Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/754



556 THE CITY OF PORTLAND

for larger sympathies and greater help to those who need, should be recorded in gold.

Some weeks before his death, Mr. Cox asked for paper and pencil and wrote a farewell message to his friends. He was very weak at the time and said : "That is very poor, I am afraid, but it is the best I can jdo now. Maybe I can change it when I am stronger." It was suggested that a number of copies be made and sent to friends, to which he made reply : "No, that is not what I want. I do not want it to reach just those friends who have been in to inquire for me, or send me flowers, but to all of my acquaintances in every walk of life. I want it published with my funeral notice or mention of my death in 'The Oregonian,' " Here is the message :

"To my friends: A little more than 21 years ago I came to Oregon, with- out acquaintances, without experience in my profession and without means. I am now lying on a sick bed, of which death can be the only termination. During the intervening weeks and days there has come to me one unvarying story of love and sympathy from every walk in life, and every stage of acquaintanceship. So sweet a spirit of peace and joy has filled my room that I cannot go without giving some feeble expression to it. I am overwhelmed with the human sym- pathy which has reached out to me from so many different directions ; but I must take it only as a manifestation of an inexhaustible well-spring of love which can refresh and inspire the whole world.

Let me pray that not to me only, but to all others, your loving tenderness may be shown ; not to those in sickness only, but as well to those in health. Give a helping hand and a word of comfort and hope to your struggling brother; clear his path of difficulties, rather than beset it with obstructions ; help him to be a better man, and by so doing you will help yourselves to be better men.

It cannot be that all the love you have shown me comes from perishable life. I cannot believe that it will pass away with my consciousness and be lost. We shall meet again in a land where love will reign supreme, and where in eternal sunshine all clouds will have passed away.

L. B. Cox."

Lewis Berkley Cox was born at Berleith, D. C, in 1856, moved to Virginia, graduated at Washington and Lee universities, in 1878; came to Oregon in 1880; practiced law at Pendleton, and came to Portland in 1886, and practiced with W. W. Cotton and Wirt Minor until 1898. Died April 12, 1901.

One of the most forceful lawyers of the Portland bar, was Joseph N. Dolph, the first partner of John H. Mitchell. Of rather an austere temperament, Mr. Dolph did not make acquaintances as fast as Mitchell; but he was a much better business man, and while Mitchell spent money as fast as he made it, Dolph was carefully husbanding his resources for the future. On Mitchell's election to the senate, Dolph became the head of the firm and chief counsel to all the railroad companies then in Oregon. And after accumulating a fortune, he was elected to the senate himself, defeating his old partner in 1882. He served twelve years in the senate, a part of the time Mitchell was his col- league. His career was distinguished as an advocate of the single gold stand- ard for circulating money.

It is somewhat remarkable that the law firm founded by Mitchell and Dolph should have furnished so many U. S. senators — Mitchell, 22 years in the senate, Dolph 12 years, Mr. Simon 4 years, and John M. Gearin 2 years. One law firm serving forty years in the aggregate in the U. S. senate, and having now in the firm Cyrus A. Dolph, as good a lawyer as Mitchell or J. N. Dolph; Rufus Mal- lory, ex-member of congress, lawyer and statesman — the oldest practicing lawyer in Oregon, the honored nestor of the legal profession in Oregon in 1910; Joseph Simon, ex-U. S. senator and mayor of the city ; and John M. Gearin, ex-U. S.