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He is an able man and a diplomate, and would make a popular candidate for any office that required addressing the people in large bodies assembled. He was born in Garrad county, Kentucky, in the year 184;^. In 1849 his parents emigrated to Grundy county, Missouri, where young Ison attended the public schools until he was prepared to enter Grand river college, where he remained some time, and afterwards finished at Fayette college in How- ard county. In 1866 he came to Oregon and located in Baker county, where he mined aud taught school from 1866 to 1870. He was then elected county clerk, aud subsequently re-elected twice to the same office. During the time which he served as county clerk, he studied law, and was admitted as a professional lawyer in October, 1876. In June, 1876, he was elected dis- trict attorney of the fifth judicial district, and was re-elected in 1878. At the expiration of his term of office, he became associated with A. J. Law- rence in the law business, and has siix'ie been engaged in the practice of bis profession. He is a staunch Democrat, and his long life of usefulness as a member of that party, together with the many offices that have been thrust upon him, are sufficient indications of the esteem in which he is held. Mr. Ison was married to Miss Josie Gates, of Union, Augiist 12, 1870.

HON. P. A. MARQUAM.

The man who has enjoyed all the advantages of a collegiate education, and the riches which are bestowed upon him by his family, is deserving of praise only for the obstacles he has to meet and encounter. Hence, when a man enters life without any of these bestowed advantages and works his way upward from the poverty of youth to a respectable position in the com- munity and an honorable office before the people, and owes his advance- ment to his own blameless life, his strength of character, and an iron will that failure only serves to render stronger, we must place upon his brow the chaplet that belongs to the victor in a hard-fought fight- not the prize drawn by lucky chance in the lottery of life. Representative Marquam is one of those men who were born without the immediate advantages of wealth, but by his pertinacity of purpose and natural ability he has risen not only to honorable position and the attainment of a large fortune, but we might say he stands pre-eminent as a citizen and as a jurist. He was born in " old Maryland, My Maryland," in February, 1823, where his ances- tors settled in the Revolutionary days. He is a grandson of Henry Poole, who was one of the largest planters and most distinguished men of his time. When quite small young Marquam's father moved with his family to In- diana, where they lived on a farm. As his father was quite poor, the boy assisted him by helping with the farm work, and at the same time whenever an opportunity offered he would take up his books, and it was there, follow- ing the plow aud lying under the shade of the wide-spreading tree branches that he laid the foundation of an education which fitted him for the im- portant place he was to fill in after life. After obtaining a sound English education, he studied Latin, together with the higher mathematics, and then having a strong inclination for the legal profession, he secured the necessary books and studied at home under the direction of God