Page:Pen Pictures of Representative Men of Oregon.djvu/69

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tire people of the State, having been commissioner to the Great Centennial at Philadelphia in 1S7(5, and a representative tu the le^'islatnre from Mnltno- mah county in 18(52; he is also a brotbei- of Hon. E. B. i:)ufnr, who repre- sented Wasco county in '74. Young William was born in Willianistown, Vermont, February 22, 1854, and came to Oregon with his parents at the age of six. He received his preparatory education in the common schools, afterwards entering Portland Academy, and tinishing at the High ScIuk.I in 1878. He was a membei- of the county and State conventions this year, and in those bodies, altbough a retiring and thoughtful member, whenever he gave his opinion, it was listened to with marked attenticm and generally acted on. In the year 1S76, on the 16th of .July, he was married to a most esti- mable young lady. Miss May L. Alexander. Although Mr. Dufur comes from a strongly Democratic family, of the old school, yet he is an ardent Re- publican. He follows the free and manly business of farming and stock raising.


HON. WILLIAM MORRAS- This gentleman is a valuable member of the present House. It is pleasing to note, in these days of wholesale extravagance, a disposition on the part of the people to return to the economical and home-like practices and habits of our forefathers; and we can only tell the sentiment of the people in this important particular through the representative men they send to the halls of legislation to make their laws. How long since — in fact, a very short time is it, when a man who was known to be an open, avowed cham- pion of retrenchment could succeed in an election if he wished to go to the Legislature ? Mr. Morras is one of the men who has been exceedingly cautious in the matter of appropriating the people's money, and has taken the time and performed the amount of work necessary in an investigation of all such measures, and he has always taken a decided stand for apjiro- priating the amount of money actually required and not a dollar more. If others were to pursi;e the same line of policy, and be as careful of the State's money as they are of their own, it would work great benefit to the .'■eople. Mr. Morras is a plain man, not in appearance, but in language; , Jienever he takes the floor to discuss the merits of a bill, what he says is ^uort, plain and to the point, and he does not give up the subject till either he understands it or makes others understand him, according to the re- liuirements of the case. He was born in Durham county, England, in the year 1828, and completed his education in the high school of that place. During his youth he remained at home on the farm, but afterwards became a surveyor, which bxisiness he followed for a number t)f years. The youth then emigrated to free xlmerica, and pitched his tent in the beautiful county of Fayette, in the wilds of Iowa, in the year 18.jO, where he enjoyed all the prerogatives of the independent farmer for tiiree-and-twenty years. Dur- ing that time his fellow citizens cast about them for a suitable person to represent them in the county Board of Supervisors, and fixing their eyes u the youthful William, forthwith elected him a member of that respect- ble body, in which he served two years. Hearing that Oregon was a