Oregon Republican League: History 101

Every Wednesday, the Oregon Republican League will post the biographies of important figures, in the League's/State of Oregon's history. Click on the head link above, to visit more of our listings at genealogy.com. Feel free to comment or share stories of your family's Republican affiliation.

Oregon Republican League:

Republican League Register of Oregon, The Register Publishing Company, 1896, page 199-203.

DAVID, JESSE. E., of Crow, was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in 1845, and came to Oregon in 1884, settling in Gilliam County. He was a delegate to the county convention in 1892 and 1894, and was elected to the legislature in 1894, being one of the forty-two who voted for Senator Dolph.

DAWSON, HON. S. A. [Editor inserted: Sylvania A. Dawson], of Albany, was born in Indiana in 1840. He lived in Illinois for a short time, and came to Oregon in 1861 and since 1866 has lived in Linn County. He was elected to the house in 1880, to the senate in 1886, and again in 1894.

DAVIS, HON. E. J., of Milton, was born in Vernon County, Wisconsin, September 26, 1862, and moved to Kansas in 1869. He engaged in the hardware business at Norton, Kansas, from 1885 to 1889, and then came to Oregon, and is secretary and manager of the Milton Foundry & Machine Company. He is an active Republican, and was elected to the legislature in 1894. He has again received the nomination for the legislature.

DANIEL, SAMUEL, living at the east base of Mount Tabor, Multnomah County, was born in Franklin County, Ohio, near Columbus, November 20, 1823. In the spring of 1842 he removed with the family to Boone County, Illinois, near Belvedere. In 1865 he went to Iowa, and engaged for nine years in the furniture and undertaking business in Waterloo and La Porte City. In August, 1876, he came to Oregon, purchased land near Portland, and has since been actively engaged in farming. Mr. Daniel has always been an earnest Republican. He spoke and worked for the abolition of slavery, and was one of the original Republicans. While yet young he was licensed to preach, and in the pulpit he spoke strong words for freedom and Union. He is an earnest speaker and a fluent and entertaining conversationalist, his mind being stored with the riches gathered in a long life of studious reading. After a life of activity and struggle, he is now enjoying his declining years in the home built by his toil, surrounded by his family and his multitude of friends.

DENNY, HON. O. N. [Editor inserted: Owen N. Denny], of Portland, was born in Ohio, in 1838, and crossed the plains to Oregon with his parents, locating near Lebanon, Linn County. He was educated at the Lebanon Academy and Willamette University. In 1862 he was admitted to the bar, and located at The Dalles, and in the fall of the same year was appointed by Governor Gibbs County and Probate Judge. In 1871 he moved to Portland, and was shortly after elected Police Judge. In 1875 he was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue by President Grant. He was appointed United States Consul to Amoy, China, in 1876, by President Grant, but declined. In 1877 he was appointed United States Consul., at Tien Tsin, China, and was promoted to Consul-General, at Shanghai, in 1880, which position he held for four years, when he resigned. Afterwards, he was appointed Advisor to the King of Corea and Director of Foreign Affairs, a position he held for about five years. Resigning this high position in 1891, he, together with Mrs. Denny, traveled homeward, making a tour of the world. Arriving home, he again resumed the practice of law, and in 1892 was elected to the state senate for four years. He is now Receiver of the Portland Savings Bank. It is remembered with gratitude that Judge Denny, while Consul-General at Shanghai, sent to Oregon the now famous Chinese Pheasant, called the Denny pheasant often in his honor.

DEAKINS, WILLIAM F., of Albany, was born near Scio, Linn County, Oregon, March 27, 1856, and has been a resident of the county ever since, except ten years spent in Arizona and California. He has been a lifelong Republican, and is an active member of the Republican Club. In 1892 he was elected Assessor of Linn County, and was reelected in 1894.

DEADY, HON MATTHEW PAUL., late Judge of the United States District Court, was born near Easton, Maryland, May 12, 1824. His early youth was spent in various places where his father taught school. In 1841 he went to Barnesville, Ohio, to learn the blacksmith trade, and followed it for years, at the same time attending the Barnesville Academy. He then began to teach school and study law, being admitted to the bar in 1847. In 1849 he crossed the plains and began teaching at Lafayette, Oregon. The next year he began to practice law, and was that year elected to the territorial legislature. In 1851 he was elected to the council, and was president of that body in 1852 and 1853. In 1853 he was appointed a Judge of the Territorial Supreme Court by the President. In 1857 he was a member of the constitutional convention. In 1859 he was appointed United States District Judge, which position he held till the time of his death, but two years ago. In 1862 he served as Code Commissioner for Oregon. He also compiled the laws of the state, and in 1874 again compiled them. In 1876 he was appointed a Regent of the University of Oregon, and was president of the board for many years. He helped organize the Library Association of Portland, and was continuously its president from 1872. To his exertions is due the handsome library building. Beginning his political career as a Democrat, Judge Deady became a Union man when war broke out in 1861, and was a Republican ever after.

DE LAHMUTT, HON. VAN B., of Portland, was born in Burlington, Iowa, July 27, 1842. At the age of ten he came to Oregon and entered the Salem Statesman office. In 1861 he enlisted in the Third California Infantry and served to the end of the war. He then worked as a printer for a time, but finally settled in Portland in the real estate and banking business. He is also heavily interested in mining enterprises. In 1888 he was elected Mayor of Portland by the council and subsequently by the people.

DIXON, RAPHAEL B., of Roseburg, was born in Andrew County, Missouri, November 12, 1847, and crossed the plains in 1852. The following year he settled in Douglas County, where he has engaged in farming and stock raising. He has taken a prominent part if Republican politics, and has frequently attended conventions and league meetings. He was a member of the state central committee in 1894-6.

DODD, CHARLES H., a prominent business man of Portland, was born in New York City, February 26, 1838. He entered Yale College at the age of sixteen. Two years later, with three other students, he volunteered to go to the Isthmus of Panama as a member of the Engineer Corps of the railroad then being built. Soon after he went to San Francisco, and was employed in a large hardware establishment. In 1864 he was elected Lieutenant of the Esmeralda Rifles, and went to Arizona for a campaign against the Piute and Mojave Indians. He resigned the following year. In 1866 he came to Oregon and established a hardware store in Salem. Two years later he became a partner in the new Portland house of Hawley, Dodd & Co., now the extensive hardware and machinery house of Charles H. Dodd & Co., with branches at Albany, Athena, Walla Walla, Colfax, Pullman, Spokane, Moscow and Lewiston. Mr. Dodd has always taken an active part in public enterprises, and has especially given his attention to the Chamber of Commerce, Board of Immigration and Portland Expositions, of all of which he has been president. He was one of the prime movers in the consolidation of the three cities. As a Republican he has been earnest and active, a member of conventions and league meetings, and a forceful campaign speaker, and is now president of the James G. Blaine Club, and a delegate to the next National Presidential Convention.

DODSON, DR. OLIVER M., of Baker City, was born at Athens, Tennessee, December 18, 1842. In August, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the First Kentucky Cavalry, United States Volunteers, was promoted to Second Lieutenant in 1862, and was mustered out in July, 1865, as Major of the Seventh Tennessee Infantry and Commander of the Regiment. He went to California in 1869 and came to Oregon in 1874, locating in Dallas. He graduated from the medical department of the Willamette University in 1877, and received the appointment as physician of the Malheur Indian Reservation. In 1878 he located in Prairie City and practiced medicine there until 1882, when he went to New York and took the degree of M.D. at the Bellevue Medical College. He practiced in the fall of 1883 in Portland, and then located in Baker City, where he has since resided. He cast his first vote for Lincoln, and has been voting and working for the Republican ticket ever since. He has been a delegate to the county convention continuously since 1884, the state convention in 1890 and the league in 1895. In 1890 he was elected Joint Senator for four years, the only Republican Senator ever elected in that district.

DOLPH, CYRUS A., a prominent lawyer of Portland, was born in Chemung County, New York, September 24, 1840. In 1858 he began teaching school, and thee years later enlisted in a company recruited to protect emigrants across the plains, and was discharged at Fort Walla Walla in 1862. He was admitted to the bar in 1866, and has pursued a successful legal career, being now senior member of the firm of Dolph, Mallory & Simon. In 1869 he was elected City Attorney.

DOLPH, HON JOSEPH N., ex-United States Senator, was born in Dolphsburg, Tompkins County, New York, October 19, 1835. He was admitted to the bar in 1861, and in 1862 enlisted in the company organized to protect the emigrants on the plains, and came to Oregon as orderly sergeant of the company. He began practice in Portland, and the next year formed a partnership with Hon. J.H. Mitchell. He was appointed City Attorney in 1864, and in 1865 was appointed United States District Attorney. In 1866 he was elected to the State Senate and served the first session, but was unseated by the Democratic majority in 1868. In 1872 he was again elected, and served two sessions. He was chairman of the Republican state central committee in 1866-68 and was delegate to the national convention in 1884. In 1876 he drew up papers that prevented the Democratic steal of one electoral vote from Oregon. In 1882 he was elected to the United States Senate, and was re-elected in 1889. His career in the Senate marked him as a national character, and one of broad mental grasp and tenacious adherence to principle. He is now practicing his profession in Portland.

DONALDSON, CHARLES M., a business man of Baker City, was born in New York, May 27, 1834. He lived in Iowa from 1838 to 1852, when he came to Oregon. He engaged in transportation on the Columbia two years, mined in Southern Oregon seven years, then went to Mound City, Illinois, and two years later to Nashville, Tennessee. He helped organize the Republican party in that state. He was elected Sheriff of Davidson County, and was tendered the nomination to Congress and the United States Senate. He was defeated by a narrow margin for Secretary of State. He then was ten years in the cotton business in St. Louis. In 1884 he went to Leadville as manager of the Bonanza mines, and in 1888 came to Baker City as manager of the Excelsior Consolidated Gold Mining Company. In Leadville he was active in politics, and was a delegate to the national convention in 1888. He has taken an active part in politics in Oregon, has been a member of county and state conventions and league meetings; was a delegate to the national convention in 1892, a delegate to the International Congress at Washington, and in 1894 was prominently mentioned in connection with the congressional nomination.

DOUGHTY, CHARLES C., of Dallas, was born at Monmouth, Oregon, July 8, 1859. He attended the public schools and graduated from the Commercial Department of the Portland Business College. He has been prominently connected with the press of the state since 1879. He was first in the Riverside office, and then foreman of the West Side, at Independence. In 1886 he became publisher of the Christian Herald at Monmouth, and in 1888 became editor and publisher of the Polk County Observer, at Dallas. He has always been an earnest and influential supporter of Republican principles, and has been frequently a member of conventions.

DOWELL, BENJAMIN F., was born in Albermarle County, Virginia, October 31, 1836. The family soon after moved to Shelby County, Tennessee. He graduated in law at the State University of Virginia in 1847, and practiced in Tennessee. In 1850 he went to California and the same year came to Oregon. In 1852 he went to California and the same year came to Oregon. In 1852 he engaged in trading and packing in Southern Oregon. In 1857 he resumed the practice of law in Jacksonville, and in 1862 was elected Prosecuting Attorney. In 1865 he purchased the Oregon Sentinel, of Jacksonville, and was the first Pacific Coast editor to advocate the enfranchisement of the negro and the nomination of General Grant for the presidency. Of late years he has spent a great deal of time in pushing Indian war claims at Washington, and is located in his practice in Portland.

DOZIER, JAMES I., of Aurora, was born in Knox County, Kentucky, in 1858, and came to Oregon in 1884, locating on a farm. He has always taken an active part in Republican work, and has been almost continuously a delegate to conventions. He has been a member of the county central committee for four year.

DRIVER, REV. ISAAC D., of Eugene, was born near Fort Defiance, Ohio, August 27, 1824. At the age of thirteen he began carrying the mail between Fort Wayne and South Bend, and in this way earned money for his education. In 1849 he went to the California mines, returning to Indiana the next year. In 1853 he came to Oregon and settled in Douglas County. In 1857 he began his career as a minister of the M. E. church, which he has followed for nearly forty years in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana, being for seven years agent in those states for the American Bible Society. In 1889 he was selected by D.L. Moody, the evangelist, to debate with Charles Watts, editor of “Secular Thought.” for four nights in Chicago. In 1889 he became general agent for building the Portland Hospital. Since 1889 he became general agent for building the Portland Hospital. Since 1889 he has devoted himself to farming and stock raising near Eugene. Dr. Driver has been selected by the Republicans of Lane County for their candidate for the State Senate this year.

DRIVER T.J. [Editor inserted: Possibly alias for Isaac D. Driver, Jr.], of The Dalles, was born in Noble County, Indiana, in 1850. He came to Oregon in 1853. Since he came of age, in 1871, he has been continuously identified with the Republican party, and has been a constant worker. He is Sheriff of Wasco County and president of the McKinley Republican Club of Wamic.

DUNCAN, JOHN N., of Albany, was born in Washington County, Arkansas, July 12, 1851, and came to Oregon ten years later, locating in Marion County. He read law and was admitted to the bar. In 1878 he moved to Albany and practiced law. Five years later he went to Prineville and engaged in the practice of his profession, and in the stock business. In 1889 he returned to Albany and has since resided there. He has served as a delegate to the Crook County convention and as a member-at-large of the congressional committee. In 1880 to 1882 he served as Deputy Sheriff, and in 1885 was elected Recorder of Crook County. In 1892 he was elected County Judge of Linn County, and was re-elected in 1894. He is an active member of the Republican Club.