* A portrait has been posted on-line at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~westklic/wcportrait.html
FELIX C. SEXTON, sheriff of Wasco county, and member of the firm of Sexton & Walther, dealers in hardware and implements, at The Dalles, was born in Henry county, Tennessee, April 13, 1854. His parents were James and Milberry (Ellis) Sexton, natives of Tennessee. The father's father was born in Ireland. The father, who was a farmer, died about 1873, and the mother passed away in September, 1900, in Kansas, at the age of seventy-eight. Her mother lived to be ninety-eight years old.
Until 1859 our subject was reared in Tennessee, and the family then moved to Illinois where he received his education in the district schools in his locality. At the time he was working on a farm with his father he split the log seats for the log school house at which he received his elementary education. The Sexton family moved to Kansas, and when our subject was eighteen years of age his father died. Young Sexton and his brother purchased a farm and they cultivated the same until 1880, when, in common with their neighbors, they suffered greatly from drought and the grasshopper pest. Then our subject and his wife came to Oregon, she remaining in Portland visiting while he came to The Dalles arriving April 16, 1880, with a cash capital of five dollars. He immediately went to work on a ranch, remained through harvest, and then went into the timber where he split rails and chopped cord wood, and for three years followed various employments, and saved money sufficient to purchase a ranch about two miles from Kingsley postoffice, and here the family resided for thirteen years. Disposing of this property they came to The Dalles, and prepared to return to Kansas. Owing to high water in the Columbia they could not get away, and when they attempted to leave by the rail-road the strike on the line prevented them from doing so. It was the wish of Mrs. Sexton to remain, and in the various obstacles thrown in their way she could see the hand of fate, and the eastern trip was abandoned. Mr. Sexton then engaged in the feed business three years and when he disposed of the same he was appointed deputy sheriff by Robert Kelly, now living in Spokane. In June, 1902, our subject was elected to the office of sheriff of Wasco county, receiving a majority of five hundred and seven on the Republican ticket, running ahead of his ticket two hundred votes. He has served nearly every season as delegate to county conventions and has always taken as active an interest in politics as his business would permit. In January, 1901, he entered into partnership with W.E. Walther in his present business. Our subject, however, is justly proud of being a successful farmer, and holds to the opinion that that is the ideal life for one to lead.
February 12, 1879, Mr. Sexton was married, at Abilene, Kansas, to Vinelda V. Bradfield, a native of Kansas, born in Dickinson county. Her father, Erasmus W., and Mary (Bell) Bradfield, are both dead. Mr. Sexton has six brothers and two sisters living: William H., of Kansas; George W., of Sherman county, Oregon; James T., Joseph M., Isaac A., and Henry, all of Kansas; Jerline H., wife of Samuel W. Scoggins, of Denver, Colorado; Martha J., married to J.H. Dunn, a farmer, living in Kansas. Mrs. Sexton has three brothers and three sisters: Benton P., mining in Alaska; Jesse J., a contractor and builder in Kansas; Ellis E., an Oklahoma farmer; Dora D., wife of David Sommers, of Kansas; Annie A., married to William Swartz, of Kansas; and Montie M., single, residing in Kansas. Our subject has nine children living, having lost one; Francis M., bookkeeper in the hardware store; Millie M., Dora M., Guy A., Leona, Felix N., Harold, Nello, and Theodore D.
Mr. Sexton is a member of the B.P.O.E., I.O.O.F., of which he is past grand and representative to the grand lodge, and the W.O.W.
In June, 1904, Mr. Sexton was reelected sheriff by a majority of over twelve hundred.
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in January 2005 by Jeffrey L. Elmer. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.