poeg, Polk, and Linn counties, there were still but thirteen out of twenty-three allowed by the apportionment. After organizing by choosing Ralph Wilcox speaker, W. G. T'Vault chief clerk, and William Holmes sergeant-at-arms and door-keeper, the house adjourned till the first Monday in February, to give time for special elections to fill the numerous vacancies.
The governor having again issued proclamations to the vacant districts to elect, on the 5th of February 1849 there convened at Oregon City the last session of the provisional legislature of the Oregon colony. It consisted of eighteen members, namely: Jesse Applegate, W. J. Bailey, A. Cox, M. Crawford, G. L. Curry, A. F. Hedges, A. J. Hembree, David Hill, John Hudson, A. L. Lewis, W. J. Martin, S. Parker, H. J. Peterson, William Portius, L. A. Rice, S. R. Thurston, J. C. Avery, and Ralph Wilcox.[1]
Lewis County remained unrepresented, nor did Avery of Benton appear until brought with a warrant, an organization being effected with seventeen members. Wilcox declining to act as speaker, Levi A. Rice was chosen in his place, and sworn into office by S. M. Holderness, secretary of state. T'Vault was reëlected chief clerk; James Cluse enrolling clerk;
- ↑ Ralph Wilcox was born in Ontario county, New York, July 9, 1818. He graduated at Geneva medical college in that state, soon after which he removed to Missouri, where on the 11th of October 1845 he married, emigrating to Oregon the following year. In January 1847 he was appointed by Abernethy county judge of Tualatin vice W. Burris resigned, and the same year was elected to the legislature from the same county, and re-elected in 1848. Besides being chosen speaker at this session, he was elected speaker of the lower house of the territorial legislature in 1850–1, and president of the council in 1853–4. During the years 1856–8 he was register of the U. S. land office at Oregon City, and was elected in the latter year county judge of Washington (formerly Tualatin) county, an office which he held till 1862, when he was again elected to the house of representatives for two years. In July 1865 he was appointed clerk of the U. S. district court for the district of Oregon, and U. S. commissioner for the same district, which office he continued to hold down to the time of his death, which occurred by suicide, April 18, 1877, having shot himself in a state of mental depression caused by paralysis. Notwithstanding his somewhat free living he had continued to enjoy the confidence of the public for thirty years. The Portland bar passed the usual eulogistic resolutions. Oregon City Enterprise, April 26, 1877; S. F. Alta, April 19, 1877; Cal. Christian Advocate, May 3, 1877; Portland Oregonian, April 21, 1877; Deady, in Or. Pioneer. Asso. Trans., 1875, 37–8.
