Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/737



Judge Nesmith was a man of great natural ability and native force ; and withall, a man in official position possessed of the dignities befitting his position. Off the bench and among his intimate friends he was a free joker and hale fellow well met with the man he liked. A warm friend and active partisan, he made both friends and enemies. But his principles and his character were above reproach ; and his integrity in office, and in his private relations in society, was unquestioned and unquestionable. He rose to be a powerful leader in the po- litical life of the state. He served the people in the Indian wars with courage and honor; and when promoted to the highest office the people could give him, he maintained the honor of his state and the integrity of the national union with that fidelity and ability that has rarely been equaled.

THE FIRST LAWYER.

The first lawyer to take a part in the affairs of Oregon was Asa Lawrence Lovejoy, who came to Oregon from Missouri in 1842. 'Mr. Lovejoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 181 1, just one hundred years ago. He v^^ent to Missouri in 1840, but his health failing there he joined the emigrant train of Dr. White and came to Oregon. While carving his name on Independence rock near the Oregon trail, he was captured by the Sioux Indians, came near losing his scalp, and was only saved by some plainsmen rushing to his rescue and buy- ing his life with a few trinkets. His first employment in Oregon was in the service of Dr. McLoughlin, acting as the agent of McLoughlin in his dealings with the Americans. The most important act in his quarter of a century of activity in Oregon affairs, and one that will perpetuate his name for all future time, is the founding of the city of Portland. It was Lovejoy that acquired from the original claimant the land on which to found the city; and it was Lovejoy who first proposed and decided that a town should be built here, and commenced the surveys for it; and it was Lovejoy agreeing with Pettygrove that named the town "Portland." General Lovejoy, as he was called, was active in the forma- tion of the provisional government; and under it he was loan commissioner, ad- jutant general of the militia, member of the legislature, supreme judge, speaker of the house, school trustee, member of the council, postal agent of the United States, member of the constitutional convention, and a director of the East Side Railroad.

The next lawyer coming in after Lovejoy was Peter H. Burnett, who came in the emigration of 1843, from Weston, Missouri. Burnett had been district attorney in Missouri, had considerable property and was a man of large influence among his neighbors, both in Missouri and Oregon. And on the organization of the emigrant train of 1843, Burnett was chosen captain, and Nesmith orderly sergeant. Burnett was chosen supreme judge of Oregon under the provisional government in 1846; and when he opened his court at Oregon City on June 2 of that year, three attorneys were admitted to the bar — W. G. T'Vault, A. L. Lovejoy and Cyrus Olney, being the first lawyers admitted to the bar of Oregon. Judge Burnett did not pretend to live by the law or office holding, but devoted his time to his farm in Yamhill county. But notwithstanding this fact, when congress organized the territorial government Judge Burnett was appointed one of the first U. S. judges for the territory. But having made up his mind to go to California, he declined the federal judgship, went to California and was elected governor of that state, and finished his career as president of a San Francisco bank and died in 1882.

THE EVOLUTION OF STATUTORY LAW IN OREGON.

The three gentlemen above mentioned — Lovejoy, Nesmith and Burnett — were the leaders of the lawmaking department of the provisional government. There were other leading men of ability, too, other than these thr