Alonzo Albert Skinner (January 16,1814 –April 30,1877) was an American judge and Whig party politician in Oregon. He was the 16th Associate Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court and unsuccessful candidate for the office of governor. He also served as a circuit court judge for the state of Oregon,was a customs collector,a judge in the Provisional Government of Oregon,and a commissioner on a Native American treaty commission.
Skinner was born in Portage County,Ohio in 1814. [1] There in the community of Ravenna he read law and passed the bar in 1840. [2] He then settled in Putnam County,Ohio in 1842 and served as a part-time prosecutor in the county before losing the election for county judge. [2] [3] Then in 1845 Skinner set out over the Oregon Trail on a seven-month journey to immigrate to Oregon Country. [2] He arrived later in 1845 in Oregon City,Oregon. [1] Alonzo then set up farming in the Tuality District while still practicing law. [2]
Beginning in December 1846 Skinner served as a circuit judge for the Provisional Government of Oregon. [2] In that position he would travel from March through November to the county courts as a circuit rider. [4] He was paid a salary of $800 per year for the job and served until 1849 when the Territorial Government arrived and judge Orville C. Pratt took over for Skinner. [2] Later in 1849 Native Americans attacked and killed an American settler at Fort Steilacoom in Lewis County,after which chief justice William P. Bryant traveled to the fort for a trial of six defendants. [2] Bryant brought along Skinner to serve as the prosecutor,and two of the six defendants were convicted and executed. [2]
After this in June 1850 he became a member of an Indian Commission set up by the United States government to negotiate treaties with the tribes west of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon. [5] This commission was created because of the Donation Land Act in 1850 allowed citizens to settle up to 640 acres (2.6 km2) and the government wanted the lands west of the Cascades for settlement and to move the Native Americans to Eastern Oregon. [5] However,Skinner and his fellow commissioners John P. Gaines and Beverly S. Allen were only able to get treaties signed that allowed the tribes to remain on the west side and in the foothills of the Willamette Valley. [5] The commission ratified 19 treaties and was then disbanded in February 1851. [5]
In 1851,Alonzo Skinner was appointed as an Indian agent by the government for Southern Oregon. [2] In 1853 he ran against former governor Joseph Lane for the position of territorial delegate to Congress for the Oregon Territory. [2] As a Whig party candidate Skinner lost to Lane the Democrat while calling for a transcontinental railroad in his campaign. [2] Next in 1856 after moving to Pacific City,Washington,he married Elizabeth Hopkins Lincoln on May 22. [1] [2] Hopkins was a teacher in Vermont sent by Governor Slade to Oregon City. [1] The two would then teach in Astoria,Oregon. [2] Two years later the couple had moved to Willamina,Oregon in the Yamhill Valley where Alonzo had set up a land claim in 1850. [2] The Skinners then moved to Eugene,Oregon where Alonzo returned to law practice. [2] While in Eugene he served as the city's recorder and as a clerk for the county,elected to the latter as a Republican in 1862. [2] [6] During the American Civil War Skinner was an assistant provost marshal for the United States Army as a civilian. [2]
Then in 1866,he was appointed by Oregon Governor George Lemuel Woods to the Oregon Supreme Court to replace Riley E. Stratton who had died in office. [7] [8] Skinner served on the state's highest court until 1867 when he was replaced by John Kelsay who had won the election. [8]
After serving on the Supreme Court he then served as a circuit court judge for the state from 1867 to 1870. [1] Skinner was then appointed as a customs collector for the United States at Empire City,Oregon. [2] However,he suffered from bad health and moved to California in 1877 to attempt to improve his health,but died that year on April 30 in Santa Barbara,California. [1]
George Henry Williams was an American judge and politician. He served as Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court,was the 32nd Attorney General of the United States,and was elected Oregon's U.S. senator,and served one term. Williams,as U.S. senator,authored and supported legislation that allowed the U.S. military to be deployed in Reconstruction of the southern states to allow for an orderly process of re-admittance into the United States. Williams was the first presidential Cabinet member to be appointed from the Pacific Coast. As attorney general under President Ulysses S. Grant,Williams continued the prosecutions that shut down the Ku Klux Klan. He had to contend with controversial election disputes in Reconstructed southern states. President Grant and Williams legally recognized P. B. S. Pinchback as the first African American state governor. Williams ruled that the Virginius,a gun-running ship captured by Spain during the Virginius Affair,did not have the right to bear the U.S. flag. However,he argued that Spain did not have the right to execute American crew members. Nominated for Supreme Court Chief Justice by President Grant,Williams failed to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate primarily due to Williams's removal of A. C. Gibbs,United States District Attorney at Portland,Oregon.
The United States District Court for the District of Oregon is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the state of Oregon. It was created in 1859 when the state was admitted to the Union. Appellate jurisdiction belongs to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Matthew P. Deady served as its first judge. Marco A. Hernandez is the current chief judge.
John Pollard Gaines was a U.S. military and political figure. He was a Whig member of the United States House of Representatives,representing Kentucky from 1847 to 1849,and he served as Governor of the Oregon Territory from 1850 to 1853,stepping down after a turbulent term in office. He was the owner of Margaret Garner,whose enslavement and sexual assault is the basis for Toni Morrison's novel,Beloved.
Sidney Breese,a lawyer,soldier,author and jurist born in New York,became an early Illinois pioneer and represented the state in the United States Senate as well as served as Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court and Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives,and has been called "father of the Illinois Central Railroad".
Lorenzo Sawyer was an American lawyer and judge who was appointed to the Supreme Court of California in 1860 and served as the ninth Chief Justice of California from 1868 to 1870. He served as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Circuit Courts for the Ninth Circuit and of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is best known for handing down the verdict in the case of Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company; his verdict is frequently referred to as the "Sawyer Decision."
Matthew Paul Deady was a politician and jurist in the Oregon Territory and the state of Oregon of the United States. He served on the Oregon Supreme Court from 1853 to 1859,at which time he was appointed to the newly created federal court of the state. He served as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon in Portland,as the sole Judge until his death in 1893. While on the court he presided over the trial that led to the United States Supreme Court decision of Pennoyer v. Neff concerning personal jurisdiction.
The government of the U.S. state of Oregon,as prescribed by the Oregon Constitution,is composed of three government branches:the executive,the legislative,and the judicial. These branches operate in a manner similar to that of the federal government of the United States.
Reuben Patrick Boise was an American attorney,judge and politician in the Oregon Territory and the early years of the state of Oregon. A native of Massachusetts,he immigrated to Oregon in 1850,where he would twice serve on the Oregon Supreme Court for a total of 16 years,with three stints as chief justice. Early in his legal career,he worked as a district attorney.
William P. Bryant was an American jurist from Kentucky. He served as the first Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court in the Oregon Territory. United States President James K. Polk appointed Bryant,of Indiana,to the court once the Oregon Territory was established in 1848. In Indiana he served in both houses of the Indiana General Assembly and was a county judge. Bryant also fought in the Black Hawk War against Native Americans.
The Provisional Government of Oregon was a popularly elected settler government created in the Oregon Country,in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Its formation had been advanced at the Champoeg Meetings since February 17,1841,and it existed from May 2,1843 until March 3,1849,and provided a legal system and a common defense amongst the mostly American pioneers settling an area then inhabited by the many Indigenous Nations. Much of the region's geography and many of the Natives were not known by people of European descent until several exploratory tours were authorized at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Organic Laws of Oregon were adopted in 1843 with its preamble stating that settlers only agreed to the laws "until such time as the United States of America extend their jurisdiction over us". According to a message from the government in 1844,the rising settler population was beginning to flourish among the "savages",who were "the chief obstruction to the entrance of civilization" in a land of "ignorance and idolatry".
Harry Hackleman Belt was an American educator,lawyer,and judge in the state of Oregon. He was the 28th Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court starting in 1945. He served as chief justice for two years. Belt served on the bench for twenty-five years overall.
Thomas Allen McBride was an American attorney and judge in Oregon. He was the 20th Chief Justice on the Oregon Supreme Court serving three times as chief between 1913 and 1927. Overall he served on Oregon’s highest court from 1909 till his death in 1930.
George Henry Burnett was an American attorney and judge in the state of Oregon. He was the 21st Chief Justice on the Oregon Supreme Court serving twice as chief first in 1921 to 1923,and then in 1927 when he died in office. Overall he served on Oregon’s highest court from 1911 until 1927.
William Strong was an American attorney and jurist in the Pacific Northwest. He was the 4th Associate Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court when the region was still the Oregon Territory. A native of Vermont,he settled in the Washington Territory after it was created in 1853 and served in the legislature of that territory and on the Washington Supreme Court. Later he returned to Oregon and settled in Portland.
William Marion Ramsay was an American politician and judge in Oregon. He was the 43rd Associate Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court serving from 1913 to 1915. He was also the first dean of Willamette University College of Law and a mayor of Salem,Oregon,and McMinnville,Oregon.
Martin Luther Pipes (1850–1932) was an American attorney and judge in Oregon. He was the 54th Associate Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court. A Louisiana native,he also was a judge on the Oregon Circuit Court and a member of the Oregon House of Representatives.
Oregon's Territorial Legislature was a bicameral legislative body created by the United States Congress in 1848 as the legislative branch of the government of the Oregon Territory. The upper chamber Council and lower chamber House of Representatives first met in July 1849;they served as the region's legislative body until Oregon became a state in February 1859,when they were replaced by the bicameral Oregon State Legislature.
Jesse Quinn Thornton (1810–1888) was an American settler of Oregon,active in political,legal,and educational circles. He served as the 6th Supreme Judge of the Provisional Government of Oregon,presented Oregon's petition for official territorial status to Congress,served in the Oregon Legislature,and wrote the state's motto.