Benjamin Baker Moeur
22 Dec 1869 - 16 Mar 1937
bornDecherd, Tennessee, USA
diedTempe, Arizona, USA
SchooltblData
BiographyDoctor, businessman, and Arizona Governor.Came to Tempe in 1897.
During the early 1890s, he was a cowboy on the Texas plains. He attended medical school at AIU in Little Rock, Arkansas. After graduating in 1896, he moved to Arizona, settling first in Tombstone, where he registered his certificate, and served for a short time as relief physician at the Copper Queen Hospital in Bisbee. He then moved to Phoenix, and eventually, to Tempe. In 1922 was a city health officer. In 1923, 1925-26 was a physician, lived ar 34 E 7th. He bought a practice in Tempe that had belonged to Dr. Charles S. Jones; In 1923-25, practiced at 34 E 7th; in 1926-27 practiced at 2 Tempe Natl Bank bldg., in 1926, 1930-32 at 104 E 6th. He also had a drug store on Mill Avenue. He quickly establishing a reputation as a "country doctor" for his willingness to make long distance house calls to homesteads throughout the district. Aside from a brief period of service on the staff of the Copper Queen Hospital in Bisbee, his entire medical career was based in Tempe. His office was in the Andre Building in 1898. In the early 1900s, he was also involved in several business ventures, including serving as President of the Southside Electric Light and Gas Co., and President of the Moeur-Pafford Company, a large ranching corporation in partnership with his brother-in-law, J. K. Pafford. With M. E. Curry and George L. Compton, he formed the Tempe Hardware Company at 520 S. Mill Avenue. He was President of the Tempe Hardware Company in 1906. He also built two rental cottages, at 29 E. 6th Street and 31 E. 6th Street, in 1916. He owned several other properties in Tempe. When the Tempe Normal School became Arizona State Teachers College (1925), he offered his services as college physician, and during that time began a scholarship program at the college. He had a long political career in Arizona. he was a Representative for Maricopa County at the Arizona Constitution Convention in 1910; served 8 years on the Tempe School Board and 12 years as a member of the Tempe Normal School Board of Education, including secretary of the Board; and was elected to serve two terms as Governor of Arizona, 1933-1936. He was elected Governor of Arizona in 1932, during height of the Depression, and took office on January 3, 1933. He immediately set out to accomplish the things he had promised to do, including submitting a budget to the Legislature with reductions in expenditures of $4,500,000. He introduced revised income, sales, and luxury taxes to reduce the tax burden of property owners by 40%; dealt with problems of supplying relief to the needy and unemployed of the state during the Depression; presided at ceremony opening Mill Avenue Bridge to traffic in August of 1931.
His administration was probably best known for mobilizing the Arizona National Guard in 1934 to try to prevent the construction of Parker Dam, which was to divert Colorado river water to Los Angeles. Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes was furious, but he was forced to temporarily halt construction of the dam until Arizona's water claims were adjudicated.
He died at his home in Tempe, 2 1/2 months after retiring from office.
Member of the Elks, Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Alianza Hispano-Americana, Shriners, Woodmen of the World, and Masons.
He lived at 34 E. 7th Street in 1921, -1926, 1928-'31. City Health Oficer in 1922.. In 1930, 1932 lived at 34 E 7th. In 1930-32 office was at 104 E 6th.
OSB 19; OSB 59
Federal census (Tempe), 1900, 1910
BIO-Moeur
BIO-Moeur, B.B.
BIO-Birchett
BIO-Holmesley
Old Settlers Collection, THM
HPS-144, HPS-145, HPS-207
HPS-226, HPS-244
Hopkins and Thomas, The ASU Story, p. 196
Tempe CD, 1898-1932
Tempe Telephone Directory, 1924, 1940
Painter Scrapbook, p. 28
Double Butte Cemetery, Tempe
Person TypeIndividual
