William J. Moyer [1859 - 1943]

Individual, Moyer

Lifetime

1859 – 1943

About

William J. Moyer was the Vice President of Grand Valley National Bank and the owner, along with Elmer Craven until his death, of the Fair Store in Grand Junction, Colorado. According to David Sundal, Moyer first settled in the town of Socorro, New Mexico and opened a Fair Store there before abandoning the store and town for Grand Junction. There, his store went from a small hole in the wall to a large enterprise. He walked to the Fair Store from his home at 614 Ouray Avenue every day. He was a community philanthropist who provided the money needed to build the Moyer Natatorium, now known as the Lincoln Park-Moyer Pool. Moyer was also part owner of COPECO, a large fruit growing operation run by Elmer Craven. For years after his financial ruin, he lived in the St. Regis Hotel on the dime of the owner, Mr. Burnett. He then lived as a boarder in a house on Orchard Mesa at the top of the 5th Street hill. According to oral history interviewee Elberta Francis, he could often be seen as an old man sitting in a chair on his lawn. Dalton Trumbo's protagonist John Abbott was a thinly veiled novelization of Moyer in the novel Eclipse. According to oral history interviewee Jennie Dixon, Billy Weiser and others helped keep Dalton Trumbo's book away from the knowledge and sight of Moyer, due to Abbott's tragic portrayal. David Sundal, however, says that Moyer know about the book and his portrayal in it.

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