Charles Joseph Moore (commonly known as Joe) was born on November 22, 1901, at his parents ranch house on Grizzly Gulch, near the rural town of Woody, in Kern County, California. Joe was the fourth of eight children born to George Henry Moore and Laura Zania "Frazier" Moore and had seven siblings: Henry George (born 1890), Dell Dewy (born 1994 ), John Shelley (born 1996), Violet Pearl (born 1903), Byron Ray (born 1905), Gladys Laura (born 1908) and Ila Mae (born 1910). Joe was also a half-sibling of Nathan Washington Moore (born 1879) and Virginia Pearl Moore (born 1881), the two children of his father George Henry Moore and his first wife Maria Sostanes "Flores" Moore.
Joe was raised on his parents ranch in Grizzly Gulch. When Joe was a youngster, his dad gave him a Model 1892 Winchester 32-30 rifle, made in the same year Joe was born, 1901. Joe killed his first deer with that rifle, and later gave it to his son Gene, who also killed his first deer with that rifle. Gene followed the tradition and gave that rife to me (Roger), his first son. I killed my first deer with that rifle while hunting with my dad and my cousin Irving Snyder near Trout Meadow in the Sequoia National Forest in 1964. I passed that rifle on to my son Aaron, who killed his first deer with that rifle. Aaron and I were hunting on Henry Ridge in the Six Rivers National Forest in 1995. Aaron's son, Jaxon, is six now, and is in line to receive that old rifle to continue the tradition.
On September 19, 1909, Joe (age 8), his brother Byron (age 4,) and his sister Violet (age 6) were at the home of a neighbor, George Bowen, for dinner. On the dinner menu was canned corn. They returned to their home that evening and played in the fig and plum trees around their yard. Late that night, all three children became violently ill. Violet and Byron died later the next day. Joe eventually recovered from the ordeal. The incident was investigated by the Corner W.A. Quinn and the Deputy Corner S.D. Mullins of Bakersfield. They conducted a inquest and determined that their deaths were the result of "Ptomaine Poisoning from eating canned corn". No one else at the dinner became sick.
Joe married Betty Belle Zeller on October 08, 1924 in Visalia, Tulare County, California. In 1925, Joe and Betty were living in Goshen, and Joe was working as a laborer at a creamery. Their first child, Herman Eugene Moore, was born in Goshen on October 19. In 1925.
In 1927, Joe, Betty and Gene moved to Santa Paula. Joe was working on a citrus ranch when their daughter Dorothy Louise Moore was born on March 15. By 1930, Joe and his family had moved back to his parents ranch on Grizzly Gulch. They eventually built a house about a quarter-mile east of his parents house on the north-side of Grizzly Gulch, near the old abandoned home of Ethan Gates.
Joe worked as a laborer in a orange orchard in 1930, and later as a miner with his father and brothers on the Blue Mountain Mine, the xxx mine and started several of his own diggings in Grizzly Gulch. He became the owner of the Dreadnaught mine. and actively worked on the mine through the years.
Joe and his family were living on Grizzly Gulch when the U.S. entered into WWII on December 7, 1941. Joe registered for the draft on February 14, 1943. He was 5'11", 185 lbs, blue eyes and had brown hair. In 1942, Joe secured a job as an oil field worker outside of Oildale from the Associated Oil Company. He moved his family to a house in Oildale at 205 Harding Avenue.
On December 26, 1942, Joe was struck by a car while crossing Chester Avenue, between Roberts Lane and McCord Avenue, about a half a mile from his home. His injuries where serious, but not immediately fatal. Over the course of the next six months while at the San Joaquin Hospital in Bakersfield, Joe contracted aseptic meningitis and pneumonia. His condition continued to deteriorate and he died at the San Joaquin Hospital on June 04, 1943. Joe was buried in the Moore plot at the Blue Mountain Cemetery in Woody.
Click the blue text to view the Memorial of Charles Joseph Moore (Courtesy of Find-A-Grave)
