James Nesmith

American politician and lawyer

James Willis Nesmith (July 23, 1820 – June 17, 1885) was an American politician and lawyer from Oregon. Born in New Brunswick to American parents, he grew up in New Hampshire and Maine. A Democrat, he moved to Oregon Country in 1843 where he entered politics as a judge, a legislator in the Provisional Government of Oregon, a United States Marshal, and after statehood a United States senator and Representative. Nesmith’s grandson, Clifton N. McArthur, and son in law, Levi Ankeny, both later served in Congress.

James Nesmith was born in what is now the Canadian province of New Brunswick (which was a British colony at the time) while his parents were on a visit from their home in Washington County, Maine, on July 23, 1820. Of Scottish and Irish heritage, his father was William Morrison Nesmith and his mother the former Harriet Miller. About 1828, James and his father moved to Claremont, New Hampshire, where he received a limited education. He finished his term in 1846 and moved to Polk County where he took a land claim, began farming, and married Pauline Goff on June 21, with whom he would have seven children. Nesmith next served as a captain during the Cayuse War against Native Americans in Eastern Oregon from 1847 to 1848.

On February 14, 1859, Oregon entered the Union as the 33rd state. In 1860, the Oregon Legislative Assembly elected Nesmith to the United States Senate. were the only Democrats in that chamber to vote for the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to abolish slavery. After serving in the Senate, he was appointed Minister to Austria, but his nomination was not confirmed. After returning to Rickreall, he served as road supervisor of Polk County in 1868. Nesmith was elected to the Forty third Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his cousin, Joseph G. Wilson, and served from December 1, 1873, to March 3, 1875. He did not seek re nomination in 1874 to the Forty fourth Congress and returned to farming in Polk County.

In addition to his cousin Joseph Wilson, Nesmith's grandson, Clifton Nesmith McArthur, was also a United States Representative from Oregon. Levi Ankeny, Senator for Washington, was his son in law. James Willis Nesmith died in Rickreall, Oregon, on June 17, 1885, at the age of 64 and was interred in Polk County on the south bank of Rickreall Creek.