The legislature provided for taking the census in order to apportion representatives, and authorized the county commissioners to locate the election districts; and to act as school commissioners to establish common schools. A board of three commissioners, Harrison Linnville, Sidney Ford, and Jesse Applegate, was appointed to select and locate two townships of land to aid in the establishment of a university, according to the provisions of the act of congress of September 27, 1850.
An act was passed, of which Waymire was the author, accepting the Oregon City claim according to the act of donation, and also creating the office of commissioner to control and sell the lands donated by congress for the endowment of a university; but it became of no effect through the failure of the assembly to appoint such an officer.[1] Deady was the author of an act exempting the wife's half of a donation claim from liability for the debts of the husband, which was passed, and which has saved the homesteads of many families from sheriff's sale.
Among the local laws were two incorporating the Oregon academy at Lafayette, and the first Methodist church at Salem.[2] In order to defeat the federal
- ↑ For act see Or. Statesman, Feb. 3, 1852.
- ↑ Trustees of Oregon academy: Ahio S. Watt, R. P. Boise, James McBride, A. J. Hembree, Edward Geary, James W. Nesmith, Matthew P. Deady, R.
States. J. W. Nesmith was appointed master and commissioner in chancery, and J. H. Lewis commissioner to take bail. Lewis, familiarly known as 'Uncle Jack,' came to Oregon in 1847 and settled on La Creole, on a farm, later the property of John M. Scott, on which a portion of the town of Dallas is located. Upon the resignation of H. M. Weller, county clerk, in August 1851, Lewis was appointed in his place, and subsequently elected to the office by the people. His name is closely connected with the history of the county and of Dallas. The first term of the district court held in any part of southern Oregon was at Yoncalla, in the autumn of 1852. Gibbs' Notes, MS., 15. The first courts in Jackson county about 1851–2 were held by justices of the peace called alcaldes, as in California. Rogers was the first, Abbott the second. It was not known at this time whether Rogue River Valley fell within the limits of California or Oregon, and the jurisdiction being doubtful the miners improvised a government. See Popular Tribunals, vol. i., this series; Prim's Judicial Affairs, MS., 7–10; Jacksonville Dem. Times, April 8, 1871; Richardson's Mississippi, 407; Overland Monthly, xii. 225–30. Pratt left Oregon in 1856 to reside in Cal. He had done substantial pioneer work on the bench, and owing to his conspicuous career he had been criticised—doubtless through partisan feeling.
