Page:Pen Pictures of Representative Men of Oregon.djvu/119

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teachers, in which work he has been assisted and encouraged by his wife, nee Miss Eleanor Smith, to whom he was married April 21, IHfil, the wed- ding taking place at the M. E. Church in Salem. Although never takinjj an active part in politics, Mr. Knight is u true blue Repul)lican, and feels m just degree of pride in its progress as a political party.


WILLIAM F. BENJAMIN, A man of sterling worth and a well-known citizen of Douglas county, wa.s born in Brown county, Ohio, April 2, 1827, and with his parents moved to Illinois in 18.S4, settling in Du Page county. He received an ordinary com- mon school education and taught school several winters at the minimum price of S12 per month. He was married in 1851, moved to Iowa in 1K')\), and returned to Hlinois in 1866. He came to Oregon in 1870 and settled iu Douglas county, where he has since resided. In 1876 he was elected a mem- ber of the House of Representatives, and in 1878 was appointed Register of the United States Land Office at Roseburg, a position he still holds. By studious and temperate habits, strict adherence to correct principles and a due regard for the rights and opinions of others, he has secured the esteem of his neighbors and friends. His aim in life has apparently been to do right because it was right, and he ever appears just what he is, a quiet, un- assuming citizen. Temporary advantage at the expense of principle found no sympathy in his make-up. He united his fame and fortunes with the Republican party many long years ago, and, to quote his own words, " jiur- poses to stay with it until life's changeful scenes are ended."


HON EARL O. BRONAUGH,

Who stands to-day as one of the most prominent attorneys in the State, was born in Abingdon, Virginia, March 4, 1831. He was early imbued with the principles of the South, but was never strictly partisan in his views. He was never in sympathy vrith. slavery, but was none the less a firm believer in the rights of State Sovereignty, and when his native State seceded young Bronaugh went with her, heart and soul, enlisted in the hopes and destinias of the new Confederacy of States. He secured his educational advantages prior to his reaching the age of twelve, when, with his parents, he moved to Shelby county, Tennessee. They founded a new home in the woods uud suffered all the privations of the pioneer life of that early day. Here Mr. Bronaugh spent six years of his early manhood, when becoming imbued with a desire to read law, he entered Hon. J. W. Clapp's office, at Holly Springs, Miss., in 1849 and in 1852 was admitted to the bar. He taught school in Tennessee and Arkansas for a couple of years. He was married at Jacksonport, Arkansas, in 1854, to Miss Araminta Payne and opened a law office in a log cabin, of which he was architect and builder, aided only by a strapping colored boy. He was elected Judge of the First Judi- cial Circuit of Arkansas in 1860, which office he held until the close of the civil war. He was a volunteer in the rebel line, servmg as scout and sharp- shooter. He was broken up during the war and in 1868 came to Oregon,


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