W. N. Moore, a thoroughly progressive and up-to-date mining man of California, has some extensive interests in the way of mining claims in various parts of the state, but makes his resident at Stella, in Shasta county. Few men are better versed than he in the science of metallurgy as practically applied to mining operations, and, because nearly all the years of his life have been devoted to this work in California, his knowledge of the state mineral deposits is very extensive and makes him an expert in many lines of his work.

Mr. Moore is the son of an old California pioneer, and his paternal grandfather, Joshua Moore, was born in Scotland, whence he came to the United States with his parents at the age of twelve years. The family located in Tennessee, where Joshua grew up and became a farmer. He served all through the war of 1812, rising eventually to the rank of a petty officer, and died at the age of seventy-six years. His son, J. P. Moore, the father of W. N. Moore, was also a farmer, and went through the Mexican war, coming out as a lieutenant colonel. Following the war he moved from Tennessee to Arkansas, being employed there in government service on an Indian reservation, and in 1853 he drove an ox team across the plains to California, locating his family near Marysville on the Sacramento river. Here he raised stock and farmed, and later moved to Butte county, where he died in 1896, at the age of seventy-eight. He married Miss Elizabeth Birchett, a daughter of Marion Birchett, who was a Tennessee farmer and also a Mexican war veteran.

Mr. W. N. Moore was born in Marion county, Arkansas, July 22, 1848, the same year in which gold was discovered in the state of his future activity. In 1864 he began mining in Plumas county, and during the more than forty years subsequent to that time has devoted his principal energies to the discovery and mining of the precious metal. He has operated in the prominent districts of the state. As an expert prospector he has done a great deal toward gaining a correct knowledge of the minerals of the state, and ranks high as an authority of mineralogy. He owns seventeen claims in the Whiskytown district, and possesses some stock in the Butte county mines. Throughout his career he has been an active Democrat, and has taken a public-spirited interest in all matters for the general welfare.

July 29, 1869, Mr. Moore married Miss Margaret Parman, a daughter of Henry Parman, a prominent farmer and stock-raiser of Sutter county and an old soldier of the Mexican war. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Moore: Elizabeth, who married George Lane, died at the age of twenty-two; Lela is the wife of Elmer Danner, of Colusa, California; Maud is the wife of Ed Butler, of San Francisco; and Cleveland is associated with his father in mining enterprises. On September 7, 1897, the family were bereaved of the devoted wife and mother, who passed away at their home in Colusa.

Source: History of the New California Its Resources and People, Volume II

The Lewis Publishing Company - 1905
Edited by Leigh H. Irvine