Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/146

 crowded house.... He had no education, in fact could read very poorly, and write scarcely at all." But he took care of any embarrassments that might arise from those limitations by memorizing his bible and his hymn book. "He ... murdered the English grammar, and used figures of speech that were certainly original. Yet he did a vast amount of good. His sermons were full of earnest appeals, and he would exhort, sing, pray, and entreat, until his audience was some times in tears and sometimes in smiles.... With his ready wit and uncultivated humor, he was always ready for interruptions, disturbances or emergencies. ... It was claimed that with his own hand he baptized nearly or quite 3000 persons."

There is some poetry about him in Rural Rhymes of Olden Times by Martin Rice:

Young man! you feller leaning agin that post! you're the one I mean; you'd better go to praying than be standing there a laughin at me, you poor, miserable sinner, you!

James W. Nesmith was one of the brilliant men in early Oregon political affairs. At the age of 23, he came with the Applegates and Peter Burnett in the immigration of 1843. His interest in law was started by a moot court held around the campfires on the plains. He served in the Cayuse, Rogue River and Yakima wars ; he was United States marshal and superintendent of Indian affairs; he went to Washington as United States senator from 1861 to 1865 and as con-