The politics of 1854 turned mainly on the question of a state constitution, though the election in June revealed the fact that the democracy, while still in the ascendant, were losing a little ground to the whigs, and chiefly in the southern portion of the territory. Of the three prosecuting attorneys elected, one, P. P. Prim,[1] was a whig, and was chosen in the 3d district by a majority of seven over the democratic candidate, R. E. Stratton,[2] former incumbent. R. P. Boisé was elected prosecuting attorney for the 1st or middle district, and N. Huber of the 2d or northern district.
The democratic leaders were those most in favor of assuming state dignities, while the whigs held up before their following the bill of cost; though none objected
- ↑ Payne P. Prim was born in Tenn. in 1822, emigrated to Or. in 1851, and went to the mines in Rogue River Valley the following year. His election as prosecuting attorney of the southern district brought him into notice, and on the division of the state of Oregon into four judicial districts, and when Deady, chosen judge of the supreme court from that district, was appointed U. S. dist. judge, the gov. appointed Prim to fill the vacancy from the 1st district for the remainder of the term, to which office he was subsequently elected, holding it for many years. A valuable manuscript, entitled Prim's Judicial Anecdotes, has furnished me very vivid reminiscences of the manner of administering justice in the early mining camps, and first organized courts, to which I have occasion to refer frequently in this work. See Popular Tribunals, passim, this series.
- ↑ Riley E. Stratton was a native of Penn., born in 1821. He was taught the trade of a millwright, but afterward took a collegiate course, and graduated at Marietta, Ohio, with the intention of becoming a minister; his plans being changed, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Madison, Ind., coming to Or. by way of Cape Horn in 1852, his father, C. P. Stratton, emigrating overland in the same year. C. P. Stratton was born in New York Dec. 30, 1799. He removed to Penn. in his boyhood, and again to Ind. in 1836. He had twelve children, of whom C. C. Stratton is a minister of the methodist church, and president of the University of the Pacific in California. He settled in the Umpqua Valley, but subsequently removed to Salem, where he died Feb. 26, 1873. Riley E. Stratton settled at Scottsburg. He was elected prosecuting attorney of the southern district by the legislative assembly in 1853–4; but beaten by Prim at the election by the people, as stated above. When Oregon became a state he was elected judge of the 2d judicial district, and reëlected in 1864. He married Sarah Dearborn in Madison, Indiana. He left the democratic party to support the union on the breaking-out of the rebellion. He was an affable, honorable, and popular man. His death occurred in Dec. 1866. Eugene State Journal, Dec. 29, 1863; Or. Reports, vol. ii. 195–9; Deady's Scrap Book, 77, 170.
Massey, July 11, 1854, a party prospecting for gold in the Cascade Mountains. Or. Statesman, Aug. 22, 1854. Mt Adams was called by the Indians Klickilat, and Mt Rainier, Takoma. Gold-hunting in the Cascade Mountains, passim.
