Delazon SMITH, Congress, OR (1816-1860)

SMITH, Delazon, a Senator from Oregon; born in New Berlin, Chenango County, N.Y., October 5, 1816; graduated from Oberlin College, Ohio, in 1837; studied law and was admitted to the bar; in 1838 established the New York Watchman in Rochester, N.Y., of which he was editor for two years; published and edited the True Jeffersonian and the Western Herald in Rochester in 1840, and in 1841 founded the Western Empire in Dayton, Ohio; special United States commissioner to Quito, Ecuador, 1842-1845; moved to the Territory of Iowa in 1846 and entered the ministry; moved to the Territory of Oregon in 1852; edited the Oregon Democrat; member, Territorial house of representatives 1854-1856; delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1857; upon the admission of Oregon as a State into the Union was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from February 14 to March 3, 1859; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; died in Portland, Oreg., on November 19, 1860; interment in the City Cemetery, Albany, Linn County, Oreg.

Bibliography

Smith, Delazon. A History of Oberlin, or New Lights of the West. Cleveland: S. Underhill & Son, 1837.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present