REPKESENTATIVE MEN OF OREGON. 93
hardly reached the prime of life, is of medium hei^'ht, slitfht build, browu hair and eyes, and of a social, genial disposition. He made a host of friends while in Salem during the Legislative sesaiou just closed, where he was a prominent and enthusiastic supporter of Mitcliell for re-election ta the U. S. Senate. He is unmarried.
HON. J. L. COLLINS, Now a resident of Dallas, Polk county, was born in Warren count v Mis- souri, May 9, 1833. He acquired a general knowledge of the rudimcntal principles of an education iu the imperfect subscription schools of that i)art of the country. In 1848 he crossed the plains Avith ox teams, in the first company that ever came by way of the Klamath lakes, and across the Sis- kiyou, Umpqua and Calapooia mountains into the Willamette valley, often driving the foremost team that broke down the thick sage-brush upon the trackless waste. He left the place of his birth on the 20th day of April, 1846, and after suffering a multitude of hardships and privations almost in- credible for a boy of thirteen years, arrived on the Luckiamute, in Polk county, on the 5th day of March, 1847, having remained during the greater part of the winter iu an unoccupied cabin built by Eugene Skinner, near Eugene City, where, in company with Harrison Turnedge, who agreed to remain with him, he endured great hardships. The winter was a severe one, and having in compassion received into their camp an old sailor named Samuel Ruth, who was badly crippled, and Mr. Turnedge being sick and unable to leave camp a good portion of the time, it devolved upon young Collins, then a mere boy, to shoulder his gun and with its breech breaking the ice in the sloiighs and streams, Avade through them waist deep iu order to reach good hunting grounds on the other shore and secure game in suf- ficient quantities to meet the necessities of himself and his unfoi-tunate companions. In the spring of 1847 his father settled in the southern part of Polk county. He worked hard every day helping to erect and improve their rude but nowise xmcomfortable home. Being too poor to procare lamp oil or candles, he pursued his studies at night, by the rude fire-place lighted with pitch wood. After a few years, when the family could manage to get along without his assistance, he was permitted to go to the institute at Salem, where, by working hard at whatever his hand could find to do mornings and evenings and on Saturdays, he made his way tiirough a few terms of that school, then under the management of Prof. F. S. Hoyt and his excellent wife. While at Salem he read law for a time under Hon. B. F. Harding and Hon. L. F. Cxrover. In 1853 he went to California, where he made and lost a considerable fortune in mining. Returning home in 18.55, the Legislature being in session at Corvallis, he was employtid by Hon. Alonzo Leland to report the proceedings for the •' Democratic Standard," then published at Portland. The capital was removed during the session to Salem, and a few days before the adjournment Capt. B. F. Burch organ- ized Company B of the recruiting l-attalion First Regiment of Oregon Mounted Volunteers, for service in the Yakima Indian war. Mr. Collins at once enlisted, and after the adjournment of the Assembly he joined the
