Page:Pen Pictures of Representative Men of Oregon.djvu/99



REPEESENTATIVE MEN OF OREGON. 59

seehisive, although his intimate friends will ever find a cordial receiitiou at his home, and as a host Mr. Bnsh has few superiors. His wife having died in I860, the care of his home falls upon his daughter. Before closing this sketch Ave would do him an injustice were we to omit mention of his successful incumbency of the office of Superintendent of the Oregon Penitentiary during the past four years, under ai)pointmeut of Oov. Thayer. His supervision of the institution has been marked with a sjuritof ecniomy rarely evinced in the management of public institutions. His first two years' services were donated to the State, and at his own request the salary for the ensuing two years was reduced from Sl,800 to $800 per annum. In all matters of public or private life Mr. Bush has won the confidence and esteem of all who know him, and by his integrity in business matters he will continue to hold the same as long as he may i-emain among us.

GEORGE C. SEARS, The present efficient Sheriff of Multnomah ct)uuty, is a man who stands high among his constituents and is the fortunate possessor of a host of warm personal friends, who in their admiration of his numerous sterling- qualities would make almost any sacrifice to enhance his success. He was born -within the rock-bound borders of the Granite State, Vermont, near Richford, in the year 1842. His father, Hon. Aldeu Sears, was a prominent man in the political and trade circles of Northern Vermont. He emigrated with his family to California in 1850. George struck out for himself at an early age, clerking in various stores in ColumVna, California, until he was about seventeen years of age, when he accumulated his savings and with them paid his college expenses during a four-years" course at Oak- land. At the breaking out of the civil war in 18(31 Mr. Sears enlisted and served until the close of the war and was mustered out of service with the rank of a First Lieutenant. He afterwards engaged in the mercantile busi- ness in Contra Costa county, California, under the firm name of Pennemau k Sears, where they transacted a heavy business for several years. He dis- posed of his interest in that business and moved to Santa Cruz, where he erected a saw-mill and conducted the same for a few years, when he sold out and engaged in the cattle business, which he carried on extensively. Owing to a heavy and long-continued drouth he disposed of his stock and came to negon and located in Portland, purchasing a half inteiest'in C. M. Martin's „i-ocery establishment, in which business he continued about two years. He then bought the Dexter Livery Stable and continued in that business until he was elected Assessor in 1878. In this position he gained many warm friends and made some bitter enemies, owing to his unswerving fairness in assessing property, which duty he performed without fear or favor, with an honesty of purpose that gained him hosts of enthusiastic admirers. As a recognition of his services he was unanimously renominated and was re- elected by the largest majority any candidate ever received prior to that date in Multnomah county, leading his ticket by several hundred votes. In 1882 he was elected Sheriff of that county by nearly one thoiisand majority, the largest by far that any candidate for Sheriff had ever received in that