George Earle Chamberlain Sr. (January 1, 1854 – July 9, 1928) was an American attorney, politician, and public official in

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. A native of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

and member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

, Chamberlain's political achievements included appointment followed by election as the first

Attorney General of Oregon The Oregon Attorney General is a statutory office within the executive branch of the state of Oregon, and serves as the chief legal officer of the state, heading its Department of Justice with its six operating divisions. The attorney general is ...

, a stint as the state's 11th

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

, and two terms in the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

Biography

Early life

George Earle Chamberlain was born in

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the county seat of and only city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 14,520 (as of the 2020 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, N ...

, on January 1, 1854. The Chamberlain family were early immigrants to North America from England, helping to pioneer in the state of

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

.Chapman Publishing Company
"Hon. George E. Chamberlain "
''Portrait and Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley Oregon'', 1903, Part 1/2, pp. 36–39 His father, Dr. Charles Thomson Chamberlain, was born in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

and attended medical school in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

before moving to the small southern town of Natchez in 1837, attracted by the prospects offered there for a newly coined medical practitioner. Dr. Chamberlain quickly built a large and prosperous practice, which enabled him to maintain his

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

-born wife, the former Pamelia H. Archer, and family in comfort. Pamelia Archer herself hailed from an illustrious pioneer family, being the granddaughter of Maryland Congressman John Archer (1741–1810), the daughter of Maryland Congressman Stevenson Archer Sr. (1786–1848), and the sister of Maryland Congressman Stevenson Archer Jr. (1827–1898). George Earle Chamberlain was the couple's third child. George Earle Chamberlain attended public schools in Natchez, completing his secondary education in 1870 at the age of 16. Following graduation he first worked two years as a clerk in a general merchandise store before leaving for

Washington and Lee University , mottoeng = "Not Unmindful of the Future" , established = , type = Private liberal arts university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.092 billion (2021) , president = William C. Dudley , provost = Lena Hill , city = Lexingto ...

in 1872. Chamberlain successfully complete the course of work there, graduating with dual degrees of

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

and

Bachelor of Law Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

in July 1876, gaining membership in

Phi Kappa Psi Phi Kappa Psi (), commonly known as Phi Psi, is an American collegiate social fraternity that was founded by William Henry Letterman and Charles Page Thomas Moore in Widow Letterman's home on the campus of Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pen ...

fraternity in the process. Following graduation from Washington and Lee, Chamberlain briefly returned home to Natchez but decided that professional prospects in the post-bellum South were marginal at best and he departed for a new life in

, arriving on December 6, 1876. Chamberlain's first job in the west was a brief and poor-paying stint as the teacher of a country school in

Linn County, Oregon Linn County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 128,610. The county seat is Albany. The county is named in honor of Lewis F. Linn, a U.S. Senator from Missouri who advocated the ...

. Late in 1877 he was appointed deputy

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

of Linn County, remaining in that position until the summer of 1879. In the interim he passed the Oregon state bar, enabling him to practice law in the state. In 1879, Chamberlain married Sallie Newman Welch, with whom he would have seven children. He was widowed on May 26, 1925. In 1878 he served in the Linn County Rifles, a volunteer militia formed to fight against belligerents from the

Bannock Bannock may mean: * Bannock (food), a kind of bread, cooked on a stone or griddle * Bannock (Indigenous American), various types of bread, usually prepared by pan-frying * Bannock people, a Native American people of what is now southeastern Oregon ...

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easter ...

, and

Paiute Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Pai ...

peoples in the so-called

Bannock War The Bannock War of 1878 was an armed conflict between the U.S. military and Bannock and Paiute warriors in Idaho and northeastern Oregon from June to August 1878. The Bannock totaled about 600 to 800 in 1870 because of other Shoshone peoples b ...

Political career

A member of the

, Chamberlain ran for the

Oregon House of Representatives The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of 65,000. The House meets in the west wing of the ...

in November 1880, winning election to a two-year term. In 1884, Chamberlain was named

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...

for Oregon's 3rd judicial district. His skill in that position gained the notice of Democratic Governor

Sylvester Pennoyer Sylvester Pennoyer (July 6, 1831May 30, 1902) was an American educator, attorney, and politician in Oregon. He was born in Groton (town), New York, Groton, New York (state), New York, attended Harvard Law School, and moved to Oregon at age 25. A H ...

and when in 1891 the state legislature established the new position of

Oregon Attorney General The Oregon Attorney General is a statutory office within the executive branch of the state of Oregon, and serves as the chief legal officer of the state, heading its Department of Justice with its six operating divisions. The attorney general is ch ...

, Chamberlain was appointed in May as the first to serve that position. He stood for election to the position in the fall, winning at the polls despite being the candidate of the minority party in the state. Chamberlain would remain Oregon's Attorney General until January 1895, following the expiration of his term. He would be the only Democrat to serve that position for 58 years, until Robert Y. Thornton was elected in 1952. After leaving the Oregon Attorney General's position, Chamberlain went into the banking business, taking positions with the First National Bank and later the Linn County National Bank in his new hometown of Albany. Chamberlain next moved north to Portland and in 1900 stood for election as the district attorney for

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Thou ...

. He won by more than 1,000 votes, despite the county's 4,000 vote Republican majority. This again put Chamberlain in the public eye for a run at statewide office.

Governor of Oregon

In 1902, he was nominated by the

Democratic Party of Oregon The Democratic Party of Oregon is the Oregon affiliate of the Democratic Party. The State Central Committee, made up of two delegates elected from each of Oregon's 36 counties and one additional delegate for every 15,000 registered Democrats, is ...

for Governor by acclamation at the party's nominating convention. Chamberlain was elected

Governor of Oregon The governor of Oregon is the head of government of Oregon and serves as the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The title of governor was also applied to the office of Oregon's chief executive during the provisional and U.S. ter ...

in a tight election by just 256 votes, this in a state which delivered 15,000 more votes to the Republicans in the concurrent congressional elections. Chamberlain was reelected in 1906, resigning his term when elected to the Senate. George E Chamberlain 2

United States Senator

In 1908 he was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate; he was reelected in 1914 and served from March 4, 1909, to March 3, 1921. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1920. He was chairman of the Committee on Geological Survey (Sixty-second Congress) and a member of the Committee on Military Affairs (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses), the Committee on Public Lands (Sixty-third Congress), and the Committee on Expenditures in the War Department (Sixty-sixth Congress). The Chamberlain Military Preparedness Bill of 1918, which he wrote, bears his name.

Death and legacy

He was a member of the

United States Shipping Board The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729), on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to increase the number of US ships supporting the World War ...

from 1921 to 1923 and engaged in the practice of law in Washington, D.C. Chamberlain married his longtime personal secretary,

Carolyn B. Shelton Carolyn B. Shelton (; October 1876 – July 26, 1936) was the long-serving private secretary of the governor of Oregon and United States senator George Earle Chamberlain. From February 27 to March 1, 1909, she served as acting governor in Chamb ...

, on July 12, 1926, in

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

. Chamberlain died there on July 9, 1928, and interment was in

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

.Frank Livezey Roberts. "The Public Speaking of George Earle Chamberlain: a Study of the Utilization of Speech by a Prominent Politician", Department of Speech and Drama. Stanford University., (1954), p. 71. During his life Chamberlain was a member of the

Independent Order of Odd Fellows The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a non-political and non-sectarian international fraternal order of Odd Fellowship. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Evolving from the Order of Odd ...

Knights of Pythias The Knights of Pythias is a fraternal organization and secret society founded in Washington, D.C., on . The Knights of Pythias is the first fraternal organization to receive a charter under an act of the United States Congress. It was founded ...

, and was a 32nd degree

Mason Mason may refer to: Occupations * Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces * Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cut ...

in Portland. He was also a member of the Commercial Club of Portland, the

Multnomah Athletic Club The Multnomah Athletic Club is a Social club, private social and Sports club, athletic club in Portland, Oregon, United States. Located in the Goose Hollow, Portland, Oregon, Goose Hollow neighborhood, it was originally founded in 1891 as the M ...

, the

Oregon Historical Society The Oregon Historical Society (OHS) is an organization that encourages and promotes the study and understanding of the history of the Oregon Country, within the broader context of U.S. history. Incorporated in 1898, the Society collects, preser ...

, and was a life member of the

Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE; also often known as the Elks Lodge or simply The Elks) is an American fraternal order founded in 1868, originally as a social club in New York City. History The Elks began in 1868 as a soci ...

Footnotes

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamberlain, George Earle 1854 births 1928 deaths Democratic Party governors of Oregon Democratic Party members of the Oregon House of Representatives Oregon Attorneys General Politicians from Natchez, Mississippi Politicians from Washington, D.C. Democratic Party United States senators from Oregon People from Albany, Oregon Washington and Lee University alumni Burials at Arlington National Cemetery District attorneys in Oregon