"Portrait and Biographical Record of Portland and Vicinity, Oregon." Authors: "a compilation of this work....by a number of writers". Chapman Publishing Co; Chicago, 1903. p. 810. HON. THOMAS H. TONGUE Among the men of the present generation who have conferred honor and dignity upon the state which has honored them, was the late Thomas H. Tongue of Hillsboro. During his life-time he was one of the most prominent members of the Oregon bar, and he left the impress of his individuality most clearly defined. At the time of his death he was representing the First Oregon district in Congress, in which great body he was regarded as a most influential, patriotic and broad-minded man of affairs. Mr. Tongue was a native of England, having been born in Lincolnshire, June 23, 1844. He the only child born to Anthony and Rebecca Lawson Tongue. In the year 1859, when fifteen years of age, he left England with his parents for Washington county, Ore., his late home, where an uncle, Thomas Otchin, had lived since 1842. The family took steamer from Liverpool, and remained with the ship (which touched at Quebec and New York) until it reached Panama. From there they came direct to Portland, not stopping in San Francisco longer than the exigencies of the case demanded. For a year Mr. Tongue worked upon his uncle's farm and then upon the one which his father had purchased; in the meantime attending the district school when opportunity offered. Anxious for better advantages, he later entered Tualatin Academy, and finally, in 1868, graduated from Pacific University with high honors, having made his way entirely alone, unaided either by money or influence other than that of his own personality. Upon graduating he entered the office of Hon. W. D. Hare, in Hillsboro, and being admitted to the bar in 1870, immediately began the active practice of the law. Success soon crowned his efforts, because his intellectual equipment was unusually strong, he having been a close and earnest student of the fundamental principles of the law. Nature endowed him with a strong and vigorous mentality, and he possessed that persistent energy and close application, without which there is no success. Along with those qualities indispensable to a successful lawyer -- a keen, rapid, logical mind, plus the business sense and a greedy capacity for earnest labor, he brought to the starting point of his legal career certain rare gifts, eloquence of language and a strong and charming personality. His advancement was rapid and continuous and it was not long before his intellectual gifts and his erudition caused him to be recognized as a leader in his chosen calling, in the Willamette valley. From the beginning he took a keen interest in politics, but steadily refused office until 1888, when he was elected to the state senate, where he served until 1892. In that body he was a member of the judiciary committee and was instrumental in securing the passage of a number of measures of vital importance to the commonwealth, including the Compulsory Educational bill, and a bill creating a committee to appoint a State Veterinarian for the suppression of contagious diseases among domestic animals. He secured the passage of a bill annulling the previous law providing that a married woman should acknowledge a deed separate from that given by her husband; also the so-called "Law of Inheritance," placing the husband and wife on the same legal footing in matters of inheritance where there are no children. Other important legislative measures owe their origin or passage to Mr. Tongue's efforts, and the state of Oregon acknowledges its indebtedness to him for his various efforts in behalf of the commonwealth. In 1896 Mr. Tongue was elected on the Republican ticket to represent the First District of Oregon in Congress, receiving a plurality of sixty-four votes. No higher testimonial to his capable and high-minded public service can be given than by the statement that in 1898 he was re-elected by a plurality of two thousand votes in 1900 by a plurality of three thousand and nineteen votes, while in 1902 he received the splendid and unparalleled plurality of seven thousand three hundred and forty votes. During his first session he was a member of the Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands, and of the committee on agriculture. During the second and third sessions he was chairman of the Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands, and a member of the Committee on rivers and Harbors. He had been in congress but one term when Speaker Reed said of him, "I regard Mr. Tongue as one of the ten most able men in all congress." In 1902 he aided in securing the passage of the first irrigation bill passed by congress, and through his instrumentality the Indian War Veteran bill was passed in the session of 1901-02, and large appropriations for the Columbia river, in the Rivers and Harbors bill, which provided for the opening of that river from its mouth to the head of navigation at Snake river. Mr. Tongue found relaxation from the arduous cares of statesmanship and his legal practice in the supervision of his extensive agricultural interests in Washington county. He owned several very valuable farms and was largely engaged in raising lie stock, including standard bred horses and Ayrshire cattle. He was awarded numerous prizes on his stock at state fairs, for several years carrying off nearly all of the prizes offered on Ayrshire cattle. A number of his horses, which after his death were sold at auction a high prices, have splendid records on the track. He was very fond of fine stock of all kinds and took a just and commendable pride in those to be found upon his farms. In Hillsboro, Ore., on December 25, 1868, Mr. Tongue was united in marriage to Emily M. Eagleton, a native of Indiana, who came to Oregon with her parents, George Eagleton and Mary Elliot Eagleton, in 1860. Seven children were born of this union: Mrs. Edith Reames, of Jacksonville, Ore., a graduate of Pacific University, whose husband. A. E. Reames, was the candidate of the Democratic party to succeed Mr. Tongue in congress at the special election held in June, 1903; E. B. Tongue, who is deputy district attorney, now engaged in practice in Hillsboro; Thomas H., Jr., who was graduated from the Columbian Law School with the class of 1903; Mrs. Elizabeth Freeman of Portland, Ore.; Mary G.; Bertha R.; and Florence. Mr. Tongue was made a Mason in Tuality Lodge No. 21, A.F. & A. M., in which he was a past master; was a member of the Royal Arch Chapter in Portland, and in 1888 served as orator in the Grand Lodge. He belonged both to the lodge and encampment of the Odd Fellows, and was a past chief patriarch in the latter. He was also with the Knights of Pythias and Patrons of Husbandry. His religious faith was indicated by his membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church. A recognized leader in the ranks of the Republican party in Oregon, he served as a member of the executive committee of the Republican state committee and was its secretary; he attended the state conventions serving as chairman on two occasions; and for two years was president of the Young Men's State Republican Club. His opinions always carried great weight in the counsels of his party, and his influence was felt even beyond the borders of his state. His was a sturdy character and a stalwart patriotism, and having a strong attachment for our free institutions he was ever willing to make any personal sacrifice for their preservation. He commanded the respect of members of congress of both parties, and both there and at home, where he was best known, he inspired personal friendships of unusual strength, and all who knew him had the highest admiration for his qualities of mind and heart. In the midst of his active and highly useful life this big-hearted and unselfish man of affairs was called from his labors by the hand of death, in the city of Washington, on December 11, 1903. His remains were brought to Hillsboro under the escort of a congressional committee, composed of Hon. M. A. Moody of Oregon; Roswell P. Bishop of Michigan; John D. Bellamy of North Carolina; J. E. Ransdell of Louisiana; James H. Davidson of Wisconsin, and J. C. Needham of California. Speaker Henderson said, in speaking of his death, "Mr. Tongue has been one of the strong, earnest legislators since he has been in congress. No man could have been more devoted to the interests of his state. He was a man of great firmness and great wisdom in managing the matters that he had in charge, or that he felt an interest in. He has got through legislation that few other men could have passed. * * * His state and his country have lost a man growing in usefulness and in power." Of his labors for Oregon a "special" to the Oregonian, from Washington, said: "It seems to be the consensus of opinion among his colleagues that he leaves an exceptionally creditable record behind him. In his entire career his most difficult accomplishment was the passage of the Indian War Veteran bill, a measure for which he labored five full years, before success crowned his efforts; and just at the time when his aged constituents are about to reap the benefits of his labors he unexpectedly precedes them across the river. A similar coincidence is the monument that will stand to his memory at Salem, the new public building which is just about to be completed. Again, those who in the future visit Crater Lake National Park will remember that that beautiful spot was segregated and preserved for them largely through the efforts of Mr. Tongue. It would be almost impossible to detail the great good he has done for his state as a member of the Rivers and Harbors committee, and it was due largely to his personal insistence that an open river has been assured at the Dalles and a permanent deep channel insured for the mouth of the Columbia. * * * Then, too, must be recalled the work that Mr. Tongue did as chairman of the irrigation committee that reported and passed the famous government reclamation act of the last session." On Sunday, February 22, the House of Representatives assembled in Washington for the purpose of commemorating the life and character of Mr. Tongue, and eulogies were delivered by twelve of his fellow-representatives: Hon. Theodore E. Burton, Hon. Roswell P. Bishop, Hon. Stephen M. Sparkman, Hon. Frank W. Mondell, Hon. James H. Davidson, Hon. Walter Reeves, Hon. George P. Lawrence, Hon. J. C. Needham, Hon. J. D. Bellamy, Hon. B. B. Dovener, Hon. F. L. Coombs, and Hon. Francis W. Cushman. The editors of this work have deemed it but just to make a permanent record of the following tribute from Representative Burton, who was closely associated with Mr. Tongue and who -- with the exception of Speaker Henderson, his most intimate friend -- had learned to appreciate him thoroughly: "No death was more sudden or unexpected than that of Thomas H. Tongue. In the evening he was conversing pleasantly with his son and with his daughter. On the morrow he was cold in death. Swiftly following constant messages of love and of hope to his father and mother, his wife and children on the far-off Pacific Coast came the telegraphic message like a black cloud in the clear sky, announcing his death. "His life was essentially that of a pioneer. He went to Oregon before its admission as a state twelve years before a railway had been constructed within its borders, at a time when that great commonwealth, now numbering more than four hundred thousand people, had less than fifty thousand; when Portland, now a prosperous and growing metropolis, was little more than a struggling village. "His early surroundings inured him to toil and adversity. There was on royal road to success in any promise that was held out to him; but the very obstacles with which he had to contend stimulated those mighty hopes that make men great. "He was essentially a product of the country; and, just as rural surroundings furnish a clearer physical air, so they furnished a clearer moral atmosphere, and they exercised a very prominent influence upon his life work. He was a lawyer, but he was interested as well in farming and in public affairs; one who was in touch with a great multitude of people and a great variety of interests, where the simpler phases of life mingle with those enterprises and interests which are regarded as greater and more important. He came to Washington all untried and unknown. It was necessary for him to learn the rules and to find out something of the complicated methods in which business is transacted. but as far as regarded honesty and patriotism he had no need of any lessons. Those were implanted in him in the beginning, and he furnished an illustration of the fact that for a career in congress that equipment which is most needed, and which in the long run must tell most powerfully, is conscience and regard for duty. His legislative career, though not long, nevertheless has its monuments. He was chairman of the committee on arid lands at the time when that very important innovation was adopted by which the central government undertakes the reclamation of vast tracts of desert lands. His name will be inseparably linked with this measure, under which millions of acres will be added to the national domain of arable lands, and it is hoped will furnish additional opportunity and additional prosperity to our common country. " As a member of the committee on rivers and harbors, his first solicitude was for his state and for the Pacific coast; but, like all others, he came with time to realize the importance of those broader responsibilities and duties which cause a man to lay hold upon all the interests of this great country. He recognized the importance of improved methods of internal communication, recognized how much the growth of the country depends upon the development of our ports; and, while conservative and careful, he adopted that liberal policy which made him an advocate of improvements in this direction, gave him a new comprehension and qualities for leadership in this great department." ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in September 2006 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.