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east of the Cascades, was in charge of the Oregon Superintendency. He then moved to Linn county and resumed preaching. In 1859 he was ap- pointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs to succeed Gen. Nesmith, and while in office paid the Mott claims and inaugurated the treaties alluded to above. He remained in this office about two years. He then returned to Linn county and was appointed Probate Judge, which office he held* two years. He has been repeatedly urged to accept nominations for places of high public trust, but has declined a life of such publicity, preferring rather to serve as an humble laborer in his Master's vineyard. He moved to Eugene City in 1876 and assumed pastoral charge of the Presbyterian Church of that city, where he has resided ever since. He is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, and member of the Scottish Rite, and a thirty-second-degree Mason. He is at present a member of the Board of Re- gents of the State University, and as a citizen, honored and respected by all. He is a man of remarkably striking appearance, tall, and well proportioned, with hair and whiskers of silvery white, and a face fairly beaming with kindness and good nature. His voice is pleasant and his manners genial. He at once creates a good impression and he improves on acquaintanceship. He has a family of seven children, one of his sons being a graduate of West Point Military Academy, and is now a Heutenant in the army. Two others are physicians.
HON. BENJAMIN F. BURGH. This gentleman's career in life is one of which he should justly feel proud. It is a well known fact that in early days the great majority of men who came to this coast did so under the excitement which the discovery of gold had created in the Eastern States, and on arriving here all hastened to the mountains with the anticipation of making a fortune within a year or two> and returning to their Eastern homes to spend the remainder of their lives in ease and luxury. Such, however, was not the case with the subject -of our sketch. The pursuit of agriculture, rather than that of mining, appears to have been his ambition, and he to-day resides near Independence, in Polk county, on the same donation claim located by him in 1848. Mr. Burch was born in Chaiton county, Missouri, May 2, 1825, and obtained an ordi- nary common school education. On the 25th of April, 1845, he left the home of his parents and started across the plains for Oregon, reaching here in October of the same ye*ar. In 1846 he assisted Hon. Jesse x\pplegate and others in viewing and locating the Southern Oregon wagon road, and conducting the straggling parties of immigrants over the same. During the Cayuse Indian war of 1847-8, Mr. Burch served as Adjutant in both Col. Gilliam's and Col. Waters' regiment.s, preparing all of their official re- ports. He was married September 6, 1848, to Miss Eliza A. Davidson, daughter of Hezekiah Davidson. She, too, is an honored pioneer, having came to Oregon in 1847. Mr. Burch also was captain of a volunteer com- pany during the Yakima Indian War of 18^55-6. In 1857 he represented his county in the Constitutional Convention, and was a member of the stand- ing committees on Military Corporations and Internal Improvemen
