Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/352

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328
THE STATE SENATE OF 1879—80.

frey, who deceased Dec. 31, 1864. He subsequently married Sarah J., daughter of Dea. Harvey Chapin, of Holyoke, Mass., his present wife. He has no children living.

Orren C. Moore, Senator from the seventeenth district, which embraces the city of Nashua, has been well known in political life in New Hampshire for several years past, holding a prominent position among the leaders of the Republican party in the state. There may be others who have attained more exalted official position at as early an age in life at the hands of one or the other of the great political parties in our state, but no man in New Hampshire, of equal years, within the last quarter of a century at least, has engrossed public attention in larger measure, exerted a stronger influence in shaping the action of his party, or directing the legislation of the state than has Mr. Moore during the last six or eight years. Born in the town of New Hampton, Aug. 10, 1839, he is now just forty years of age. His father, J. H. Moore, was a country merchant in limited circumstances, who was engaged in trade for a time in Holderness, and subsequently removed to Manchester, where he died. Young Moore was early thrown upon his own resources for his support. He labored for a time in the employ of one of the corporations at Manchester and obtained such education as he was enabled to secure in the time at his command in the public schools of that city. In 1855, at sixteen years of age, he went to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where he learned the printer's trade in the office of an older brother, F. A. Moore, remaining in his service three years. Returning to New Hampshire, he worked at his trade in different offices in Manchester, and was for several years foreman of the news room of the Daily American of that city, until its consolidation with the Mirror.

In 1866 Mr. Moore became editor and part proprietor of the weekly Telegraph, at Nashua, and removed to that city, where he has since resided, engaged in the management of the same paper, which has come to be regarded as one of the ablest exponents of Republicanism in New England. In 1869 he established a daily in connection with the weekly paper, there being previously no daily paper published in the city. Last year Mr. Langley, who had been his partner in the business, withdrew, and he is now sole proprietor of the newspaper and printing establishment, in connection with which there is also an extensive bindery.

For five years previous to his election to the present senate, Mr. Moore was a member of the House of Representatives from Nashua, and during the entire period of his service in that body it may be safely said that no member labored more diligently in the interest of all measures which he regarded as essential to the welfare of the state, none watched more closely the general course of legislation or participated more earnestly or effecttively in debate upon all important questions than did Mr. Moore. In 1878 he was particularly conspicuous as the champion of several important measures recommended by the Tax Commission appointed by Gov. Prescott in accordance with the act of the previous legislature, of which commission he was a member and of whose report he was the author. Whatever was accomplished by the legislature last year in the direction of the equalization of taxation is due in the main to Mr. Moore's efforts. In the senate the present year he has maintained his high rank as a debater, as well as a laborious and earnest legislator, persistently supporting all measures which, to his mind, the best interest of the state demanded. As chairman of the Committee on State Institutions he favored the most liberal policy with reference to the State Normal School, of which institution he has ever been a strong friend, and was mainly instrumental in securing the appropriation for the instruction of the inmates of the Reform School in industrial trades and callings. He was also an active member of the Committee on Education and Railroads.