Oregon Biographies
Oregon Biographies features intriguing stories and engaging information related to some of Oregon’s most significant historical figures.
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John Jacob Astor Biography
When John Jacob Astor died in 1848, he bequeathed $400,000 of his $25,000,000 fortune to establish a public library in New York City...
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George Baker Biography
Born in The Dalles, Oregon, in 1868, Baker spent his formative years moving around the American west...
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Simon Benson Biography
In 1891, lumberman Simon Benson bought $6000 worth of used iron and built a railway into his Washington timberland...
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Louise Bryant Biography
Louise Bryant was a celebrated journalist, radical, and feminist. Born in Nevada in 1885, Bryant graduated from the University of Oregon and married Paul Trullinger, a Portland dentist, in 1909.
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Asahel Bush Biography
During the 1850s, the editor of Salem’s the Oregon Statesman Asahel Bush’s vitriolic editorials earned him the derisive nickname Bushy Bush...
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George Chamberlain Biography
On January 19, 1909, the Republican controlled Oregon Legislature chose Democrat George Chamberlain to represent the state in the U.S. Senate...
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Captain William Clark Biography
This undated, unsigned engraved portrait of William Clark is based on Charles Willson Peale’s 1810 oil painting of the famed explorer...
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Chief Comcomly Biography
Comcomly was a Chinookan headman who traded with and befriended Anglo explorers who frequented his homeland...
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Will H. Daly Biography
Will H. Daly was a central figure during the progressive era in Portland. Daly pursued the difficult goal of creating political space for unions and small business...
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David Douglas Biography
In early 1824, explorer and botanist David Douglas worked eighteen hours each day in preparation for his first trip from London to the Pacific Northwest...
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George Drouillard Biography
Drouillard was born sometime around 1776 or 1777 near present-day Sandwich, Ontario, the son of a Shawnee mother and a French Canadian father...
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Thomas Jefferson Dryer Biography
When Thomas Jefferson Dryer arrived in Portland in November 1850, the Oregon Spectator described him as sharp as a steel trap...
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Abigail Scott Duniway Biography
A writer, newspaper publisher, and promoter for women's rights, Abigail Scott Duniway was Oregon's strongest voice for the cause of Women's suffrage...
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Dr. Marie Equi Biography
Dr. Marie Equi was an early Portland activist, described by the Oregonian as a firebrand in the causes of suffrage, labor, and peace...
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Sara Bard Field Biography
Aside from being a renowned award-winning poet, Sara Bard Field was perhaps best known for her prominent role in the women's suffrage movement...
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Simon Fraser Biography
On June 4, 1808, explorer Simon Fraser wrote of his day on the Fraser River in present day British Columbia...
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Peter French Biography
On December 26, 1897, Peter French was at work on his large ranch in Harney County when he saw Ed Oliver approach on horseback...
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Patrick Gass Biography
Patrick Gass, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, is shown in this photograph, the original of which was probably taken around 1860...
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Fred L. Gifford
Fred L. Gifford was the leader (Grand Dragon) for the Oregon Ku Klux Klan between 1921 and 1924, when the invisible empire was influential in virtually every part of the state...
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Neil Goldschmidt Biography
Best known for “The Oregon Comeback” during his governorship (1987-1991) that involved the revitalization of the state's economy, Neil Goldschmidt also served as Portland City Commissioner...
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Mark O. Hatfield Biography
Mark Odom Hatfield's long career in Oregon politics began in 1951 when he was elected into the Oregon state legislature as the representative for Marion County...
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Ron Herndon Biography
For over four decades, Ron Herndon has successfully promoted minority rights and educational opportunities in Portland...
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James J. Hill Biography
In 1912 James J. Hill said of his Great Northern Railway, “The financial outlook of this company is as well assured as that of most governments.” Unlike most other transcontinental lines...
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Ben Holladay Biography
On Christmas Eve 1869, the first train from Portland arrived in the small town of New Era, twenty miles away on the east side of the Willamette River...
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Chief Joseph Biography
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt (Chief Joseph) was the leader of one band of Nimi'ipuu (the Nez Perce people). The Nez Perce resided in the plateaus, mountains and gorges of northeastern Oregon, southeastern Washington, and western Idaho...
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Henry J. Kaiser Biography
Though he rarely visited Oregon, Henry Kaiser was an influential industrialist whose successful ventures in manufacturing and health care significantly impacted the state...
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Ira Keller Biography
When the Portland Development Commission (PDC) began its work in 1958, its first chairman, Portland businessman Ira Keller, announced that he expected its decisions to be unanimous...
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Ken Kesey Biography
Ken Kesey was one of Oregon’s most famous, critically acclaimed, and controversial authors. His rise to literary and cultural prominence was the product of his distinctive skills and experiences...
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Captain Meriwether Lewis Biography
This copy of an 1807 oil painting by Charles Willson Peale depicts the famed explorer Meriwether Lewis. Lewis is best known for his leadership of the Corps of Discovery, an American exploratory expedition...
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Gin Lin Biography
Gin Lin was a prominent Chinese mine boss who lived and worked in southern Oregon during the last half of the nineteenth century. He was one of thousands of Chinese sojourners who came to Oregon during the nineteenth century to seek their fortunes...
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Tom McCall Biography
In 1971 at a Junior Chamber of Commerce Convention, Oregon Governor Tom McCall (1967–1975) told the delegates: We want you to visit our State of Excitement often. Come again and again. But, for heaven's sake, don't move here to live...
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Alexander McKenzie Biography
In July 1793, at Bella Coola, 100 miles north of the northern tip of Vancouver Island in what is now the province of British Columbia, Alexander MacKenzie...
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John McLoughlin Biography
John McLoughlin was born in 1784 in Quebec, Canada, to a poor Catholic father and upper class Protestant mother...
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Charles McNary Biography
Charles Linza McNary was not considered much of a campaigner. He gave one or two speeches when he ran for office, preferring to spend the campaign season on his Salem area farm...
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Julius Meier Biography
The son of Aaron Meier, a founder of the Meier & Frank department store chain, Julius Meier was born in 1874...
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John H. Mitchell Biography
This circa 1898 photograph shows John H. Mitchell, a U.S. Senator elected by the Oregon state legislature in 1874, 1885, 1891, and 1901...
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Stanley Moore Biography
Born in 1914 in California, Stanley Moore was a distinguished philosophy professor and the most visible Oregonian investigated by anti-communists in the McCarthy era...
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Wayne Morse Biography
Nicknamed the “Conscience of the Senate,” Wayne Lyman Morse served 24 years as an independent, outspoken U.S. Senator representing Oregon...
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Maurine Neuberger Biography
Maurine Neuberger, Oregon's first female United States Senator, served from 1961 to 1966...
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Richard Neuberger Biography
Richard Neuberger was born in Portland in 1912 and attended public schools. He took an early interest in journalism and served as a sports reporter for his high school newspaper...
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Thomas Nuttall Biography
Pacific Fur Company traders declared Thomas Nuttall crazy in 1811. The voyagers made their assessment of Nuttall's sanity after finding dirt in the barrel of his gun...
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Peter Skene Ogden Biography
In 1810 while a clerk for the North West Company, Peter Skene Ogden and a friend climbed over a stockade wall at a rival Hudson's Bay Company post and strutted around the yard with guns...
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Joel Palmer Biodgraphy
On October 7, 1845, Joel Palmer made the first recorded climb on Mount Hood. He wore moccasins that exposed his feet to ice and carried little food...
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Sylvester Pennoyer Biography
Grover Cleveland asked Oregon Governor Sylvester Pennoyer to do what he could to prevent expected violence against Chinese immigrants...
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Walter Pierce Biography
On November 26, 1933, the Oregonian remarked that rancher Walter Pierce was an authority on biology as a breeder of white-faced calves...
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Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh Biography
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh Biography: The Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was the spiritual leader of the Rajneeshee religious sect headquartered at Rancho Rajneesh in the Central Oregon desert from 1981 to 1985...
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John Reed Biography
For John Silas 'Jack' Reed, the conservative, early twentieth-century city of Portland could never be 'prepared to understand his dreams' of social revolution and change...
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Sacagawea Biography
Sacagawea was probably born in the late 1780s in present-day Idaho's Lemhi Valley. She was taken captive by Hidatsa raiders when she was around 12 or 13...
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Harvey W. Scott Biography
A man of humble beginnings, Harvey Whitefield Scott was a pioneer who worked hard to provide for his family while acquiring an education...
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Ma Anand Sheela Biography
Ma Anand Sheela was the personal assistant to Rajneeshee sect leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the highly visible president of the Rajneesh Foundation International...
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Lee Sing Biography
Lee Sing was the Chinese chef in the lavish mansion of Portland socialite Charlotte Green, the grandmother to the Communist radical John Reed...
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William Stafford Biography
According to George Venn's 1999 review in the Oregon Historical Quarterly, William Stafford is the most widely read poet in the United States...
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William Steel Biography
In 1870 William Steel read an article about Crater Lake in Central Oregon on a piece of newspaper in which his lunch was wrapped...
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McCants Stewart Biography
Born in Brooklyn, New York, McCants Stewart was the son of a respected black civic leader and confidant of Booker T. Washington. Washington, who...
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David Thompson Biography
In the late 1840s, explorer David Thompson wrote a journal of his travels over the past half century...
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Samuel Thurston Biography
When Euro American settlers in Oregon formed a provisional government in 1843, they allowed any person to claim a full section of land amounting to 640 acres...
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John Kirk Townsend Biography
John Kirk Townsend's traveling companions in November, 1834, had a hankering for alcohol...
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Tsin-is-tum (Jennie Michel) Biography
Pictured here is Tsin-is-tum, a Clatsop Indian woman known to whites as Jennie Michel. She claimed to be about 100 years old...
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William U'Ren Biography
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Oregon was known for its experiments with democratic reform...
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Dr. DeNorval Unthank Biography
Dr. DeNorval Unthank was a dedicated doctor and civil rights activist who broke racial barriers in Oregon between 1930 and 1977...
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Henry Villard Biography
When the first transcontinental train rolled into Portland on September 11, 1883, the Oregonian described the ensuing celebration as...
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Henry Weinhard Biography
Best known for his internationally renowned lager, Henry Weinhard was among the most successful businessmen in the early years of Portland...
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Oswald West Biography
Oswald West was known for his fiery statements. A supporter of prohibition, he declared that one of his ambitions was to shoot a bartender...
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Sarah Winnemucca Biography
Sarah Winnemucca was an accomplished and controversial advocate of Native American rights in the post-Civil War period...
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Nathaniel Wyeth Biography
During his lifetime, Nathaniel Wyeth held fourteen patents related to the cutting and transportation of ice and ran a successful trade in ice between...
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Minoru Yasui Biography
On March 28, 1942, around 11 P.M, after wandering the streets of Portland for three hours, Minoru Yasui walked into police headquarters and demanded...
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York Biography
Little is known about York's early life. He was probably born in Virginia in the early 1770s, the son of Old York and Rose, both of whom were slaves owned by planter John Clark... |
