Delazon Smith was a Democratic Party politician who briefly represented the state of Oregon in the U.S. Senate in 1859. He served for less than one month, making his term among the shortest on record in the Senate. Smith was also a newspaper editor in New York and Ohio, and served in the Oregon Territory's legislature.
John Whiteaker was an American politician, soldier, and judge. A native of Indiana, he joined the army during the Mexican–American War and then prospected during the California Gold Rush. After moving to the Oregon Territory, he served as a judge and member of the legislature. A Democrat, Whiteaker served as the first state Governor of Oregon from 1859 until 1862 and later was Oregon's Congressman from 1879 to 1881. He also was president of the Oregon State Senate and Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives.
Asa Lawrence Lovejoy was an American pioneer and politician in the region that would become the U.S. state of Oregon. He is best remembered as a founder of the city of Portland, Oregon. He was an attorney in Boston, Massachusetts before traveling by land to Oregon; he was a legislator in the Provisional Government of Oregon, mayor of Oregon City, and a general during the Cayuse War that followed the Whitman massacre in 1847. He was also a candidate for Provisional Governor in 1847, before the Oregon Territory was founded, but lost that election.
The Provisional Legislature of Oregon was the single-chamber legislative body of the Provisional Government of Oregon. It served the Oregon Country of the Pacific Northwest of North America from 1843 until early 1849 at a time when no country had sovereignty over the region. This democratically elected legislature became the Oregon Territorial Legislature when the territorial authorities arrived after the creation of the Oregon Territory by the United States in 1848. The body was first termed the Legislative Committee and later renamed the House of Representatives. Over the course of its six-year history the legislature passed laws, including taxation and liquor regulation, and created an army to deal with conflicts with Native Americans.
Ralph Wilcox was the first teacher and practicing medical doctor in Portland, Oregon. He also served in the Provisional Government of Oregon, was a legislator during both the territorial period and when Oregon became a state, and a judge of Twality County during the provisional government. He killed himself at work at the United States District Court for the District of Oregon in Portland.
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.
Robert "Doc" Newell was an American politician and fur trapper in the Oregon Country. He was a frontier doctor in what would become the U.S. state of Oregon. A native of Ohio, he served in the Provisional Government of Oregon and later was a member of the Oregon State Legislature. The Newell House Museum, his reconstructed former home on the French Prairie in Champoeg, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Samuel Parker (1806–1886) was an American pioneer of the Oregon Country, in what was to become the state of Oregon. Parker would later participate in the legislatures of the provisional, territorial, and state governments of Oregon.
Thomas Ramsey Cornelius was a prominent American politician and soldier in the early history of Oregon. Born in Missouri, he moved to the Oregon Country with his family as a young man, where he fought in the Cayuse War and Yakima Indian War against the Native Americans. He settled in Washington County near what later became Cornelius, named in his honor.
Harvey L. Clarke was an educator, missionary, and settler first on the North Tualatin Plains which would become Glencoe, Oregon, and then on the West Tualatin Plains that would become Forest Grove, Oregon. A native of Vermont where he and his family were stonemasons, he moved to the Oregon Country in 1840 where he participated at the Champoeg Meetings, May 2, 1843, and helped to found Tualatin Academy that later became Pacific University. Clarke also worked for the Methodist Mission and was a chaplain for the Provisional Legislature of Oregon in 1845.
Benjamin F. Hayden was an American attorney and politician in the state of Oregon. A native of Kentucky, he moved to the West Coast with the California Gold Rush in 1849 and to Oregon in 1852. A Democrat, he served in the Oregon House of Representatives, including the 1870 session as speaker of the body.
Francis A. Chenoweth was an American lawyer and politician in the Pacific Northwest. A native of Ohio, he lived in Iowa and Wisconsin before immigrating to the Oregon Territory. There he served in the legislature of the Oregon Territory and then the Washington Territory, including serving as Speaker of the Washington House of Representatives. A Democrat, he then served on the Washington Supreme Court before returning to Oregon where he was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives and was selected as Speaker of the body for one session.
Benjamin Franklin Burch was an American farmer, soldier, and politician in what became the state of Oregon. A native of Missouri, he moved to the Oregon Country in 1845 and served in the Cayuse and Yakima wars. A Democrat, he represented Polk County at the Oregon Constitutional Convention, in the Oregon House of Representatives, and in the Oregon State Senate including one session as President of the Senate.
Medorem Crawford was an American soldier and politician in what became the state of Oregon. A native of the state of New York, he emigrated to the Oregon Country in 1842 where he participated in the Champoeg Meetings and served in the resulting Provisional Government of Oregon as a legislator. A Republican, he later served in the Oregon House of Representatives after statehood and was appointed to several federal government offices. During the American Civil War he escorted emigrants over the Oregon Trail.
Frederick Waymire was an American farmer and politician in what became the state of Oregon. A native of Ohio, he served in the Oregon Territorial Legislature and was a member of the Oregon Constitutional Convention. He also helped start the La Creole Academy in Polk County and represented that county in the Oregon House of Representatives after Oregon became a state.
Colonel Joseph S. Ruckle was a businessman who moved to Oregon in 1855.
William Myron King, also known as Colonel King for most of his life, was an American pioneer merchant and Oregon state legislator. He served four terms in Oregon's territorial legislature. This included one term as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives during the 1851 legislative session. Before immigrating to Oregon, King lived and worked in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Missouri. After moving to Oregon in 1848, he became a merchant in Portland, and was later the county judge for Multnomah County and a member of Portland's city council.
Nathaniel Holly Gates, also known as Colonel Gates for most of his life, (1811–1889) was an American pioneer lawyer and Oregon state legislator. He was an active Democrat throughout his life. He served four terms in Oregon's territorial legislature. This included one term as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives during the 1858 legislative session. After Oregon became a state in 1859, he served one two-year term in the Oregon House of Representatives and one four-year term in the Oregon State Senate. Before immigrating to Oregon, Gates lived and worked as a lawyer in Ohio and Iowa. After moving to Oregon, he settled in The Dalles and opened a law practice there. He helped develop that community and served as the city's mayor five times in non-consecutive terms.
Frederick Prigg (1812–1849) was an American physician and pharmacist. He served as Secretary for the Provisional Government of Oregon, a position that eventually became the Oregon Secretary of State, which is now the second-highest office in the state. He opened the first commercial drugstore in the Oregon County and served as a district judge in Clackamas County during Oregon's pre-territorial period.
