Draft:Alfred S. Moore

Alfred Stibbs Moore (September 13, 1846 – January 18, 1920) was a justice of the Alaska Territorial Supreme Court from 1902 to 1910.

"Judge Moore had been in the south for five years. He was born in Beaver in 1846 and was educated in the public schools, Beaver academy and Washington and Jefferson College, graduating from the latter in 1867. He studied law and was admitted to practice here in 1871. Later he went to Warren and Butler counties, practicing law in both places, and in 1875 returned to Beaver county. In 1881 he was elected district attorney, serving until 1881. In 1902 he was appointed by President Roosevelt to be United States judge for the second district of Alaska.

He was reappointed at the expiration of that term and served a year in addition to his second term while waiting for his successor to be appointed. In 1910 he returned to Beaver county and resumed the practice of law, but a few years later was forced to to the south for his health. Judge Moore was married twice. He leaves his second wife, Mrs. Florinda Knox Moore; one son, [and] one daughter."

Born in Beaver, Pennsylvania.

"Alfred S. Moore, of Beaver, Pennsylvania, was selected to fill this position. He had been a lawyer in Pennsylvania since 1871, he had served three years as District Attorney of Beaver County, was president of the Law Association of the county for a period of three years; was a member of the examining board for four years; had been a trustee in Beaver College for twenty years, and was a director of the First National Bank of Beaver. His record and reputation met all the requirements, and he received the appointment of Judge of the Second Judicial Division of Alaska, in May, 1902, and entered upon his duties July 14, succeeding.

Born September 13, 1846; was educated in the public schools of Pennsylvania, in the old Beaver Academy and in Washington and Jefferson Colleges, and was graduated from Jefferson College with the degree of A. B., subsequently receiving the degree of A. M.

He began work as a railroad man, and during a period of twenty-five months arose from the position of baggage man to the position of conductor of a passenger train. He was only twenty-two years old when he held the position of conductor.

His railroad experience was begun on account of ill health, and on a road from St. Louis into Illinois, of which his uncle. Col. Henry S. Moore, was superintendent. Having regained his health, he returned home and studied law under Sam. B. Wilson, the leader of the bar of Beaver County, and was admitted to practice law September 11, 1871. He first opened an office in Butler. After three years of practice he returned to Beaver, and in 1880 was elected district attorney of the county.

Moore was one of the most successful lawyers of the Beaver bar. He never lost a single case in the Supreme Court. While practicing at Butler, oil was struck in that part of Pennsylvania, and a great deal of litigation resulted from the new industry. Moore sat as arbitrator in many important cases, and it was here that he displayed the judicial trait of character which made him aspire to a seat on the bench.

As noted in the opening paragraph, Moore has filled a number of important positions of trust in his native town. Upon his appointment as judge of the Second Judicial Division of Alaska, he hastened to Nome and formally entered upon the discharge of his duties July 14, 1902. Having lived all of his life in the East, Moore at the inception of his work as Federal Judge of Alaska, was confronted with the difficulty resulting from a dissimilarity in both people and practice. Northern and western mining camps represent the extreme of difference existing between the people of the oldest community in the East and the people of the newest in the West. The laws of Alaska were new, and the issues involved in litigation were radically different from those that would come before a judge on the bench in a manufacturing or agricultural district of an old and well settled community.

Moore is of Scotch-Irish descent in which there is a strain of Spanish, English and German blood. His ancestors came to America in Colonial days. He is a member of a family of lawyers, being a nephew to Chief Justice Daniel Agnew Robert Moore, a celebrated lawyer, was his grandfather."

Moore died in Spartanburg, South Carolina, at the age of 73.