10. Remembering Mrs. Hurst: Hamilton Twp's First Woman Safety Officer

     Elizabeth E. Cooper brought these terrific articles about her mother, Mrs. Mary Jane Hurst, to the Hamilton One Stop History Share event in May. Mrs. Hurst was Hamilton Township’s first female school safety officer, sworn in as a “Special Police Officer” in January, 1953 – one of the earliest women in the nation to have this position. This was big news in the region; newspapers and civic groups continued to follow Mrs. Hurst in her new career - as the great coverage in the article below (written two years after she was first appointed) shows. This was not Mrs. Hurst’s first ground-breaking role. For some time she also worked at the General Motors plant in Ewing as a "Rosie the Riveter," building airplanes during World War II.

 

          Hervey S. Moore, Jr., the Police Commissioner who appointed Mrs. Furst, is another interesting figure in Mercer history. Shortly after graduating law school 1941, he joined the Army. His service during World War II won him three bronze stars, the Asiatic-Pacific Theater Campaign Medal, and the American Campaign Medal. He left active duty in 1946, but accepted a commission in the New Jersey National Guard. 



Hervey Studdiford Moore, Jr. as an enlisted man

 

           Moore, Jr., was mayor of Hamilton Township during 1954 and 1955, and the township’s police commissioner from 1952 to 1955. In 1955 he joined the Princeton law firm of Mason, Griffin & Moore as a partner just weeks after its founding. He headed the state's Selective Service during most of the Viet Name War years (1963 – 1973) before being named to the Mercer County Court bench in 1973 by NJ Gov. William T. Cahill. In 1980, Gov. Brendan T. Byrne named him to the state Superior Court where he served until his retirement at aged 70. Judge Moore was referred to by some attorneys at the time as "the father of civil law in Mercer," who insisted on professionalism, courtesy and civility in his courtroom.

 

 

     His father, Hervey S. Moore, Sr., was also an attorney. Moore, Sr. served in the NJ Assembly and founded the Trenton Lions Club in 1921. In 1916, he reportedly “…caused a sensation, both in society and in political circles…” by accusing his former partner in a real estate business of conspiring to kill him. [NYTimes, 10/12/1915,pg.20]