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, pages 241-247.

McBride, George W., of St. Helens, now United States Senator from Oregon, is a son of Dr. James McBride, one of the pioneers of Oregon, is a son of Dr. James McBride, one of the pioneers of Oregon, and one of the founders of the Republican party in the state. He was born in Yamhill County in 1854, and was educated at the Willamette University, at Salem, and the Christian College, at Monmouth. In 1867 the family located near St.Helens, where he has made his home ever since. His antecedents made his strong Republicanism a certainty. In 1882 he was elected to the legislature, and was made speaker of the house. In 1886 he was elected Secretary of the State, though both the Republican candidates for Governor and Treasurer were defeated. He was renominated by acclamation in 1890, and again elected. In but a little more than a month after his retirement from office he was elected United States Senator, to succeed Senator Dolph, after a deadlock that lasted until within a few minutes of the close of the session. He has battled manfully with ill health all his life, and has succeeded against obstacles a man of less strength of character would have found unsurmountable.

McBride, Dr. James, deceased, father of John R., Thomas A., and George W., all so prominently identified with the Republican party in Oregon, was born in Tennessee, in 1801, and came to Oregon in 1845. He lived In Yamhill County till 1870, when he went to St. Helens, where he died December 18, 1875. Dr. McBride was one of the founders of the party in Oregon, and was a United States Minister to Hawaii from 1863 to 1866.

MCBRIDE, HON. JOHN R., an attorney of Spokane Falls, Washington, and brother of George W. and Thomas A., came to Oregon with his parents in1845. HE was secretary of the first meeting in Yamhill County, in 1856, to organize the Republican party in Oregon, and in 1858 was the first republican nominee for congress. He was elected to the constitutional convention in 1857, the only person in that body elected as a strait Republican. In 1862 he was again nominated for congress and elected. He was a member of the state conventions of 1857, 1858, and 1859.

MCBRIDE, HON. THOMAS A., was born in Yamhill County, Oregon, in 1847. He was educated at McMinnville College, and was admitted to the bar in 1870. He has lived in St. Helens since 1870. HE has frequently been a member of county and state conventions and central committees. He has served Columbia County in the legislature. In 1884, 1886, 1888 and 1890 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the Fifth Judicial District, and in 1892 was elected Judge of the same district, which position he now holds.

MCCALL, GENERAL JOHN M., was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, January 15, 1825. In 1842 he went to Iowa, and in 1850 came to Oregon, settling in Jackson County in 1852, and in Ashland in 1859, where he established wooden mills in 1867 and resided until his death in 1895. He served in the First Oregon Cavalry during the war. In 1883 he was appointed Brigadier-General of the Oregon Militia by Governor Moody. He was an earnest Republican, was for years a delegate to conventions, and at the time of his death was president of the Ashland Republican Club, which his son, John A. McCall, is now secretary.

MCCAMANT, WALLACE, an attorney of Portland, was born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, September 22, 1867. He resided at Harrisburg till 1885, when he entered Lafayette College as a sophomore, graduating in 1888 as valedictorian of the class. He remained one year as a member of the faculty. In 1889 he went to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and in 1890 was admitted to the bar, coming to Oregon the same year. He settled in Portland, and at once took an active interest in politics. He was one of the founders of the Young Men’s State Republican Club in 1891, not the State League. He was a member of the league meetings of 1892, 1894, 1895, and 1896, and of the county and state conventions of 1892, 1894, and 1896. He is a delegate to the national convention at St. Louis. In 1894 Mr. McCamant was appointed Master in Chancery. He has been on the stump of the state ticket three campaigns.

MCCORMICK, E. L. [Editor inserted: Enos Lincoln McCormick], of Hillsboro, Recorder of Washington County, was born in Polk County Oregon, April 6, 1865, and has resided in Washington County twenty-one years. Until his election as Recorder in 1894 he was a school teacher.

MCCRACKEN, COLONEL JOHN, a merchant of Portland, was born in London, England, July 11, 1826, and came to the United States in 1832. HE lived in New York, East Haddam, Connecticut, and Rhode Island until 1849, when he went to California. He engaged in business in Stockton, and later came to Oregon and purchased flour and saw mills at Oregon city, but met with misfortune in 1852. He was Clerk of Marshal in 1854. During the Indian war of 1855-6 he was commissary general, with the rank of colonel. In 1857 he began a mercantile career in Portland that has continued to the present time. Originally a Democrat, he has been an earnest Republican since the fall of Sumpter. He has been frequently a member of conventions and league meetings, and in 1894, was elected a member of the legislature.

MCCLUNG, HON. J. H. [Editor inserted: John H. McClung], a merchant at Eugene, was born in Seneca County, Ohio, September 10, 1837, and came to Oregon in 1856, settling in Lane County, where he has since resided. He is an actice Republican and member of the Eugene Club. He has been a delegate to several county conventions and two state conventions. He was elected to the lower house of the legislature in 1874 and was nominated for the senate in 1876. In 1894 he was again elected to the legislature. Mr. McClung was a member of the city council twelve years, and in 1891 was elected Mayor.

MCCORNACK, E. P. [Editor inserted: Eugene P. McCornack], of Salem, was born in Kane County, Illinois. HE is one of the leading Republicans of the state, and has been in every county convention for the past twenty years, except 1894, and several state conventions. In 1892 he was secretary of the state central committee. From 1878 to 1887 Mr. McCornack was secretary of the board of land commissioners. He has taken great interest in club work, has attended league meetings and been secretary of the Salem Club.

MCELROY, E. B. [Editor inserted: Ebenezer Burton McElroy], of Eugene, was born in Washington Count, Pennsylvania, September 17, 1842. His common school education was supplemented by a course at the State Normal School. He began his career as a teacher in 1861. In September of that year he enlisted in the First Regiment, West Virginia Volunteers, and served till 1863, when he re-enlisted in the One Hundredth Pennsylvania (Roundheads), and served till the end of the war. He then attended college two years, and subsequently taught school in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In 1873 he came to Oregon and located in Benton County. He taught in the public schools, and in 1875, was elected to a chair in the Agricultural College, remaining till 1882, when he was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction. He was re-elected in 1886 and again in 1890. Upon his retirement from office in 1895, he was offered and accepted a chair in the University of Oregon. He is a prominent member of the G. A. R., and in 1890 was elected Department Commander for Oregon.

MCFERON, JAMES A, of Albany, was born in Kirksville, Missouri, January 26, 1859. He came to Oregon in 1884 and located at Brownsville, engaged in farming. In 1885 he went to Albany and engaged in draying till 1893, when he was elected city marshal. In 1894 he was elected sheriff, and is again the party nominee, and his popularity will help carry the ticket in a county that has always been a democratic stronghold. He was a delegate to the league convention in 1895 and 1896.

MCGINN, HON. HENRY E., of Portland, is a native of Oregon and has been for some years a prominent attorney. He served two terms as District Attorney of the Fourth District, and was elected to the State Senate in 1892. He has been a member of the county and state conventions for years, and is campaign speaker of force. In 1895 he was appointed Circuit Judge of the Fourth District to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Hon. Hartwell Hurley.

MCGREGOR, W. F. [Editor inserted: William F. McGregor], president of the Astoria Box Company, was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, October 8, 1859. He came to Oregon in July, 1876, locating in Astoria. He has been a delegate to every county convention for he past fourteen yeas, and to the state conventions of 1890, 1892, and 1894. He has been a member of the city, county, and state central committees, and secretary of the first two. He served as School Director from 1886 to 1892, and was clerk of the board. He has served three years as Councilman, and is now serving his second term of three years, and is President of the Council.

MCKAY, JOSEPH, a merchant of Baker City, was born at Espeyville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, December 20, 1844. He was engaged in tanning, merchandising, and oil speculation till 1880, when, meeting with reverses, he came West. He clerked in a store in Leadville, Colorado, two years, was engaged in business in Idaho a short time, in 1883 located in Huntington, Oregon, and in 1884 at Durkee. He is now in business at Baker City. Mr. McKay has continuously taken a leading part in politics in Baker County, having been a convention delegate frequently. In 1890 he was elected County Clerk, and again in 1892.

MCKERN, A. E. [Editor inserted: Asa E. McKern], of McMinnville, County Clerk of Yamhill County, was born in that county March 24, 1864. He was engaged in merchandising in North Yamhill till 1894, when he was elected County Clerk, and moved to McMinnville. He is an active worker and was a delegate to the county conventions of 1890 and 1892, and the club conventions of 1895 and 1896. Mr. McKern has been renominated by the Republican convention.

MCMANUS, JOHN P., editor and manager of the Pendleton Tribune, the leading Republican paper of Eastern Oregon, was born in Freeport, Illinois, June 19, 1858, and next year was taken to Minnesota, and in 1869 to Iowa. He early learned the printer’s trade and at the age of fifteen held a case on the Chicago Times, the youngest compositor ever on the paper. In 1876 he went to California, and worked on the Colusa Sun. In 1880 he founded the Willows Journal. In 1881 he went to San Francisco, and worked on the Call till 1883, then went to Portland and was on the Oregonian till 1885. He then became editor and manager of the Republican, at Rapid City, Dakota. In 1889 he sold out and returned to the coast, and, January 1, 1894, took charge of the Pendleton Tribune. The paper was then $5250 in debt, and without credit. In two years it has gained a high position in the press of Oregon. It is a forceful advocate of republican principles, and earnestly opposes the free coinage of silver, though not disposed to make that the leading issue of the campaign. Mr. McManus has been prominent in labor union circles, has been a constant member of the Typographical Union, and was a delegate to the Labor Congress, at Olympia, in 1892.

MELDRUM, HENRY, of Oregon City, was born in Pacific County, Washington, November 5, 1852, and moved to Oregon in 1856. He was employed for twenty years on government surveys in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, and has lived continuously in Clackamas County, except for short periods in Lake and Tillamook counties. He has been Deputy United States Surveyor since 1873, and in 1893 was appointed Deputy United States Mineral Surveyor for four years. Mr. Meldrum has been a member of all country conventions since 1882, if two state connections, of State League meetings in 1892 and 1895, and chairman of the county central committee in 1894-96. He was elected County Surveyor in 1884 and declined renomination. He is now the Republican nominee for County Clerk.

MELDRUM, JOHN W., of Oregon City, was born near Burlington, Iowa, December 17, 1839, and came to Oregon in 1845. For many years he has been a member of county and state conventions and committees. For a time he was Deputy United States Surveyor. Mr. Meldrum is this year a delegate to the national convention.

MERRITT, HON. J. W. [Editor inserted: John W. Merritt], of Central Point, was born in Syracuse, New York, and came to Oregon in 1875, and for ten years was principal of the Jacksonville school. He then engaged in mercantile pursuits, locating at Central Point in 1999. He is prominent in many private and public enterprises. He was elected to the legislature in 1890 and 1892.

MERRIMAN, GEORGE F., of Medford, was born in Douglas County, Oregon, September 16, 1855. He is a blacksmith by occupation, having pursued it for twelve years in Medford. He was a member of the Douglas County convention in 1880 and 1882, and the Jackson County convention in 1886, 1890 and 1894, and of the state convention in 1894. In 1892 he received the nomination for Sheriff. In 1884 he was secretary of the McKinley Club, and a member and secretary of the county central committee.

MERRILL, HON. NORMAN, of Clatskanie, was born in Columbia County, Oregon, December 25, 1851, and has always been engaged in lumbering and logging, as well as fruit growing, farming and stock raising. In 1879 he was elected County Treasurer. In 1892 he was elected to the legislature, and is now again the Republican nominee to that body.

MENEFEE, HON. FRANK, of The Dalles, was born in that city January 31, 1866. He is one of the leading young Republicans of the state. He was a delegate to the last three conventions, and the State League. In 1891 he was elected City Recorder, and again in 1892. In March, 1895, he was appointed Mayor by the council to fill a vacancy and I n the following June was elected to the same honorable office by the people.

METSCHAN, PHIL., of Canyon City, but for the last six years a resident of Salem as State Treasurer, was born in Germany in 1840, and came to America in 1854, residing in Cincinnati until 1859. HE then spent several years in Kansas, Colorado, and California, coming to Oregon in 1862. He began business as a butcher, but soon embarked in merchandising in Grant County, retiring from business in 1888. He took a leading part in Republican politics in that section of the state. From 1868 to 1872 he was Treasurer of Grant County, from 1876 to 1878, County Clerk, and again from 1888 to 1890. From 1882 to 1886 he was a County Judge. In 1890 he was elected State Treasurer, and was renominated in 1894 without opposition, and elected by a big majority. He is a man of forceful character and genial disposition, and is deservedly popular with all classes.

MICHELL, WILLIAM, of The Dalles, was born in Penzanee, County Cornwall, England, in 1838. He was a delegate to the Wasco convention in 1890 and 1892. In 1892 he was elected County Treasurer, and again in 1894.

MILLER, DR. BYRON E., a leading physician of Portland, and vice-president of the Multorpor Republican Club, was born near Dundee, New York, March 17, 1855. At the Age of twenty-one he entered a mercantile house in Cleveland, Ohio, as clerk. In 1880 he began the study of medicine, at Ovid, New York, and graduated from Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital College in 1883. He practiced medicine in 1882, by special license, having been selected from a class of 200 students. He settled in Doylestown, Ohio, and was elected a member of the N. E. Ohio Medical Society, and the Schuyer County (New York) Homeopathic Society. In 1884 he came to Portland, and has taken rank among the leading physicians and surgeons of the city. In 1886 he was elected a member of the Oregon State Homeopathic Society, and the Multnomah County Homeopathic Society. In 1886 he was elected corresponding secretary and was appointed chairman of the Bureau of Diseases of Women by the State Medical Society. He was subsequently elected president of the Board of Censors. In May, 1888, he became treasurer. In 1889 he traveled through Mexico and the East, and took a special course in surgery and physical diagnosis in the Polyclinic Post-Graduate School of Medicine, in New York. In 1889 he was elected first vice-president and a member of the Board of Censors of the Oregon State Homeopathic Medical Society, and in May 1890, was chosen chief of the Department of Gynaecology on the medical staff of the Portland Hospital. He was re-elected vice-president of the State Society in 1890, and the same year went to New York and took a course in orthopedic surgery and surgical diseases of women at the Post-Graduate School. In 1890 he was elected vice-president of the National Homeopathic Hospital Association, of Washington D.C. In 1891 he was elected president of the Oregon State Homeopathic Medical Society. He is a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy, the Masons, Odd Fellows, Portland Chamber of Commerce, and the Multorpor Republican Club, of which he is vice-president. Dr. Miller is one of the staff physicians of the Portland Hospital, now a homeopathic institution, and is a member and secretary of the State Board of Medical Examiners.

MILLER C. W. [Editor inserted: Charles W. Miller], of the law firm of Miller & Miller, Portland, was born in Adams County, Illinois, October 10, 1859. He graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan, and also took a three years’ course at the Willamette University. Since 1887 he has practiced his profession in Portland. In 1894 he was elected School Director of Portland by a large majority. He is an active and earnest Republican, a member of the Multorpor Club, and a bard campaign worker.

MILLER, H. B., of Grant’s Pass, was born in Shelby County, Ohio, April 11, 1854. In 1873 he came to Oregon to build a bridge across the Clackamas river. In 1873 he came to Oregon to build a bridge across the Clackamas river. He also built bridges across the Willamette, at Springfield, and across the McKenzie. E was engaged in this kind of work in Lane and Linn counties several years, and in 1878 went to Portland, where he lived five years, being in the custom house two years. From 1881 to 1884 he was engaged in railroad construction between Ashland and Roseburg. He then settled at Grant’s Pass in manufacturing business. He has been frequently a member of county and state conventions, league meetings and county and state conventions, league meetings and county and state central committees; was a candidate for Republican Presidential Elector in 1892, a member of the state senate 1884-88, and of the house in 1890-92.

MILLER, DR. K. L. [Editor inserted: Kilan L. Miller], of Roseburg, was born in Albany, New York, March 21, 1854 and came to Oregon in 1870. He lived in Portland six years and has since been a resident of Roseburg, where he is practicing medicine, and is also physician for the Soldiers’ Home. He was elected Coroner and made County Physician in 1894, and is again the party nominee for Coroner.

MILLER, R. H. [Editor inserted: Robert H. Miller] editor of the Woodburn Independent, was born in St. Clairsville, Ohio, April 15, 1842. Enlisted in the Thirty-fifth Ohio Infantry in 1861, and was discharged in 1862 by reason of being disabled by wounds. He has done local newspaper work in Chicago, Sioux City, Cedar Rapids, and Des Moines. He founded the Sioux Falls Pantagraph, Brimfield (Illinois) Gazette, and Elmwood (Illinois) Gazette, and editor and publisher of the Sioux Valley News, Broken Bow (Nebraska) Daily and Weekly Republican, and Daily and Weekly Leader. He came to Oregon in 1889, and in 1895 bought the Woodburn Independent.

MILLER, WILLIAM, of Oswego, was born at Ann Arbor, Michigan, October 17, 1845. Twelve years later he moved to Kansas. He learned the blacksmith trade, and in 1890 came to Oregon, and has since lived in Oswego, occupied as blacksmith and engineer. He is an earnest Republican and has been a delegate to the Clackamas County convention and the State League.

MINTIE, HON. F. L., a lumber dealer of Oswego, was born in Enfield, Connecticut, May 27, 1839. He is a graduate of the Waterbury, Connecticut, High School, and Eastman’s Business College, of Chicago. He served through the war, first as a private in a company commanded by Senator Hawley, then as fist lieutenant in the One Hundred and Second New York, and in the Twenty-fourth United States, colored. He was first and second Bull Run, Cedar Mountain, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Kenesaw Mountain, and Dallas. He was mustered out in 1865, and lived three years in Darlington, Wisconsin. He then located near Sedalia, Missouri, and served as Journal Clerk, and then as Enrolling Clerk in the legislature. He then moved to Hutchinson, Kansas, where he was president of the Republican Club and chairman of two conventions. In 1891 he came to Oregon. He is president of the Oswego Republican Club, and has been continuously a delegate to conventions. In 1894 he was elected to the legislature.

MINTO, JOHN, of Salem, was born in Wycombe, Near New-castle-on-Tyne, England, October 19, 1822, and came to the United States in 1840. In 1844 he crossed the plains to Oregon, locating in Marion County, where he was conducted successfully a large farming and sheep-raising industry ever since. He was been prominent in the management of the Oregon State Agricultural Society. He discovered Minto Pass, the route across the Cascades being followed by the Oregon Pacific. He began taking a deep interest in public matters at the outbreak of the war, and has since been an active Republican worker. He was elected to the legislature in 1862, in 1868 and in 1880.