Francis W. Moore Jr. (1808–1864) became the second mayor of Houston, Texas in 1838. He was elected twice more and served as mayor of the city in three consecutive decades, the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s. He was the co-publisher of the Telegraph and Texas Register, a newspaper in Houston. Early life Francis W. Moore Jr. was born on April 20, 1808 in Salem, Massachusetts. His father, Francis W. Moore, studied medicine at Harvard University. The Moores relocated to Livingston, New York in 1828. The younger Moore lost an arm in his youth. By 1834, he moved to Bath, New York, where he enrolled as a law student and worked as a teacher. Career Telegraph and Texas Register In March 1837, Moore purchased Thomas Borden's shares in the Telegraph and Texas Register. Moore was co-owner with Gail Borden and soon took over as editor-in-chief. At the time, the newspaper was located in Columbia. The 1st Texas Congress had been expected to name Columbia the capital of the new Republic of Texas. Instead, they chose the brand-new city of Houston. The publishers made plans to move the press to Houston. Houston and Columbia were separated by of boggy river bottoms. It was very difficult to transport large loads overland, so publishers made arrangements to ship the printing press via boat. On April 16, 1837, the press arrived in Houston, on the same boat as the executive departments of the Republic of Texas. The first issue to be printed in Houston appeared on May 2, 1837. In late June, Gail Borden transferred his shares to Jacob W. Cruger. The partnership between Moore and Cruger continued until April 1851, when Moore bought out Cruger. Under Moore's leadership, the newspaper became "the most influential news organ of the Republic of Texas". Although the capital moved to Austin in 1840, the newspaper remained in Houston. When the capital was relocated, Moore and Cruger established another newspaper, The Texas Sentinel, in Austin. His reporting did not necessarily please politicians. Governor Sam Houston once referred to Moore as that "'lying scribbler of the Telegraph, whose one arm could write more malicious falsehoods than any man with two arms'". Many of the paper's articles were aimed at attracting immigrants to Texas, or retaining those who had recently arrived. Articles emphasized the good character of recent settlers (as opposed to the widespread belief that residents of Texas were scoundrels) and