Page:Pen Pictures of Representative Men of Oregon.djvu/100

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county. He is discharging- the duties of that office with his characteristic energy and ability, and in his prompt execution of the law is meeting with the approbation of all good citizens. Mr. Sears is a member of nearly all the secret benevolent organizations, and has held high offices in all of them. He was the Freat Sachem of the Improved Order of Red Men of the State of Oregon; Secretary of Harmony Lodge of Masons, and is at this time Post Commander of George Wright Post No. 1, Grand Army of the Repub- lic; D. D. Grand Chancelor Knights of Pythias; Treasurer of Mount Hood A. O. O. Forresters; Treasurer of the Portland Fire Department; President of Tiger Engine Company No. 5, and a member of the Board of Portland Fire Delegates. At the time of the' last Indian war in Eastern Oregon, when the call was made for volunteers, Mr. Sears enlisted a company of one himdred men and was elected captain. Governor Chadwick accepted his company and ordered f hem to the held, but owing to the Government being unable to furnish arms for the men they could not be used, but they cer- tainly deserve the same credit that they would had they gone, as they showed themselves ready and willing to do all in their power to assist the people in their great distress. As a politician he is, from his having so many personal friends, a very strong man in his party, is a good j^olitical manager, an honorable politician, and we can truly say that George C. Sears, as a politician or a social friend, is a man whom any person might well be proud to claim. He is a fine-looking gentleman, of a httle more than ordinary height, well proportioned, with pleasant features. He Avears a full beard and mustache of light brown, and his large eyes of browTi beam kindly on aU vnth whom he comes in contact. He is a hail fellow well met, and is the very personification of geniality and good humor. He is noted for his lib- erality, and his purse-strings are always loosened when an appeal reaches him from a worthy source. He was married in 1864 to Miss Jennie M. Al- drich, of Oakland, California, their family consisting of three girls and one boy. With Mr. Sears' well established personal populaiity, and the esteem in which he is held by constituents who are not even acquainted with him, but who have full confidence in his official integrity and efficiency, it is diffi- cult to form even a prophesy as to the probable brilliancy of his future career.


HON. LOYAL B. STEARNS, Now County Judge of Multnomah county, is another one of our young men whom by rights should be classed among the earlier Oregonians, ha\-ing ar- rived here in 1853, the year of his birth, which important event in his life took place at Keeue, N. H., in May of that year. Arriving in Oregon, his parents settled near Scottsburg, where they still reside. The subject of our sketch attended the public schools of that section of the country imtil 1868-9, when he attended the Umpqua Academy, and in 1871-2 he was a student at the Bishop Scott Grammar School in Portland. During the years 1872-3 he studied medicine under Dr. W. H. Watkins of Poitlaud, and attended one course of lectures at the Willamette University of Salem. He abandoned the study of medicine, nowever, and in 1873 commen