"An Illustrated history of Baker, Grant, Malheur and Harney Counties : with a brief outline of the early history of the state of Oregon." Chicago?: Western Historical Pub. Co., 1902. Page 299. Baker County. HON. WILLIAM R. USHER This gentleman has been one of the potent factors in the advancement of civilization in the frontier places where his lot has been cast, and especially so in this county, since here and in an adjoining state he has been a real leader in the fullest sense of the term, while his life has been fraught with both commendable labor and the display of unswerving integrity and upright principles, and his worth is manifest in that since the days of the Mexican war, of which struggle he has the honor of being a veteran, until the present, he has shown forth intrepidity, probity and fine ability. Mr. Usher was born on the rolling deep while his parents, William R. and Elizabeth (Malsbury) Usher, were en route from England, their native land, to the United States, on June 21, 1832. While he was but a child his parents returned to England, where they both died, and at the age of eleven he went to steamboating on the Ohio. When he had reached the age of fifteen he entered the Mexican war, learning there the hardships of a military career. In 1851 he started for San Francisco, and the next year landed in that city, and in that state he followed mining until 1861. Then he went to Nevada, and five years later to Idaho, and in 1864 he was in the famous Silver City mining camp. Five years later he removed to Utah, and in 1878 we find him again in Nevada, and in 1880 he came to Eagle valley, where he has since resided. He was one of the enterprising prospectors that discovered the well known Cornucopia mines and name them. He also laid out and named the town of Richland, which is situated on a portion of his homestead. While in Idaho he was called by the people to serve in the sixth session of the state legislature, and since then he ahs held numerous other offices, both in that state and here, being deputy sheriff of Union county for a term of years, and his name has frequently been before the conventions of the county. He is affiliated with the I.O.O.F. in Tuscarora, Nevada, and with the K. of P., Blue Mountain Lodge, No. 28, at Union. The marriage of Mr. Usher and Miss Virginia, daughter of Dangerfield and Ellen (Randall) Carpenter, natives respectively of Virginia and Kentucky, was solemnized in 1865, and to them has been born one child, W. R., who died in Silver City in 1868. Mr. Usher is a notary public at the present time and is doing business for the Pennsylvania Fire Insurance Company. ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in September 2005 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.