Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/329



to high and low, rich and poor, without money and without price, intimidation or favor.

Judge Williams, too, attained a national reputation, but not as a judge. He was on the great question of reconstructing the seceded states easily the master mind and most eloquent speaker in the United States senate. Further notices of Justice Deady and Judge Williams will appear in other parts of this history.

Of Justice Strong, it may be said that he was the leader of the Oregon bar in his day. He was the first great authority on corporation law in Oregon, and he has never had his equal since.

At the first election under the state government, held in 1858, John Whit- aker of Lane county, was elected governor; Lafayette Grover was elected rep- resentative to congress ; Lucien Heath, secretary of state ; John D. Boon, state treasurer; Asahel Bush, state printer; Matthew P. Deady, Riley E. Stratton, Reuben P. Boise, and Aaron E. Wait, judges of the districts and of the su- preme court. Judge Deady was almost immediately thereafter appointed U. S. district judge for the district of Oregon, and did not qualify as a state judge. And at the ensuing session of the legislature. General Joseph Lane of Douglas county, and Delazon Smith of Linn county, were elected United States sena- tors.

John Whitaker, the governor, was born in Dearborn county, Indiana, in 1820, and came to California across the plains in 1849, and up to Oregon in 1852; he was reared on a farm, and ranked as a farmer all his life. His first office was that of county judge of Lane county, and then he was sent to the legislature. After holding the office of governor, he was once elected to con- gress, and after that held the office of U. S. revenue collector for this district. He was a man of moderate ability, but of sterling integrity, and earned the title of "Honest John."