to prospecting and employing prospectors, and received gratifying
and satisfactory returns. In 1866, to see the Territory as to the business
advantages, he made a trip to Montana with the freight outfit of J. N. Carlile.
but not being pleased with the country or its business, prospect, he returned to
Colorado, content to "let well enough alone," and to follow mining, which he
followed until 1868. His mining record records the sale of a number of mines at
moderate prices, yet for an amount sufficiently large to allow him to reflect
with pleasure on the seven years he devoted to Colorado's chief industry, and
the old-timers of the Central City and Blue River placer mines, who read this
description of his life will readily recollect him and place him among the lucky
placer miners of their acquaintance. The railroad contracting done by Mr. Moore
reaches a large amount when brought down to a total in dollars and cents. In
1868, he abandoned mining and entered into partnership with J. N. Carlile, under
the firm name of Moore & Carlile, for the purpose of taking railroad contracts
to build railroads. The first mile of railroad built in the State of Colorado
was built by them on the Denver & Pacific Railroad. He was interested in
contracts to build forty miles of the Denver & Pacific Railroad; to build the
Colorado Central from Denver to G-olden : to build the greater part of 230 miles
of the Kansas Pacific Railroad from Sheridan to Denver, and in contracts to
build the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad from Denver to Pueblo, and ninety-seven
miles of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. The Oman Brothers were
admitted to partnership with Moore & Carlile, in 1874, before the taking of the
contract on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and the firm given the
title, Moore, Carlile, Orman & Co. In order to give his whole attention to real
estate and building in South Pueblo, he drew out of the firm of Moore, Carlile,
Orman & Co., in 1877, and engaged exclusively in his choice pursuit. In 1878-79,
he made a number of transfers and erected several buildings, but, in 1880-81,
the transfers he made and buildings he erected exceeded those of any two years
previous-were on a larger scale and more in harmony with the scope of his
intellect adapted for real estate negotiations. The most costly and finest
building built by him is the Moore & Carlile Opera House, J. N. Carlile
assisting. At the time of gathering of this data, he was interested in building
a large block, to be called the Moore & Orman Block. Independent public
enterprise is one of Hon. William Moore's most prominent qualities as is
illustrated by the following: Pueblo, or North Pueblo, as it is some-times
called, and South Pueblo, are separated by the Arkansas River, and each
controlled by its own city government. Mr. Moore conceive of the project of
building a street railway from city to city, and in opposition to the honest
fears of the public for the success of the enterprise, he organized the Pueblo
Street Railway Company, and built a street railway from the limits of one city
to the limits of the other. Stating that the enterprise was a success, when it
is known that he was the organizer and manager, is seemingly superfluous, yet
necessary to complete the history. The road paid from the day of its completion,
and the stock is in demand at a figure considerably above its par value. The
building of the road is a benefit to each city which will long be remembered by
both. The originator and his co-worker in it and other public enterprises, the
Hon. James N. Carlile, are two of South Pueblo's most public spirited men, and
entitled to the respect and public honors so generously bestowed upon them b}r
the grateful citizens of the recipient city. In the fall of 1873, Mr. Moore was
persuaded, against his expressed wishes, to be a candidate for election to the
last Territorial Legislature held in Colorado and convened January 1, 1874,
those who urged him to accept the nomination well knowing that as soon as he
should consent his election was insured. He was elected by a large majority,
served his full term and to-day wears a legislative laurel which grows as time
increases. When the interview to obtain some of the particulars for this history
was had, he was a hale gentleman of fifty-four, with the vigor of a much younger
man. He was direct and dignified, but pleasant in conversation. His portrait can
be found in this volume, and any one examining it cannot fail to be struck with
the earnestness and sincerity which marks every lineament of his face.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

History of the  Arkansas Valley, Colorado
By J. Harrison Mills

O. L. Baskin & Co.
Chicago
1881


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