April 7, 1885: Horace B. Moore elected mayor of the Village of Duluth

April 7, 1885: On this day in Duluth in 1885, Horace B. Moore was elected mayor. Moore was born in Danville, Illinois, in 1843 and later graduated Dartmouth College. He came to Duluth in 1880 to work for lumber dealer R. L. Henry, a lumber dealer and became the secretary of the Duluth Lumber Company was organized he was made secretary and served until the company went out of business. In the Spring of 1885, Mayor J. D. Ensign did not wish to run for another term in office—according to the Duluth Weekly News, acting as the Village’s mayor had taken valuable time away from his business practice. But as of March 29, no one had tossed their hat in the ring and the paper wondered if there was “any one in the city at all suited for the position” and that maybe the best thing Duluth could do would be do beg Ensign to stay in office. On April 4 the paper rerouted that “H. B. Moore accept[ed] the call of numerous citizens to become a candidate for mayor. Moore ran unopposed and “received nearly every vote cast” in an election the Weekly Tribune called a “quiet and uninteresting election.” After his term as mayor expired, Moore was appointed the federal collector of customs for Duluth and served until 1889. In 1903 he was elected secretary and treasurer of the Duluth Board of Trade. Moore died of a heart attack in his home at No. 2 Chester Terrace, 1210–1232 East Superior Street, in 1906.

Horace B. Moore, Duluth’s mayor from April 1885 to April 1886. (Image: Duluth Public Library)