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education, the early portion of his life having been employed as a clerk in the mercantile business. He went to California with the argonauts of 1850 and spent two years in search of the golden lieece without success. Re- turned to Illinois and in 1852 accompanied his parents to Oregon and settled in Yamhill county, where it is claimed all great men originate, where he followed surveying until October, 1854, when he moved to Salem, where he has continuously resided ever since. Was married September 2, 1856, to Miss Ellen R. Lamon, who has proved an efficient helpmate in the struggles incident to Ufe in a new country. He clerked for a year or more for J. N. McDonald, after which himself and brother (Hon. Jno. H. Moores, deceased) bought McDonald out and continued in the general merchandising busi- ness until 1866, when he accepted the position of clerk of the State Board of School Land Commissioners under Gov. Woods' administration, remain- ing there until 1870. Represented Marion county in the House of Repre- sentatives in 1862 and was re-elected in 1864, and was chosen Speaker, which position he filled during that session and the special session of 1865, and as such ofiicer signed the amendment to the Constitation of the United States, abolishing slavery within its borders, a public act in which he takes no small degree of pride. In 1861 he was appointed Colonel of the Second Regiment Oregon Volunteer Militia, which was composed of fully 1100 men and two companies of artillery. Although equipped for active service their services were never required. He has been an active member of the Common Council of Salem for several terms, and in 1867 was one of the originators and incorporators of the Oregon Central Railroad Company* serving as its President and Vice President prior to its transfer to the Ore- gon and California Railroad Company. In 1870 he was appointed Land Com- missioner by the O. and C. R. R. Company, which position he still holds. He has made himself popular in fraternal organizations, having joined the Odd Fellows in 1856 and held the office of Grand Treasurer for sixteen years. He joined the Masonic order in 1870 and has attained the honors of the thirty- second degree, and has acted as Grand Receiver of the A. O. U. W. since its organization in 1879. He has always been a Republican, resisting all in- ducements to swerve from his allegiance. His habits are such as to insure good health and the indications are that he is destined to many long years of usefulness. He is the very personification of sociability, and is a perfect storehouse of information and laughable incidents, and universally re- spected as a man among men.
HON. TILMON FORD, One of the Representatives from Marion county, is an Oregon-raised boy; was born in 1845 and lived with his parents on a farm in old Marion until the year 1865, when he went to Idaho to try his luck in the mines, and being tolerably successful with the pick and shovel, accumulated sufficient means to enable him to return to Salem and enter the Willamette University as a student. He graduated from that institution in 1S70 and immediately com- menced the study of the law and was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of this State in the faU of 1872. He then opened a law office m Sa-
