having become impaired, he left Oregon, returned to Indiana, resigned, and soon after died. Associate Justice Burnett, being in California, and very lucratively employed at the time that he learned of his appointment, declined it; and as their successors, Thomas Nelson and William Strong,[1] were not soon appointed, and came ultimately to their field of duty around Cape Horn, Judge Pratt was left unaided nearly two years in the judicial labors of the territory.
By act of congress, March 3, 1859, it was provided, in the absence of United States courts in California, violations of the revenue laws might be prosecuted before the judges of the supreme court of Oregon. Under this statute, Judge Pratt went to San Francisco, by request of the secretary of the treasury, in 1849, and assisted in the adjustment of several important admiralty cases. Also, about the same time, in his own district, at Portland, Oregon, as district judge of the United States for the territory of Oregon, he held the first court of admiralty jurisdiction within the limits of the region now covered by the states of Oregon and California.
Another evil to the peace and quiet of the community, and to the security of property, arose soon after the advent of the new justices—Strong,[2] in August
- ↑ William Strong was born in St Albans, Vermont, in 1817, where he resided in early childhood, afterward removing to Connecticut and New York. He was educated at Yale college, began life as principal of an academy at Ithaca, New York, and followed this occupation while studying law, removing to Cleveland, Ohio, in the mean time. On being appointed to Oregon he took passage with his wife on the United States store-ship Supply in November 1849 for San Francisco, and thence proceeded to the Columbia by the sloop of war Falmouth. Judge Strong resided for a few years on the north side of the Columbia, but finally made Portland his home, where he has long practised law in company with his sons. During my visit to Oregon in 1878 Judge Strong, among others, dictated to my stenographer his varied experiences, and important facts concerning the history of Oregon. The manuscript thus made I entitled Strong's History of Oregon. It contains a long series of events, beginning August 1850, and running down to the time when it was given, and is enlivened by many anecdotes, amusing and curious, of early times, Indian characteristics, political affairs, and court notes.
- ↑ Strong, who seems to have had an eye to speculation as well as other offi-
of the constitution of Illinois. In the service of the government he crossed the plains to Santa Fé; thence to California. In 1848 he became a member of the supreme court of Oregon, as noted. He was a man of striking and distinguished personnel', fine sensibilities, analytic intelligence, eloquent, learned in the law, and honorable.
