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land of promise. The trip across the plains was a long and tedious one, and, after a five months' journey, Mr. Curtis had the pleasure of entering the historic place called '-Hangtown" or Placer^nlle, in El Dorado county. From there he went to Placer county and remained two years, and in 1854 went north to Yreka. He remained but one year in his new abode and then returned to Placer county, where he engaged in mining and stock- raising, in the meantime being elected to the office of Justice of the Peace. In those days the Justice was the oracle in the mining camp, and a man was never selected to fill that office unless he was possessed of character, sense and nerve; he was the arbiter of all differences and the advisor in all important matters. Mr. Ctu-tis came to Oregon in 1864, locating in Canyon City, where he remained but one year; we next find him in a -small min- ing camp called Clarkesville, in Baker county, where at last have his wanderings ceased and his spirit, as it were, found rest, and we find him representing that county in the Legislature of 1878, as well as in the present body. In 1872 he was elected Justice of the Peace there, and has been since re-elected twice. As an instance of his popularity, let it be said that the session of the Legislature of 1878 had no sooner closed, than he was once more made a Justice, which office he held until elected a member of the House in 1882. He is a frank, plain, open-hearted little man, and has hosts of personal friends. He was married in California in 1858 to Mrs. Margaret House, who died in 1863, and he has since been a widower.
HON. STEWART B. EAKIN, JR„ Is the only Republican who represents Lane county on the floor of the House. As he comes from a strongly Democratic county, he certainly owes his election to a host of good and true friends. Mr. Eakin is a very pleas- ant-looking gentleman, of affable manners and accommodating habits; in fact, one of those men whom no one would hesitate to approach for any necessary information regarding a subject of which he himself was igno- rant. He is, in every particular, a self-made man, and, like others of the same type, he looms up grandly to the front, not by virtue of accident or good luck, but entirely owing to the fact that he is an assiduous worker, a man of push, and not easily daitnted by defeat. He was born in Elgin, Kane county, Illinois, on the 28th of August, 1846, and with his parents moved to Bloom, Cook county. 111., when eight years of age. He remained there until 1866, when he came " the plains across" with mule teams, the trip requiring four months and two days, to Eugene City, Lane county, Oregon, the place of his present residence. Mr. Eakin has been in public life a great deal, and has left that indelible mark upon the record of being one of the men who " have been tried and found to be true." He was elected to the office of Sheriff" of Lane county in the year 1874, and, as a reward for his faithfvd services, he was re-elected twice, in the years 1876 and 1878, holding that responsible position for the tenn of six years. Dur- ing that ijeriod Mr. Eakin had numbers of our very hardest and most un- scrupulous criminals to deal with, and was very frequently placed in a IX)sition where it required all his great nerve and cool headed judgment and
