Lockley, Fred.  "History of the Columbia River Valley, From The Dalles to the
Sea." Vol. 2.  S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1928.  p. 940.
 
THOMAS H. TONGUE, SR.

     Washington county, Oregon, has just reason for pride in the list of its
citizens who have worthily performed their part in public affairs and have
gained distinction and honor.  None of these held a higher place in public
regard that did the late Thomas H. Tongue, Sr., who as lawyer, statesman, farmer
and citizen, stood preeminent among the men of his day, so that no biographical
record of the Columbia River Valley would be complete without due reference to
his career.  Fred Lockley, in the Oregon Daily Journal of February 3, 1922, gave
the following interview with Thomas H. Tongue, Jr.:
     "Thomas H. Tongue was born in Lincolnshire, England, June 23, 1844.  When
he was fifteen years old his parents decided to come to Oregon, where his
mother's brother, Thomas Otchin, lived.  Thomas Otchin arrived at Fort Vancouver
in 1839.  The following year he went up to near where Olympia now is and took up
a claim.  He did not like that country, so relinquished his claim, and in the
fall of 1841 he came to Tualatin Plains and took up six hundred and forty acres
of prairie land.  Another settler coming in and being desirous of getting
prairie land, Mr. Otchin let him have half of his six hundred and forty acre
claim and he took up three hundred and twenty acres of timber land.  The new
settler died and later James W. Chamber, father of Dr. F. A. Bailey's wife of
this city, took up the claim.
     "Anthony Tongue, with his wife Rebecca, and their only child, Thomas H.,
came here by way of the Isthmus of Panama, reaching here on Christmas day, 1859.
Shortly after their arrival Anthony Tongue bought a place three miles west of
North Plains.  Here they lived the remainder of their lives.  Anthony Tongue
died at the age of eighty-two and Rebecca Tongue ran the place until her death,
at the age of eighty-six.  She was able to direct the work of the farm until
within two weeks of her death.  She was a small woman, but had tremendous energy
and determination.
     "Thomas H. Tongue went to school in district No. 1 for two years and then
went to pacific University.  He was graduated in 1868 and, going back to
Hillsboro, studied law with W. D. Hare, an early-day lawyer here.He was admitted
to the bar in 1870.  The law was his vocation and fine livestock his recreation.
He loved horses.  He started with thoroughbreds, but later sold them and raised
standard breds.  He also raised Ayrshire cattle and Berkshire hogs.  He owned
the racetrack at Hillsboro for many years.  He owned six or seven ranches in
this county, so he had an opportunity to try out his ideas about breeding up the
stock of the Willamette valley and thus eliminating the scrubs.
     "In 1888 he was elected to the state senate and served as chairman of the
judiciary committee.  In 1890 he was permanent chairman of the republican state
convention.  Two years later he became chairman of the state organization of
republican clubs.  In 1892 he was a delegate to the republican national
convention.  In 1894 he was again permanent chairman of the republican state
convention.  He held many other offices in the republican party and served in
the fifty-fifth Congress and was reelected to the fifty-sixth, fifty-seventh and
fifty-eighth Congresses.  He died in Washington on January 11, 1903."
     In 1868 Mr. Tongue married Miss Margarite Eagleton, a school teacher and a
daughter of George Eagleton, a farmer, who had settled her during the early '
60's.  To them were born eight children, as follows:  Edwin, who died when three
days old; Edith, who was the wife of A. E. Reames and died in 1918; Edmund
Burke, who is represented elsewhere in this work; Mrs. Mary Gertrude Lombard, a
resident of Portland, Oregon, whose son, Benjamin, is with the Union Pacific
Railroad; Bertha Rebecca; Thomas H., Jr., a sketch of whom appears on another
page of this work; Elizabeth, the wife of F. E. Fey, who is with the United
Steel Company at Portland; and Mrs. Florence Munger, of Portland, who has two
children, Harrison M. and Margaret.
     Mr. Tongue was for many years active and influential in county, state and
national political affairs, and particularly in congress, where his ability,
vision and courage gained recognition and enabled him to perform distinctive
public service.  He was greatly interested in the development of the country's
waterways and harbors and as one of the ranking members of the rivers and
harbors committee, he was able to secure many appropriations for public
improvements in his section of the country.  He was chairman of the committee on
the irrigation of arid lands, and he was the author of the bill that authorized
the creation of Crater National Park.  He was an active advocate of greater
government responsibility for pensions for veterans of the Indian wars.  The
splendid type of service which he rendered in Congress prompted his Washington
friends to urge him to make the race for United States senator, but on account
of his personal friendship for Senator Fulton he would not permit his name to be
presented as a candidate.  He was a Mason, being one of the early members of
Tualatin Lodge No. 6, F. & A. M.; the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the
Knights of Pythias.  He was actively interested in everything that concerned the
welfare and prosperity of his section of the country and took a leading part in
promoting the Washington county fair, which in early days ranked second only to
the Oregon state fair.  He was one of the originators of the plans for the great
Portland exposition of 1905, but died before it became an actuality.
     As a lawyer, Mr. Tongue was learned, sagacious, resourceful, and honorable,
commanding not only the respect of his professional colleagues but also the
confidence of the public.  He practiced alone, never having associated himself
with a partner, and he stood among the leading members of the bar of this state,
being employed as counsel in some of the most important cases tried in the
courts of the Pacific northwest.  After he was elected to congress, the press of
public affairs demanded so much of his time and attention that his law practice
was more or less intermittent.  During his residence here he maintained a keen
interest in stock raising, in which business he showed remarkably sound
judgment.  He was a close student of stock pedigrees and held well defined
opinions as to the pure breeding of farm stock.  He was one of the earliest
advocates of pure bred stock and one of the first in this part of the country to
bring in registered stock, including horses, cattle, hogs, Cotswold sheep,
Angora goats and poultry, and his example in this respect had an important
influence no the attitude of the farmers and stockraisers of this valley, who
recognized the wisdom of his views and the splendid results of his operations.
His fine public spirit was evidenced when the county fair association got into
financial difficulties, at which time he bought a tract of land and let the
association have free use of it.  In early days he rendered effective service as
a member of the school board and in every possible way showed a wholesome and
unselfish desire to contribute of his efforts to promoting the best interests of
the community.  His early efforts to secure an education were noteworthy, for
her served as janitor of the college building as payment for his tuition and
grubbed much of the old Naylor homestead land in order to pay for his room and
board.  He never allowed personal pride to stand in the way of honest labor, and
during his mature life he was never better satisfied than when rendering a
service of some sort.  He was an exemplar of the finest type of citizenship and
throughout the section of the state in which he lived he commanded uniform
confidence and esteem, for he was a man of lovable character and qualities which
attracted men to him.

 
*******************

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.