Salem Pioneer Cemetery ~ Reuben Patrick Boise ~ part of the Marion County Pioneer Cemeteries of Oregon
Reuben Patrick Boise
LAST NAME: Boise FIRST NAME: Reuben MIDDLE NAME: Patrick NICKNAME: 
MAIDEN NAME:  AKA 1:  AKA 2:  AKA 3: 
TITLE: Hon. GENDER: M MILITARY: 
BORN: 9 Jun 1818 DIED: 10 Apr 1907 BURIED: 12 Apr 1907
ETHNICITY:   OCCUPATION:  Attorney, Judge
BIRTH PLACE:  Blandford, Hampton Co., Mass.
DEATH PLACE: Salem, Marion Co., Oregon
NOTES: 
OSBH DC (Marion County 1907) #3426 - R. P. Boise, male, married, b. Mass, d. 10 Apr 1907 at the age of 89 in Salem, Oregon, interment 12 Apr 1907 IOOF, undertaker - A. M. Clough.
MARRIAGE:
(Source - The Era of Clipper Ships, by Donald Gunn Ross, III, pg 24.  
SEE http://www.eraoftheclipperships.com/page24web4.html)
"Reuben P. Boise arrived [in San Francisco] from Portland, Oregon on September 15th, and two days later on Wednesday evening Ellen and Reuben were married aboard the Flying Cloud by the Reverend T.D. Hunt.
Reuben and Ellen went off to the Jones Hotel at the corner of California and Sansome Street the next day for a two-day honeymoon. The large wooden structure was a favorite about town known for its "very clean" bedrooms and bedding, and for its spacious balconies on every side of the building.
For two happy days, Ellen and Reuben took carriage rides about the city sightseeing and shopping. The now married couple then left for their new home in Oregon".

BIOGRAPHICAL: 
HON. REUBEN P. BOISE Judge Reuben P. Boise was one of Oregon's most distinguished pioneers and was a prominent factor in shaping her destiny. For more than a half century he was active in public life in this state and his name; was an honored one during all that long period. His paternal ancestral line was of French Huguenot extraction, and is traced back to France, where the name was spelled Du Bois, and from that country to Scotland and North Ireland. 
The American progenitor of the family was David Boise, who settled on a farm near Blandford, Massachusetts, in 1735, and from him the line descends through his son Samuel, who was the father of Reuben, a soldier in the Revolutionary war. The latter's son also bore the name of Reuben, and he was the father of Reuben P., all of whom were born on the old homestead near Blandford. 
Judge Boise was possessed of many papers, letters, [page 525] contracts, deeds, etc., that contain the signatures of the complete line of his paternal ancestors in America back to and including that of David. These documents, together with much old colonial furniture, were passed on to his children. 
Reuben P. Boise was born June 9, 1818, and was reared on his father's farm, in the meanwhile attending the district schools. He entered Williams College, where he was graduated with honor in 1843, after which he went to Missouri, where for two years he was engaged in teaching school. Having determined to devote his life to the practice of law, he returned to his native state and at Westfield took up the study of law in the office of his uncle, Hon. Patrick Boise, a distinguished attorney of that city. Studying in the office with him at that time was Asahel Bush, who later became so prominent in Oregon history. 
In 1848, after three years of intensive study, Mr. Boise was admitted to the bar and at once entered upon the practice of his profession at Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, where he remained two years. In the fall of 1850, Mr. Boise came to Oregon, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, landing at Astoria and proceeding thence to Portland, where he engaged in the practice of law. There he gained quick recognition as an able and energetic lawyer and soon was in command of a large practice. In 1852, while attending a session of court in Dallas, J. W. Nesmith showed him where he could take up a donation land claim of six hundred and forty acres adjoining the Nesmith Mill property on the east. As soon as Mr. Boise returned to Portland, he filed at the land office there on this claim and moved with his family to it, there making his home until late in 1857, but still maintaining his law office in Portland. 
In 1857 Judge Boise moved to Salem. For many years his home was there in the winter and on the farm in the summer. He was ever in the market to buy any land that joined his farm so at the time of his death he owned many acres in the Ellendale section. 
In 1851 Judge Boise was united in marriage to Miss Ellen F. Lyon, who died December 6, 1865, leaving three children, Fisher A., Reuben P., Jr., and Whitney L. The last two named are still living. Mrs. Boise was a daughter of Lemuel Lyon, a Boston merchant, who went to California in the early '50s and came to Oregon about 1854, locating at Independence, where he built the second store building and the first grain warehouse in the town, becoming a prominent and successful man. Later he went to The Dalles and engaged in mercantile business, which he relinquished on his appointment as United States consul general to Japan. His death occurred at sea while en route home for a visit. 
On December 27, 1866, Judge Boise was married to Emily A. Pratt, who died March 26, 1919. She was a native of Webster , Massachusetts, and a daughter of Ephraim Pratt, a manufacturer of that state. To this union were born two daughters: Sarah Ellen, who died August 5, 1891; and Mrs. Maria Boise Lauterman, now residing in Salem. 
In 1853 the territorial legislature elected Judge Boise prosecuting attorney for the first and second districts, embracing all those counties lying on the west of the Willamette river. In the same year he was elected one of the Code Commissioners and assisted in the compilation of Oregon's first code. In 1854 he was elected a member of the territorial legislature, and by that body reelected to the office of prosecuting attorney, the holding at the same time of the two offices being [page 526] not then unlawful. In 1856 he was again reelected to the legislature and by that organization to the office of prosecuting attorney, serving in both capacities. In 1857, when a convention was called to formulate the state constitution, Judge Boise was elected a delegate from Polk county and served in that convention as chairman of the committee on legislation. In the same year, 1857, he was appointed by the president of the United States, James Buchanan, one of the associate justices of the supreme court of Oregon. In 1858, under the new arrangement as prepared for the state, an election was held at which Judge Boise was chosen circuit judge and ex-officio justice of the supreme court and succeeded to the office of chief justice, serving as such from 1862 to 1864. Again in the latter year he was reelected judge and in regular succession again succeeded to the office of chief justice, serving from 1868 to 1870. From the latter year to 1876, he engaged in the practice of law at Salem. The legislature of 1874 elected Judge Boise one of the state capitol building commissioners, and he served in that capacity until 1876, in which year he was reelected to his former position of judge of the third judicial district and ex-officio justice of the supreme court. Two years later the legislature reorganized the courts of Oregon and created a separate supreme court. 
Judge Boise then resigned the office of circuit judge to accept the appointment from the governor as associate justice, serving from 1878 to 1880 in the newly organized separate supreme court. In the year 1880, Judge Boise was reelected to his former position as circuit judge of the third judicial district and served the full term of six years. Again in 1886 he was reelected to the same position for still another term, the same ending in July, 1892. 
For the six years following this date he practiced law in Salem. In 1898, the citizens of the third judicial district again honored Judge Boise by electing him to his old place as circuit judge, from which position he retired in July, 1904, at the age of eighty-six years, having at that time been connected with Oregon's judiciary longer than any other man in the state's history. 
Judge Boise took a great interest in education; He was a member of Portland's first public school board, and in recognition of that fact one of the public school buildings of that city has been named after him; He was a trustee of Pacific University at Forest Grove, and was also officially connected with La Creole Academy at Dallas and Willamette University at Salem. He also was for years one of the regents of the Agricultural College at Corvallis; Pacific University conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws. The Judge was a member of the Grange and for years was the master of the state organization. At different times he was connected with efforts to advance industries in this state; notable along this line was his service as president of the Ellendale Mill Company, the corporation that built, and from November, 1866, to May, 1871, ran a woolen mill at Ellendale, Polk county. 
He was the owner of much valuable property in Salem, including the following additions to the city: Boise's first and second; subdivision of North Salem blocks, Pratt, and Blandford. The Judge was a man of dignified bearing, yet cordial and unaffected in manner. He commanded the friendship of all with whom he was in any way associated [page 527] and the genuine respect and confidence of his fellowmen generally, for he honored his state by his 1ife and achievements. He died April 10, 1907. In an account of his life's work published at that time appeared the following: "Conscientious, capable, persistent in effort, Judge Boise has lived and labored, and full of years and honors has passed on." [page 528] 
History of the Willamette Valley Oregon by Robert Carlton Clark, Ph. D., Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company © 1927; vol. II, pages 525-528
BIOGRAPHICAL: 
Personal - Reuben P. Boise, Jr., son of Judge R.P. Boise, of this city, who has been visiting on the farm near Dallas, passed through yesterday en route to his present home at Tacoma, where he is city editor of the Daily Evening News. 
Oregon Statesman 31 Aug 1886 3:2 See also: http://salemhistory.net/people/p002.htm
OBITUARY: 
HON. R. P. BOISE PASSES AWAY AT HIS HOME IN THIS CITY. 
His Death Removed One of Most Highly Honored Oregon Pioneers. 
Was Aged Eighty-Eight. Able Jurist Figured Prominently in Shaping Destiny of State. 
At his residence, at 960 Broadway, in this city, yesterday afternoon, Wednesday, April 10, 1907, at 2 o’clock p.m., Judge R. P. Boise passed to his final rest. He has been ill only a short time, and he retained his consciousness and his mental vigor up to within a few hours before the end came. 
Honorable Reuben P. Boise was one of Oregon’s most honored pioneers. He came to the state in 1850, and was a prominent factor in shaping her destiny. 
Judge Boise was born in Blandford, Hampden county, Massachusetts, on June 9, 1818. He would have reached his 89th year on June 9 next. His father, Reuben Boise, was also a native of Massachusetts. 
The Boise family, emigrated from France to Scotland, and later to the north of Ireland, and Mr. Boise’s paternal great great-grandfather emigrated to Massachusetts, locating on a farm, which is still retained in the family, and where Mr. Boise’s father was raised and lived all his life. He married Miss Sallie Putnam, a relative of General Putnam, of Revolutionary fame, her father, Jacob Putnam, having served as a colonel during the whole of that struggle. 
Judge Boise’s father was a farmer, and a man of prominence, having held several offices in his state, among which were county commissioner and county clerk; he also represented his district in teh state senate of Massachusetts. He had eight children, four sons and four daughters. Of this family, Judge Boise lived the longest and for a number of years was the only surviving member. 
The judge was raised on his father’s farm, was sent to the public schools and took a classical course in Williams college, from which he graduated with honor in 1843. He went west, to the state of Missouri, where he was engaged in teaching school two years, and returned to his native state and read law with his uncle, Patrick Boise, who was a distinguished lawyer of Westfield, Massachusetts. After three years’ study of the law, he was admitted to the bar in 1848, beginning the practice of his profession at Chicopee Falls, where he remained two years, emigrating in the fall of 1850 via the Isthmus to Oregon. He landed in Astoria, Oregon, and began the practice of law in Portland in the spring of 1851, which was then a small place, with a few inhabitants but with plenty of shipping business. His practice proved successful and in the fall of 1852 he took up his section of land in Polk county, built a house, improved the property and resided on it for four years, and still owned it at his death. In 1851 the territorial legislature elected him prosecuting attorney of the First and Second district. This comprised all the county on the west side of the Willamette river, and nearly all of the Willamette valley except Clackamas and Multnomah counties. He served in t his capacity for about four years. In 1853 he, in company with Hon. James K. Kelly and Hon. D. Bigelow, were elected code commissioners for Oregon, and he thus became one of the first compilers of the first code of law in book form in the territory, and, in fact, the founder of the present mode of practice. In 1854 he was re-elected prosecuting attorney, and at the same election was elected to represent Polk county in the territorial legislature. Two years afterward he was re-elected and during both terms took an active part in its deliberations. 
In 1857 he, was a representative for Polk county to the constitutional convention, where he was chairman of the committee on legislation, and prepared that portion of the constitution relating to the legislative department and otherwise materially assisted in furnishing Oregon with her fundamental laws. In this same year he was appointed by President Buchanan one of the supreme judges of the territory. The next year, after the admission of the state into the Union, he was elected to that office and, from 1862 to 1864 inclusive, was chief justice. Upon the expiration of his term he was again elected for six years. In 1870 he was again chosen by the people to fill that honorable position, but Hon. B. F. Bonham, his competitor, having commenced an action to contest his seat on the bench, and not desiring to engage in long and expensive litigation, he resigned and returned to the practice of his profession. In 1874 he was elected by the legislature as one of the capitol building commissioners, which office he held until 1876, when he was again elected to his old position on the supreme bench. Two years later, the legislature having divided the supreme and circuit judges into district classes, he received the appointment as one of the judges of the supreme court. In 1880 he was elected judge of the Third judicial district which office he held continuously until 1893. He practiced law until 1898, when he was again elected circuit judge, serving till 1904. 
In 1851 Judge Boise was happily married to Miss Ellen F. Lyon, a native of Boston and daughter of Mr. Lemuel Lyon, a Boston merchant. They had three sons, all born in Oregon: Reuben P., Whitney L., and Fisher A. After fourteen years of happy married life, the devoted mother died. 
In 1867 he was married to Miss Emily A. Pratt, a native of Webster, Massachusetts, and a daughter of Mr. Ephraim Pratt, a manufacturer of that state. They had two daughters, Ellen S, and Mae E. The former was lost by a sad accident and Mae E. resides at the family home. 
Judge Boise came to Salem to reside in 1857, where he has since remained. He first purchased a block of lots in the city where the Academy of the Sacred Heart now stands, where he lived until 1865. In 1880 he purchased a farm in North Salem, where he resided up to the time of his death. It is the property on which the first house in Salem was built. This farm, however, has been platted into town lots, and what was then a farm is now a densely populated district of Salem. The judge has added from time to time to the acreage of his first ranch until he now has in one body 2500 acres. Having been raised on a farm, he has taken an interest in agricultural affairs and has been a champion of legislation in Oregon in behalf of farm interests and has five times been elected master of the state grange and has attended a number of meetings of the national grange held in different states. He has also zealously aided the cause of learning, realizing by experience the benefit of a superior education. He was twice a member of the board of trustees of the Pacific university at Forest Grove, of the La Creole academy at Dallas, and of the Willamette university of Salem, in the prosperity of all of which he took a personal interest. Pacific university conferred on the judge the honorable degree of Doctor of Laws. 
Few indeed are the men who have led so useful and honorable life and seldom has it been the lot of man to serve his country for over fifty years continuously without a single tarnish on his record, evidencing a high order of legal ability and the very highest conscientious regard for his duty. This combined with an excellent judgment and an indomitable independence of character, have made him the eminently successful jurist he has been. He has exhibited the same independence of character and adherence to his sense of duty to politics. He began his political career as a Democrat, with which party he affiliated until the time of the great Civil War, when his loyalty to the government placed him on the side of the Union and in the ranks of the Republican party. He held patriotic meetings all over the Oregon, at which time he delivered telling speeches and did much toward guiding public opinion against secession and saving his state to the Union. For this every-right-minded citizen felt grateful toward him, but he experienced his greatest satisfaction of having done that which he considered his duty. 
Viewed as a neighbor and friend, Judge Boise was kindly and genuine; as a citizen he was modest, unassuming and easy of approach. He was a model Oregonian and as such was regarded by his fellow citizens. 
The Funeral Friday. 
The funeral will be held at the home tomorrow (Friday) afternoon at 2 o’clock. The services will be conducted by Rev. P. S. Knight. The interment will be in the family plot in the I. O. O. F. cemetery. From Chief Justice Bean. Chief Justice Bean -- "Judge R. P. Boise was the ablest judge Oregon ever had. He possessed a wonderful faculty to understand a case and always went down to the bottom of things. Fearless, determined, strong, Judge Boise was never swayed by popular clamor, nor by the feelings of the community, nor did prejudice or favor enter into his decisions and rulings. 
He was a judge both on the circuit and supreme benches for a period of about 34 years; and during that time he had the respect of the practitioners at the bar." From Judge Moore. Associate Justice Moore -- "Judge Boise has probably done more than any other man to systematize the practice of law in this state and to raise it to a high standard. He as a man whose ability and integrity were recognized by every one who knew him. His work speaks louder than words and stands as a monument to his glory. He and Judge Williams have played a great part in formulating the practices of our courts." From Commissioner King. Commissioner W. R. King -- "In the death of Judge Boise, one of the greatest of jurists has passed away. He was an honor to Oregon and as a jurist he stood high in the esteem of the legal profession." From Commissioner Slater. Commissioner W. T. Slater -- "Judge Boise was a good, impartial judge. He played his part well and he goes carrying with him the esteem of the local bar and of his fellow citizens." From General Crawford Attorney General S. M. Crawford -- "I have known Judge Boise for more than twenty years. He was an upright, conscientious, fair and great jurist, one of the best that was ever on the Oregon bench." From Hon. Frank Davey. Hon. Frank Davey -- "I had occasion to differ widely with Judge Boise politically and upon questions of local policies, but I have always entertained for him the highest respect as a citizen and as a jurist. During his long years of service on the judicial bench, in the early years of which he assisted in the high duties of the supreme court, he made a most enviable record as a dispenser of impartial and exact justice, which has earned for him the respect and confidence of all, whether litigants, advocates, jurors or spectators. When Judge Boise handed down a decision all felt that if error or injustice had crept into it the fault was in the power of interpretation and not in the intention, while the very few reversals made of his rulings in the appellate courts show that his judgment was as clear as it was fair. Another work in which Judge Boise was a powerful influence was the making of the state constitution, which is an enduring monument to his memory. Judge Boise as a clean, pure, honest man, a good citizen and an upright judge." From Hon. A. Bush Hon. A. Bush -- "The death of Judge Boise brings sorrow to all of us, especially to me who had known him for many years. We grew up as young men together and studied law in the same office at Westfield, Mass. Boise then practiced at Chicopee Falls, Mass., and I kept studying Blackstone with an uncle of his. In 1850, I came west and Boise came to Portland later, and entered a law partnership with a Scotchman by the name of Campbell, one of the most accomplished lawyers ever in the Oregon country. After having practiced in Portland for some time, Mr. Campbell moved to San Francisco and Mr. Boise came to Salem, where he has lived every since. Judge Boise was a graduate of Williams college, studied law in an office, and was among the best lawyers in the state. He was a very studious man and it was his application and attention to details while a young man, that made him the successful lawyer that he was in after years. In the practice of law, he had, in my judgment, but few superiors. In all his dealings with his fellows he was honest, wholly so. He was a man of integrity and played an important part int eh building up of the city. His death is a great loss to Oregon, for though a aged man, Judge Boise was still strong and active; and a hard worker. Having known him for many years, his death comes as a personal sorrow. I saw him for the last time about a week ago, and he talked of old times and of his business interests and other matters and surely did not realize that the end was so near." His Fellow Lawyers The high appreciation in which Judge Boise was held by the bar, not only of Marion county, where he presided so many years over the circuit court, but by the entire legal fraternity of the state, most of whom knew him personally, is as a wreath of fragrant blossoms on his grave, a crowning garland and incorruptible jurist and man. The local bar has called a meeting at the circuit court room for this evening, where arrangements for attending the funeral and paying the last tribute of respect will be made. 
Oregon Statesman 11 Apr 1907 1:1-2/6:4-5
INSCRIPTION: 
R. P. Boise 
Born 
June 9, 1818 
Died 
April 10, 1907
SOURCES: 
OSBH DC (Marion Co., 1907) #3426 
DAR pg 17 
S&H pg 13
BIO: Clark, vol. II, pages 525-528 
OS 11 Apr 1907 1:1-2/6:4-5 
HBB 259-261 (portrait)
CONTACTS: 
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