Oregon Republican League: History 104 Biographies

Oregon Republican League: History 104 Biographies

Every Wednesday/Thursday, the Oregon Republican League will post the biographies of important figures, in the League's/State of Oregon's history. Feel free to comment or share stories of your family's Republican affiliation.

An Illustrated History of Umatilla County & Morrow County, by Colonel William Parsons and W. S. Shiach with a brief outline of the early history of the State of Oregon. W. H. Lever, Spokane, WA, (1902), p. 342-343.

ROBERT JAMIESON.--This prosperous farmer and banker and representative citizen of Umatilla county has long been noted for his enterprise in business and for his public-spirited interest in the welfare of the community in which he has lived. Inasmuch as it is the province of this work, among other things, to preserve brief biographical records of the founders and builders of the county and those who have materially contributed toward its progress, it is but consistent that a brief review of this gentleman be here given.

Mr. Jamieson was born in the province of Ontario, Canada West, as it was formerly called. His parents, John and Jane (Hastie) Jamieson, both natives of Scotland, were old pioneers of Oregon, having come to Marion county as early as 1860. They settled on a farm on the bank of a river, and
were “washed out” during the winter of 1861-2.

After a residence of a year there our subject went to the Boise mines, bent upon digging a fortune out of the ground. He was not successful, however, so wisely determined to try his hand in another part and at a different occupation. So he came to Walla Walla, Washington, and entered the employ of Snyder & Reed, in whose sawmill he worked for four years. With the savings of this long continued service he purchased a farm near Weston, which is still his and which he is now farming to wheat.

In 1892 Mr. Jamieson assisted in the organization of the Farmers’ Bank of Weston, of which he has ever since been president. It is a prosperous and substantial financial concern, reflecting credit upon its management, and especially upon its efficient head officer. Mr. Jamieson is also agent at Weston for the Pacific Elevator Company and has been for the past six years.

Our subject has ever taken a deep interest in politics, attending many Republican conventions. No desire for personal aggrandizement or preferment animates him, however, for he has invariably refused office whenever it has been offered to him.

Fraternally Mr. Jamieson is affiliated with the time-honored and world-wide order of Free Masons, and with that excellent insurance order, the Workmen, in both of which he is quite prominent. In Umatilla county, Oregon, in 1879, he married Miss Jennie Walker, a daughter of John and Jane Walker, natives of Scotland. Their union has been blessed by the advent of two children, Willie and Ethel J. Mrs. Jamieson came from Canada in 1877.