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James W. Nesmith

James W. Nesmith
James W. Nesmith - Brady-Handy.jpg
James W. Nesmith
United States Senator
from Oregon
In office
March 4, 1861 – March 4, 1867
Preceded by Joseph Lane
Succeeded by Henry W. Corbett
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Oregon's At-large district
In office
December 1, 1873 – March 3, 1875
Preceded by Joseph G. Wilson
Succeeded by George Augustus La Dow
Personal details
Born (1820-07-23)July 23, 1820
New Brunswick, British Canada
Died June 17, 1885(1885-06-17) (aged 64)
Rickreall, Oregon
Political party Democratic
Profession Lawyer

James Willis Nesmith (July 23, 1820 – June 17, 1885) was an American politician and lawyer from Oregon. Born in New Brunswick to American parents, he grew up in New Hampshire and Maine. A Democrat, he moved to Oregon Country in 1843 where he entered politics as a judge, a legislator in the Provisional Government of Oregon, a United States Marshal, and after statehood a United States Senator and Representative.

Nesmith’s grandson, Clifton N. McArthur, and son-in-law, Levi Ankeny, both later served in Congress.

James Nesmith was born in what is now the Canadian province of New Brunswick (which was a British colony at the time) while his parents were on a visit from their home in Washington County, Maine, on July 23, 1820. Of Scottish and Irish heritage, his father was William Morrison Nesmith and his mother the former Harriet Miller. About 1828, James and his father moved to Claremont, New Hampshire, where he received a limited education. In 1838, Nesmith moved to Ohio, followed by Iowa in 1842 where he waited to immigrate to Oregon Country. Nesmith planned on traveling the Oregon Trail with Elijah White in 1842, but was late to arrive and instead left the next spring with Marcus Whitman after working as a carpenter in the interim at Fort Scott in Kansas.


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