Multnomah-Marion County OR Archives Biographies.....Lane, Harry  August 28, 1855 - May 23, 1917
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Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com June 19, 2009, 12:47 pm

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     HARRY LANE, M. D.  Of illustrious ancestry, Harry Lane achieved 
distinction as United States senator from Oregon and also rose to a position 
of eminence in the medical profession, thus conferring additional prestige 
upon an honored family name. He was Portland's first reform mayor and a 
citizen of exceptional worth. His life was devoted to the relief of those who 
are unfortunate, to the purification of governmental affairs and to the 
elimination of graft and dishonorable practices from public office. Of him it 
was truly said: "His hand was open as the day, and his heart was a great 
temple, in which thronged all the kindly emotions."

     A native of Oregon, Harry Lane was born August 28, 1855, in Marysville, 
now called Corvallis, and was a son of Nathaniel Hart and Eliza Jane (Fleming) 
Lane. Sir Ralph Lane, one of his ancestors, served as governor of the first 
English colony in America but afterward returned to his native land and 
married. His grandsons came to this country and were the founders of the 
American branch of the family. John Lane, with his father, Jesse Lane, and his 
brothers, enlisted in the Continental army, and the last battle in which he 
participated was that of King's Mountain, which occurred near the close of the 
Revolutionary war. Late in life he married Elizabeth Street, whose father also 
took part in the struggle for American independence, and they became the 
parents of eight children.

     The second, Joseph Lane, was the Senator's grandfather. He was a native 
of North Carolina and a child of three when the family migrated to Henderson 
county, Kentucky. Although he had only four months' schooling, his education 
was not neglected, for he received thorough instruction from his grandmother, 
a cultured English woman, whose maiden name was Winifred Aycock. For a time he 
was a clerk in the store of John J. Audubon, the noted ornithologist. In 1820 
he married Polly Hart, a native of Kentucky. They settled on a farm in 
Vanderburg county, Ohio, and it was while living there that Joseph Lane saw 
the first steamboat on the Ohio river. He was a member of the Indiana 
legislature for twenty-four years, resigning his seat in 1846, and volunteered 
for service in the Mexican war. A natural leader of men, he rose rapidly from 
the ranks and in July, 1846, was commissioned brigadier general. At Saltillo 
he was made civil and military commandant and during the battle of Buena Vista 
was third in command. Later he was ordered to Vera Cruz and because of the 
rapidity of his movements and his valor and success in battle was termed "the 
Marion of the Mexican war."

     The battle of Tehualtaplau was the last fought in Mexico and about August 
1, 1848, General Lane returned to his home in Indiana but departed soon 
afterward, having been appointed governor of Oregon. His journey to the 
Pacific coast region was fraught with hardship and danger, but he reached the 
territorial capital in safety and on March 2, 1848, took the oath of office 
and issued his proclamation. In April, 1848, he left Oregon City and journeyed 
to the Cayuse country to arrest the murderers of Dr. Whitman. Not being able 
to procure an escort of troops, he was accompanied only by an interpreter and 
Dr. Newell and on his arrival told the chief "that he came alone, for the 
purpose of showing his friendship, for he wished to owe the surrender of the 
murderers to the chief's sense of justice and not to his fear; that the 
murderers must be given up, if the Cayuse nation wished peace; that he had the 
kindest feelings for the nation and desired to live in peace with them and 
benefit them, but this would be impossible while the murderers lived; that 
retaining them showed that the Cayuses defended the act of those lawless men 
and would be so construed by the whites." The chief was much impressed and 
asked for time to consider. Afterward the governor visited the Walla Wallas 
and Yakimas, The Dalles and Columbia tribes, with all of whom he made peace, 
stopping a bloody war raging between the first two nations. The Whitman 
murderers were finally arrested and condemned to death. Peaceful relations 
were established with all of the Oregon Indians except the Rogue River tribe, 
with whom Governor Lane concluded a treaty in July, 1849.

     Although his tenure of office covered but sixteen months, Governor Lane 
has been characterized by many historians as Oregon's most distinguished and 
efficient executive, owing to the vast amount of work he accomplished during 
that time, despite the great difficulties to be overcome. In appreciation of 
his services the people of Oregon elected General Lane as their delegate to 
congress by an almost unanimous vote on June 3, 1851, and in July he started 
for the city of Washington, going to Panama by the water route. Afterward he 
visited his old home in Indiana and in 1853 brought his family to Oregon. They 
settled on his claim in the Umpqua valley and in the summer of 1853 he was 
again called upon to defend the settlers, owing to an uprising of the Rogue 
River Indians. At Camp Stewart he was given command of all the troops and 
after a strenuous campaign subdued the Indians, concluding a treaty of peace 
with Chief Joseph at Table Rock. With the Indian war of 1853 ended General 
Lane's military career. He was a member of congress until 1859, when the bill 
admitting the territory of Oregon as a state was passed largely through his 
instrumentality, and then took his seat in the United States senate. He served 
until 1861 and during the presidential campaign of 1860 was a candidate for 
the vice presidency on the ticket with John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. On 
retiring from public office General Lane returned to his home in the Umpqua 
valley, and after his health failed he removed to Roseburg, where he passed 
away in April, 1881. In his family were ten children, and the eldest of his 
six sons was Nathaniel Hart Lane.

     When Harry Lane was a boy of ten his parents established their home in 
Portland and his early education was acquired in private schools of the city. 
He continued his studies in Willamette University, from which he received the 
M. D. degree in 1876, and then went to San Francisco. While in that city he 
derived much benefit from his association with the noted physician, Dr. A. F. 
Sawyer, and soon after his return to Oregon received from Governor Thayer the 
appointment of health officer of Coos Bay, filling the position for about two 
years. For a short time he followed his profession in Roseburg, Oregon, and 
afterward devoted about two years to travel. During that period he broadened 
his scientific knowledge and in 1881 opened an office in Portland. In July, 
1887, he was appointed by Governor Sylvester Pennoyer as superintendent of the 
Oregon Hospital for the Insane and immediately set to work to bring about a 
change in conditions at that institution. He followed no rule of long standing 
unless it had merit, for it was ever his purpose to reach higher ideals and 
loftier standards, and many of the plans which he formulated are still in 
force in the hospital. His term of service covered four years, and during 1891 
he took post-graduate courses in New York city and one of the medical centers 
of Europe. In 1892 he returned to Portland and his prestige as a physician 
steadily increased. Although his practice was extensive, he did not accumulate 
wealth for the reason that he would not charge the poor either for services or 
medicines which he furnished. Dr. Lane loved his profession for the good it 
enabled him to do and was affectionately termed the "Little Doctor" by his 
patients, many of whom were drawn from the poorer classes. His reputation 
extended to other classes also and all knew that in the "Little Doctor" 
suffering humanity had a true and unfaltering friend. It is related that when 
he knew the end was near he took his accounts and books containing evidences 
of indebtedness amounting to several thousands of dollars and threw them into 
the fire, remarking as he did so that while many of his patients could well 
afford to pay, there were hundreds who could not do so without hardship, and 
he wanted no administrator of his estate annoying those whose poverty made it 
difficult for them to live and support those dependent upon them in comfort 
and happiness. His reputation as a physician extended far beyond the confines 
of his city and he served with distinction as president of the Oregon Medical 
Society.

     Dr. Lane was married September 5, 1882, to Miss Lola Bailey, who was born 
in Milwaukie, this state. Her parents, Joseph and Barbara (Stevenson) Bailey. 
The Stevenson family came to Oregon in 1853 and Mrs. Lane's maternal 
grandfather filed on a land claim back of Cape Horn. The Bailey family settled 
near Oregon City and subsequently migrated to the territory of Washington. To 
Dr. and Mrs. Lane were born three children: Nina; Harriet, who is the wife of 
W. B. Hempstead and the mother of one child, Harriet; and Marjorie, who was 
graduated from the Franklin high school in 1927 and resides with her mother in 
the family home at No. 1450 East Lincoln street.

     In July, 1905, Dr. Lane entered upon the duties of mayor of Portland, and 
the record which he made during the first term won him reelection. During both 
terms, he devoted all his energies to carrying out his preelection pledges and 
made Portland a better place to live in. He made no compromises, but hewed to 
the line with the sole aim and purpose to correct evils in municipal 
government, to make the lot of the laboring man easier, to cut out every form 
of graft, and to see that everyone received a square deal at the hands of 
those in authority. No administration was ever more stormy and none ever so 
fruitful of beneficent results. Of his services in this connection a Portland 
paper said:

     "As mayor of Portland he was quick to sense the harmonious relation 
between powerful figures and the vice ring. With equal celerity he 
comprehended the inside hold that big institutions maintained in the city and 
out of which they profited at the expense of the public and the masses.

      "He was as quick to realize the illegitimate traffic in public 
contracts, in gambling, and the ruinous effect which invisible government was 
working in the city. FearIess and free, as courageous as he was honest, Mayor 
Lane, with these abuses once visualized, was instantly in action, and it was 
an action from which no friend, no group of friends, or other human power 
could stay his hand. With him it was a fight with public wrong and a fight 
without compromise, a fight to the death.

     "The effect of his conflicts with invisible government is beheld in 
Portland today. He opened the closed eyes of the public to what was going on. 
He threw the search light of pitiless publicity on abuses and practices of 
whose existence the people had not dreamed. Wherever he found wrong in the 
municipal structure he smote it and exposed it. Without a Lane, Portland might 
still be in the mire of those rotten times. His work of reform in the chief 
city of the state was heard of in rural and remote Oregon and exercised 
factorship in the great conflict for redeeming and reclaiming the commonwealth 
from the vicious and corrupt influences of the old politics and politicians.

     "Information that a great conflict was going on to reform its chief city 
was of psychological value in stimulating reform in the state's public life; 
for with knowledge that they had an ally waging war at the fountainhead of 
corruption the reform forces in the country were encouraged to arm for state-
wide struggle.

     "Lane saved to the people many a public right and a deal of public 
property that was gradually slipping into the hands of private interests. He 
turned the mood and movements of the community into new plans and purposes. He 
organized and captained forces for assaulting the citadels of plunderbunds and 
for squaring government with the ideals of conscience and honesty. His two 
administrations as mayor stand out in Portland annals. * * * There would have 
been a third mayoralty for Harry Lane had he desired it. The people were ready 
to elect him and many an appeal fell upon his ears for renewal of his 
candidacy, but he was worn and spent with the incessant, unflagging, 
resistance and assaults of intrenched privilege, and refused the proffered 
distinction."

     After regaining his health Dr. Lane resumed the work of his profession 
and practiced until 1912, when the people of Oregon proffered him the highest 
office within their gift, that of United States senator. In 1913 he took his 
seat in the senate chamber and served until his death, passing away May 23, 
1917, while en route to his home in Portland. As a mark of respect the senate 
was adjourned until Friday, May 25, 1917, and during the memorial services of 
that body impressive addresses were made by a number of Senator Lane's 
distinguished colleagues. Of his national service Senator Chamberlain, of 
Oregon, said:

     "Upon entering the senate Harry Lane showed the same disregard of 
precedents that characterized his whole life. He immediately took part in the 
discussion of great public questions, and upon all occasions showed an 
intimate acquaintance with men and affairs. He made no pretensions to 
eloquence and claimed no distinction as an orator. He plunged into the middle 
of a subject and always contributed to the sum of information upon it. 
Possessed of a happy way of expressing his views, there was frequently a vein 
of humor in him that attracted attention and gave pungency to the point he was 
endeavoring to make. Fearless at all times, he did not hesitate to differ from 
his warmest personal and political friends.

     "His attitude with respect to armed neutrality and the war with the 
imperial German government proved more than any of his public acts his great 
moral courage. He was at variance with the great majority of his colleagues 
and did not fear to give expression to his views. He hated war, and his tender 
heart and the horror of bloodshed led him to hope that a crisis might be 
averted. But his motives were misunderstood by enemies and friends alike, with 
the result that he was most brutally and unjustly assailed by many of the 
public journals throughout the country. * * * No one will ever know what 
anguish he suffered under these unjust charges, and I really believe they 
almost broke his noble, generous heart."

     Said Senator Jones, of Washington: "Harry Lane was one of the most 
earnest and sincere men I have ever known, and of rare political courage. He 
loved humanity. His highest aim seemed to be to serve the poor, the weak and 
the lowly and to promote their comfort, welfare and happiness. His vision of 
legislation was their wants and needs. His views were often considered 
radical, but his sincerity of purpose was never doubted. Although a political 
partisan he measured all legislation by the people's good and never hesitated 
to condemn in vigorous and picturesque language party measures which did not 
meet his views as to what was for the real interests of the people. Men of his 
stamp and courage are essential to a republic."

     Following is an excerpt from the address of Senator Husting, of 
Wisconsin: "Senator Lane died in the afternoon of life. And his was a busy and 
eventful one. He died rich in accomplishments, rich in attainments and rich in 
service. Of such a life much history could and, no doubt, will be written by 
others. But in turning to the Congressional Directory all that we find of self-
recorded testimony of himself is simply this: 'Harry Lane, democrat'; silent 
as to the deeds of his own busy and successful career and absent all self-
laudation or self-praise. He bequeaths to us but his own characterization of 
himself as an index to his inner self. These words might well serve for his 
epitaph.

     "Harry Lane was indeed a democrat in the truest and highest sense of the 
word. He was a democrat politically, but there are none in the senate upon 
whom the cloak of party regularity hung more loosely. He did not hesitate to 
oppose his party or to vote against its measures when his conscience or his 
sense of duty bade him do so. He was independent in thought and action, and 
never hesitated to support what he thought was right and to oppose what he 
thought was wrong. * * *

     "He was democratic in his manners and in his mental and spiritual make-
up. Like Henry George, he was for men. He was intensely human himself. None 
was more approachable, more unassuming, more affable, more genial or more 
kindly.   Within a very short time I felt as if I had known him for years. He 
was candid and ingenuous and his mind and his heart were as an open book. He 
had nothing to conceal and he concealed nothing. He was a man of the broadest 
of sympathies and he loved his fellowmen. I served with him on the committee 
on Indian affairs and had full opportunity to become familiar with this phase 
of his disposition and nature.  He was jealous of the rights of the Indians 
and opposed with all the power within him everything that smacked of wrong or 
injustice to them. His speeches in the senate on Indian affairs evidence that 
his jealous care and solicitude for the welfare of the Indians amounted to a 
passion. By his death the Indians have lost one of their most loyal and 
devoted friends.

     "He was the implacable foe of wrong, injustice and oppression, no matter 
when or where or in what manner of shape it might appear. He could not help 
it. It was ingrained in the very fiber of his being. With rare skill in 
debate, he uncovered and exposed at every opportunity these to the eye in all 
their nakedness. His speech on the oleomargarine bill ranks, in my opinion, 
with the best speeches made in the senate since I have been a member. It 
bristles with wit, wisdom and logic and, while attacking what he conceived to 
be the vices in the measure, his genial and lovable personality shines through 
it all and takes away the sting of what he says.

     "Senator Lane was spiritually democratic. He was charitable toward all 
men and harbored malice toward none. His heart was incapable of cherishing 
personal hatred or meanness. His love for his fellowmen was all absorbing and 
all embracing.
 
     "Senator Lane was a most interesting conversationalist. He was well read 
and possessed the saving grace of humor, which was as delightful as it was 
infectious.  His entire absence of love of self or vanity in any form was best 
illustrated by the fact that he enjoyed a joke on himself. He frequently 
related, with a great deal of evident pleasure and gusto, ridiculous and 
laughable incidents in which he was the central figure, never failing to 
arouse at his own expense the mirth of his auditors.

     "Senator Lane was patriotic. He loved his country; he loved its 
institutions; he loved its democracy. Just a few days before he left on what 
was to be his final earthly pilgrimage his last thought was in regard to 
legislation calculated to relieve the poor people of the country and to 
increase the supplies of the nation. His last thought, as expressed to me, was 
his desire that something should be done to prepare the country more 
adequately in the way of food supplies during the war. When he died his state 
and his country lost an honest, able and patriotic senator and his death is 
sincerely mourned by all who were associated with him in this chamber."

     The following eulogy was pronounced by Senator Gronna, of North 
Dakota: "Senator Lane was industrious and very attentive to his duties, and 
few men in the senate have rendered more effective service or accomplished 
more, if as much, during the first years of their service as was accomplished 
by him. He possessed an indomitable will, unflinching courage, and an earnest 
desire to do right; and while his natural temperament was that of valor, 
gallantry and firmness, he possessed a heart as sympathetic and tender as that 
of a child.

     "For a new senator he made a number of speeches, but he never spoke 
except upon subjects in which he was deeply interested. His speeches upon 
child labor, pure food and Indian affairs are classics and will perhaps be 
more appreciated in the future than they are now. He always insisted that 
public officials were but servants of the people, and should be compelled to 
act accordingly.

     "He hated sham and pretension; despised flattery, and was quick to 
discern the real from the unreal, the true from the false. He was one of those 
gallant and brave warriors who have struggled throughout the centuries to make 
the world better for the common people to live in, and it is in the memory of 
the common people that he will stand out as one of God's noblemen. During my 
acquaintance with Harry Lane I never saw him despondent or discouraged over 
anything affecting himself or his own interests; but he was deeply concerned 
and often worried about legislation which he believed would be inimical to his 
people, and especially to the poor.

     "No man will be able to preach a eulogy such as the deeds of Harry Lane 
deserve. His dauntless courage, his unselfish, humane and beneficent work in 
the interest of humanity will be the most conspicuous and lasting monument to 
him; his own deeds enshrined in the hearts of his people will be the real 
living memorial sacred to his memory."

     The following tribute to the worth of Senator Lane was paid by one of his 
warmest personal and political friends, Hon. R. W. Montague, of Portland: "No 
one can ever forget Harry Lane who ever came close to that unique and vivid 
personality. A mind leaping, swift, intuitive, sudden and unpredictable in its 
way of attack on the commonest questions, a pungent wit, abundant zest of 
life, genial readiness in intercourse with all sorts and conditions of men, 
all these were apparent at once, but these were not all, nor were all 
comprised in these as modified by the human defects, of which he had full 
share.

     "His physical appearance contributed no little to the sum of the 
impression he made. Plain yet very striking features, a prominent almost 
aquiline nose, a firm, straight, thin-lipped mouth, and keen, steel-blue eyes 
gave rather a grim expression to his face when not lit up by the habitual look 
of animation that gave it a characteristic charm. His face was finely set off 
by abundant wavy hair and a peculiar elate carriage of the head that drew the 
eye at once. Of only middle size, he possessed remarkable physical strength 
and activity, and his bearing had an alert readiness that reminded one 
irresistibly of a swordsman of Dumas and left an impression of perfect 
competence. * * *

     "He was an ardent lover of nature, and was never so happy as when 
pursuing some inquiry into her secrets. One year he began hunting mushrooms, 
and before his curiosity was satisfied had made himself a real expert and 
learned mycologist in the local field, finding and describing many new 
species, and all in the midst of the day's work which left no leisure to less 
ardent spirits.

     "Once, a few hours after the close of a hard political campaign in which 
he had been defeated, I found him studying a strange bird through his field 
glasses. 'You see, I have returned to my proper interests in life,' he said 
with the look of grave sweetness that unlocked all hearts to him. That look 
was reserved for his rare moment of sheer friendliness; for the most part he 
had a cheerful smile which exasperated his enemies, to whom he wore it most 
gaily, almost beyond endurance. Indeed, he was never in higher spirits than 
when he went into a fight, and if a forlorn hope, so much the better cheer. 
His courage was undoubted and dauntless, yet he was highly organized and 
acutely sensitive to pain, and his racing imagination took him through all the 
suffering before he met it. That kind of physical courage is moral courage, 
too, and the abuse and accusation which he bore so uncomplainingly and often 
returned with such excellent interest, cut him to the quick and brought him 
home to his family was drawn face and eyes that showed the torments he had 
gone through.

     "It was a real genius for friendship that bound so many to him, from the 
humblest to the highest. The human quality was what his eager feeling sought, 
and he found and cherished it everywhere. Men such as Judge Bellinger and 
Asahel Bush, at opposite poles of opinion and character, save that both have 
distinguished intellect and trenchant wit, counted him quite their nearest 
friend. Children loved him; and I have seen a little boy looking up at him 
during a cruelly painful minor operation without a wriggle or a murmur while 
the tears streamed down his little face like rain. And the abundant wealth of 
return he gave no one who received it will ever cease to treasure. His delight 
in talk, his power of picturesque, dramatic, humorous realization of scene and 
circumstance, made companionship with him an unending joy.

     "The most notable characteristic of his mind was its unshakable grasp of 
a few elementary principles of justice and humanity and the sudden and 
surprising aptness with which he applied them to the case in hand; if to the 
breaking down of ancient conventions or the shattering of ancient idols, so 
much the better. From this power of holding fast to the essense amid all the 
tangle and welter of accident came his flashes of insight as an administrator 
and proved in the end, 'in the teeth of all the schools,' that he was right. A 
fighting man with an ingrained love of humanity and of basic, uncomplicated 
justice is pretty sure to be a success in politics, and he was a fighting man 
in every fiber.

     "These simple and obvious qualities were the sole source of his political 
success. Of the arts of the politician he had none, nor any love of wealth or 
power.  For intrigue and combination he had absolutely no aptitude, and for 
the complicated team play and strategy necessary to carry through large 
political programs little enough. But the plain people could not be deceived 
as to the perfect absence in him of acquisitiveness or any disloyalty to them, 
the depth and utter sincerity of his feeling for common humanity, and his 
detestation of privilege and power based on privilege; and for these things 
they gladly ignored any deficiencies in sustained reasoning or far-reaching 
programs and elevated him again and again to high place in the face of 
overwhelming majorities."

Additional Comments:
History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, 
Pages 870-878

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