The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1902-06-04

fine story-teller, and a charming
jcompanion. He was alikesapproach.
able to every one, and peopls who
year after year have seen him walk
ing back and forth from his resi-.
dence to the business part of town,
remember how often he was stopped
by prominent citizens or laboring
men, and how he loved to chat
with any and all of them. Proba-
bly, no one in the city has such a
wide circle of acquaintances as he
enjoyed, and certainly no one is
better known by eight.
Mrs. Pennoyer and Mrs. George
F. Russell survive him. His son,
Horace, died about s years ago at
Williams College, and was buried
from Trinity church, and the gov
er never fully recovered from the
shock the boys death caused him.
Sosudden was the governors death
and Sc Frustrated are his family by
the shock, that no arrangements
have yet been made for the funeral.
Sylvester Pennoyer was born in
Groton; N. Y, July 6, 1881. Both
his father, Justus Powers Pennoyer,
and his mother were born in the
same state, and there the future
governor of Oregon lived until 1858,
when he went to Harvard College
Law school, his expenses being part
lily defrayad by an annuity of e4O
! left by William Pennoyer, who re-
moved in colonial days from France
to New Haven colony, and died
there in 1850. This sum was to be
sent every year to Harv I'd College
to BE- applied to the education of
the descendants of William Pen
movers brother Robert. Since that
time, for % ore than two centuries,
has that s40 per annum been sent
to the college, without single fail
ure.
In 1855 young Pennoyer came to
Oregon, having journeyed to San
Francisco by way of Nicaragua,
thence to Puget Sound by the bark
Leonesa, and from there to Port
land, padding down the CoWlitz
River in an Indian canoe. and tax
ing Columbia steamer at its
mouth.
He was admitted to the bar by
1.-The supreme court, consisting OF
Judges Williams, Olney and Deadly,
but never practiced here. He
taught school for time, and in
1852 he engaged in the lumber bus
!iness. He was long successful,
founding a large cor Germ, which
was SO prosperous up to 1890 that a
fine new mill was built, then the
largest in the city.
The governor was married the
year following his arrival to Mrs.
Mary A. Allen, and of the five chill
dren that were born to him Mrs.
Russell is the sole survivor.
Although he became in 1881 as
sociated with DR.. Weatherford in
the Oregon Herald, and afterward
purchased and edited the paper for
two years, he did not enter politics
to any extent until 1885, when he
was nominated for mayor against
JohnW. Gates, on the issue of mu-
nicipal ownership of the water
plant, then in the hands of John
Green and H. c. Leonard. Gates
easily defeated him.
But during the winter Of 1885
and 1885 strong feeling against
the Chinese sprang up in Portland.
The workingmen, whose opportun-
tiles to secure employment had
been restricted by the influx of the
Orientals, projected meeting whose
object was to devise ways and means
to expel them. Mayor Gates called
a counter meeting, but the working
men captured it and Pennoyer was
! made chairman, and the meeting fl
nally adjourned, having passed res
olutions favoring law and order
This made Pennoyer's popularity
In 1886 be was elected governor as
a democrat by plurality of 37O2
although the state went republican
on the general issue. In his first
Inaugural address he took the posi-
ton that the courts have no right
to nullify a law passed by the legis,
lature, position from which he
never departed, and on which he
asked the last state democratic con.
vention to make him its nominee
for supreme Judge.
The first and perhaps the most
noteworthy of his actions as COVER
nor was taken III 1888, when the
contractors on the Corvallis & East
ern Railroad failed to pay the Ia
borers. A telegram was received
by the governor from an officer OF
the road announcing that the la
borers were marching on the town,
and asking that the troops be ord
cred out. Pennoyer went to Cor.