Moore was the son of Henry D. Moore, a wealthy Philadelphia businessman. Moore earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1904 and an M. A. from Harvard University in 1905 in English literature. Moore's father was from Maine, and owned a family vacation camp at Big Benson. Moore purchased land on Borestone Mountain in Maine and began the Borestone Mountain Fox Company. The Company ran several fur farms that raised foxes for their pelts, which were used for fur garments. In 1921 the Borestone Mountain farm was referred to as "the leading ranch in North America". In the 1920s Moore opened the Borestone Mountain Ranch, which was a fur farm near Big Bear Lake in southern California.
