Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/552

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508
HISTORY OF OREGON LITERATURE

in's" in the Roseburg News-Review; and Don Upjohn with "Sips for Supper" in the Salem Capital Journal.


1

In the Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, 1862
By Orange Jacobs

Orange Jacobs of Jacksonville was the first real Oregon columnist, although he scattered his bright remarks through the paper instead of segregating them under a regular head. The biography of him in Elwood Evans' History of the Pacific Northwest makes no reference to his journalistic work in Southern Oregon, saying that he practiced law and came pretty nearly being elected a United States Senator while he lived in Jacksonville. He was editor of the Oregon Sentinel from January, 1862, until July, 1864.

He was born in the state of New York in 1829. He lived for a little while in Salem before going to Jacksonville. He was a young man of 23 and 24 when he wrote the items quoted here.

In 1867 he left Oregon to become a prominent citizen of Washington Territory. He was chief justice of the supreme court, delegate to Congress, mayor of Seattle, and a member of the board of regents of the University of Washington. Memoirs of Orange Jacobs, a 234-page book written by himself and "Containing Many Interesting, Amusing and Instructive Incidents of a Life of Eighty Years," was published in Seattle in 1908.

In one of his comments given below is a humorous description of himself. In 1889 Elwood Evans described him as follows: "Judge Jacobs is a man of large stature, commanding presence, positive views, has the courage of his convictions, but is liberal and tolerant. He has filled a prominent place in the public affairs of Northwest America as a pioneer, lawmaker and judicial officer."


"We Have Had the Ague This Week"

If any of our readers should notice anything particularly bilious or shaky in the editorial matter of this paper, we beg them to remember that we have had the ague nearly every day this week. If the eye of a critic should discover something a little too bitter, let him consider we have been taking quinine; if he should notice anything disgusting, let him re-