Source: History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties
by John Brown, James Boyd - 1922 - San Bernardino Co, CA.
William C. Moore has been a merchant and business man of Riverside nearly thirty years. His life career has been one of somewhat strenuous experience, leading him all the way from a ranch in the Dako- tas through range riding and mining in Nevada until he reached the more peaceful scenes of Southern California, where he has successfully solved the problems of a business career.
Mr. Moore is one of the founders and executive officers of that widely known mercantile service known as the Alpha Beta Stores, one of the most systematic and successful organizations of the kind in Southern California.
Mr. Moore was born at Battle Creek, Michigan, June 27, 1868. The family is of Irish descent and was established at old Lowell, Massachusetts, several generations ago. His father, T. H. Moore, was a native of Massachusetts but spent his early life in Michigan and when the Civil war came on enlisted at Battle Creek and became a lieutenant in the Seventh Michigan Infantry. He was in many engagements and battles, was once wounded in the knee, but after several months home on furlough recovered in time to rejoin his command.
When William C. Moore was about twelve or thirteen years of age the family moved to Dakota Territory, in what is now South Dakota, where his father pre-empted land about ninety miles from Aberdeen. For eight years Mr. Moore had a training in the mental and physical resourcefulness required of all those who contended with the hardships of -the frontier. He gained a thorough knowledge of ranching, and in 1888, at the age of twenty, when he started out to make his own living and way in the world his travels led him to Tuscarora, Elko County, Nevada, where he secured employment- on the Spanish Ranch owned by the Altube Brothers. This enormous ranch was probably a hundred miles square, extending from Tuscarora to the Snake River in Idaho. The Altube brothers had between forty thousand and fifty thousand head of cattle, and on the northern part of the property conducted an extensive sheep ranch. William Moore had a full share of range riding, though part of the time he had charge of the marketing for the firm from Tuscarora. He also did some mining in Nevada, and leaving there in 1892 came to Southern California. With B. E. Wheeler he bought some unimproved land near San Bernardino. This land they planted to lemons, apricots and peaches, and Mr. Moore retained his interest in the property until 1899. On first coming to California he also did some work in Arrowhead Tunnel No. 3.
Mr. Moore has been a resident of Riverside since June, 1893. For two years he was employed by Obar Brothers in the Boston Meat Market and later for one year in the Pioneer Meat Market. He then engaged in business for himself in partnership with Dick Roberts, under the firm name of Moore & Roberts, but after a year bought out Mr. Roberts, who is now located in Glendale. Mr. Moore's long experience makes him an expert in handling every phase of the livestock and meat industry, and even now much of his time is devoted to the buying and selling of cattle in Utah and Arizona, and up to about the time America entered the war with Germany he was a cattle feeder in the Imperial Valley.
Mr. Moore conducts his business alone at Riverside and in 1917 he became one of the organizers of the Alpha Beta Stores. This company operates a chain of ten stores, two at Pomona, two at Santa Ana, Hunt- ington Beach, Claremont, Ontario, Monrovia and Orange. The members of the firm are all related by family ties and comprise: A. C. Gerrard. president: W. C. Moore, vice president; L. J. Bentley, H. A. Gerrard. A. W. Gerrard. W. J. Mcjenney and G. F. Bentley. These stores are purveyors of meats, groceries, fruits and vegetables, and every Alpha Beta Store is known to its patrons as a model of arrangement as well as a source of the best quality of goods. One feature of the business, from which the stores derive their name, is an alphabetical arrangement of the stock, so that patrons as well as employes can direct themselves to any article desired.
Besides this store business Mr. Moore conducts a ten-acre orange orchard located at West Riverside. He was a charter member and a director for a number of years in the Union Title and Abstract Company, and is still financially interested in its successor, the Riverside Abstract Company. He was formerly vice president of the Cresmer Manufacturing Company of Riverside, and a charter member of the National Bank of Riverside, but sold his interest in both these corporations. He was a stockholder in the City Hospital Association, but donated his stock to the New Community Hospital. Mr. Moore is a director in the Y. M. C. A., is one of the organizers and a director of the Business Men's Association, is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Masons, Knights of Pythias, and Ancient Order of United Workmen. In politics he has been aligned with the republican party, though identified with the progressive party during its existence, and took a place on the County Central Committee when the party was organized. The family are members of the Christian Church.
At Riverside October 28, 1896, Mr. Moore married Miss Mary Gerrard. She was born at Godrich, Canada, daughter of Alex Gerrard, now a resident of Santa Ana. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have two daughters: Miss Ethel Norine Moore and Miss Gladys Naomi Moore, a senior in the Riverside High School. Miss Ethel Norine is a graduate of high school, spent one year in Junior College, and was formerly employed in the Citizens Bank and the Ford & Chandler Automobile Agency, but left Riverside to go to Honolulu, where she has been for some time cashier of the Bishop Insurance Agency.