Page:Pen Pictures of Representative Men of Oregon.djvu/82

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but speaks very seldom, and then only on matters of great importance, and from his conduct in the House I should judge that he has an abhorrence of the habit of bobbing up and down in order to speak on every proposition. He was born in Green county, Illinois, in the year 1845, and educated in McKendree college, Sinclair county, from which he graduated in the class of 1868. He then entered the law office of Judge Snyder, Belleville, St. Clair county, Illinois, and was admitted to the bar in 1870. In the spriag of 1871 he came to Oregon, taking up his residence in Polk county, where he has since continued to live. He was teacher in the Bethel academy three years, and was then elected County Judge in 1874. which office he held four years. At the expiration of his term of office he entered upon the practice of his profession at Dallas, and he now has a fine business. He was elected a member of the present Legislative Assembly by a large majority, and dur- ing the session has been a close and vahaable worker and a member of the Judiciary Committee. He was married in the year 1874 to Miss Mary Basey.


HON. W. T. RIGDON

Is one of the Representatives from Marion county on the floor of the House. He was born in Powesheik county, Iowa, in the year 1849. In the year 1850 his parents immigrated to Oregon and sought a "home in Marion county, where he has ever since resided. In 1852 the father of the family died, when young Taylor was but three years old. Left without a father at that infantile age, his story is that of many another boy who, deprived of the blessing of a father's presence and the consequent advantages that ac- crue therefrom to boyhood, has had to battle with the world alone and sin gle-handed, and to his honor be it said that by application to his book around the family fireplace and working during the day for the mainteti ance of his mother and a large famil}-, he, by his own ettbrts, obtained a good education and grew up to a useful and respected manhood. At the age of twenty-foiir he became a teacher in the Jefferson Institute, where he remained two years, and afterv.ards taught three years in the district schools. Mr. Rigdon was married to Miss Mattie J. Smith in the year 1878, and their union has been blessed with two little daughters. Although this is the first time that Mr. Rigdon has been before the people as an officeholder, he has always taken a leading part in the politics of Jefferson, is an ardent ad- vocate of the cause of temperance and an active member of the M. E. Church. He is a Republican, and has done good service in the present ses- sion, having taken a particular interest in the passage of temperance measures.


HON. GEORGE F. CRAWFORD. A good Democrat is the noblest work of the teachings of Jefferson, and Mr. Crawford, who represents Linn county in the House, is one of that stock. He was born a Democrat, bred a Democrat, and will very probably die in the faith. He is one of those political apostles who, while pursuing a thoroughly consistent course himself, can perceive good in