Hunt, Herbert and Floyd C. Kaylor.  Washington: West of the Cascades.  Vol. I.
Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1917.  p. 499-500.

(Note: this biography was taken from the memoirs of William West, written about
1913, before his death).

JUDGE O. B. MCFADDEN:  "The Chehalis district was then known as Saunders'
bottom, where the Saunders family held a donation land claim, and Judge O. B.
McFadden owned some 800 or 900 acres of land in the valley, but his judicial
work kept him in Olympia the greater part of his time, where he died about 1875
or 1876.  Judge McFadden was sent out to this territory in 1853 by James
Buchanan, then secretary of State and later president, to fill the position of
justice of the supreme court, and in 1858 was appointed chief justice, and
served in that capacity until 1861, when, owning to the change of national
administration, a successor was appointed.  He then practiced law until 1872,
when he was elected territorial delegate to Congress and spent most of the next
two years in Washington City.  During his residence in this territory he was the
active leader of the democratic party, was energetic and influential in all
matters pertaining to the welfare of the territory, and in 1863 raised by
subscription in the City of Olympia $1,000 for the improvement of the road
through Saunder's bottom, which was highly necessary, as nearly all of the
produce of Lewis County had to be hauled that way.  So with the money a new and
shorter road was cut out through the forest and most of it was corduroyed and
places were made passable where previously the wagons would sink to the axles in
the mud.  So our present road builders can see that good roads was an important
question more than fifty years ago.
	"The judge was a man of many parts, an able lawyer and jurist, a good
farmer, resourceful pioneer, genial in society, and a born leader.  His country
residence is yet standing in the southern part of the City of Chehalis, and is
to the best of my knowledge the oldest inhabited house of this country."   [The
editors added a note saying this house was owned by D. H. Dowry as of 1917].


Submitted by: Jenny Tenlen

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Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Lewis Co., WA GenWeb Project.
Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the individual
featured in the biographies.