on
gressman from 1873 to '875. He died in 1885 at Rickreall. The home
he had established there is interestingly described by his daughter Mrs.
Harriet Nesmith McArthur, in her Recollections of the Rickreall.
"As for his qualities of mind, he will be longest remembered for his
wit and strong sense of humor...
.
His stories and sayings gained a
world-wide celebrity, and rivaled Lincoln's in their appositeness and
wit"
Anideaofwhathewaslikeasaspeakerattheageof50maybe
secured from a report in the Eugene City Guard for Saturday, June
4, 1870: "Hon. J. W. Nesmith spoke to an appreciative audience at
the Court House on last Wednesday, for two and one half hours.
His address was seasonably varied with sound logic, scathing sar
casm, and side-splitting ridicule, with occasional touches of true elo
quence. He makes no pretensions to oratory, but in all that consti
tutes the effective speaker, in conclusive logic and clearness of diction,
he stands to the frothy and bombastic Geo. S . Woods as 'Hyperion
to a Satyr'. Any attempt at a synopsis would deprive the speech of
half its pith — to be properly appreciated, it must be heard from Mr.
Nesmith's own lips."
We do not have that speech, but we have another, of reminiscent
nature, delivered before the Oregon Pioneer Association:
As an illustration of the honest and simple directness
which pervaded our Legislative proceedings of that day, I
will mention that in 1 847 I had the honor of a seat in the
Legislature of the provisional government. It was my first
step on the slippery rungs of the political ladder. The Leg
islature then consisted of but one House and we sat in the
old Methodist church at the Falls. Close by the church Bar
ton Lee had constructed a ten-pin alley to which some of my
fellow members were in the habit of resorting to seek re
laxation and refreshment after the Legislative toils. I had
aspired to the Speakership and had supposed myself sure of
the position, but the same uncertainty existed in political
matters that I have seen so much of since. Some of my
friends "threw off" on me and elected a better man in the
person of Dr. Robert Newell —God bless his soul! In the
small collection of books at the Falls, known as the Multno
mah Library, I found what I had never heard of before—
a copy of "Jefferson's Manual"
—
and after giving it an eve
ning's pe
