Representative Rufus Mallory

Rufus Mallory (January or June 10, 1831 – April 30, 1914) was an American educator, lawyer, and Republican politician who served as a Representative from Oregon in the United States Congress from 1867 to 1869. Over the course of a varied public career, he was a teacher in Iowa, a prominent attorney and district attorney in Oregon, a member and later Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives, a United States district attorney, and a special agent of the U.S. Treasury Department. In Portland, he became a civic and business leader, commissioning the Hotel Mallory and lending his name to Mallory Avenue in the Albina District.

Mallory was born in Coventry, New York, in 1831, on either June 10 or January 10, to Samuel and Lucretia Mallory (née Davis). One of nine children, he attended local schools in Allegany and Steuben counties. From 1835 to 1837 he was a student in Scio, and from 1837 to 1845 he attended school in Greenwood. In 1845 he enrolled at Alfred Academy (now Alfred University) in New York, where he spent a single term in each of the years 1845, 1846, and 1848. He left the academy at age sixteen to begin teaching and reading law, laying the foundation for his later legal and political career.

In the mid-1850s, Mallory moved west to New London, Iowa, where he taught school from 1855 to 1858. In 1858 he left Iowa for the Oregon Territory, traveling by way of the Isthmus of Panama and arriving on the first day of 1859. He settled in Roseburg in Douglas County in southern Oregon, where he continued teaching for about fifteen months while studying law. Mallory was admitted to the bar in 1860 and that same year was selected as district attorney for Douglas, Jackson, and Josephine counties. On June 24, 1860, he married Lucy A. Rose, daughter of Roseburg founder Aaron Rose; the couple had one son.

Mallory’s early legal and political career developed rapidly. In 1862 he was elected as a Republican to the Oregon House of Representatives, representing Douglas County, and he served there until 1864. Late in 1862 he moved to Salem with his law partner, James M. Pyle. In Salem he was again chosen as a district attorney, this time for Oregon’s third judicial district, serving from 1862 to 1866. As a prosecutor he gained statewide prominence for securing the conviction of George Beale and George Baker for the murder of farmer Daniel Delaney in one of Oregon’s first widely publicized criminal trials. The two men were hanged before thousands of onlookers in downtown Salem on May 17, 1865, an event that further enhanced Mallory’s reputation as an able and determined prosecutor.

In 1866, capitalizing on his growing fame, Mallory was elected as Oregon’s Representative in the United States House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party, he defeated Democrat James D. Fay by approximately 600 votes. He served one term in the Fortieth Congress, from March 4, 1867, to March 3, 1869, during a critical phase of Reconstruction. His service in Congress coincided with the impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson. Mallory initially voted against the first, unsuccessful attempt at impeachment in the fall of 1867, but during the second effort in February 1868 he delivered an impassioned speech on the House floor and voted with his party to impeach the President. Throughout his single term he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his Oregon constituents, but he did not seek re-election in 1868 and returned to Oregon at the close of his term.

After leaving Congress, Mallory resumed his law practice in Salem. In 1872 he was again elected to the Oregon House of Representatives, this time representing Marion County, and during that term he served as Speaker of the House. In 1874 he was appointed United States district attorney, a position he held until 1882. Following his service as U.S. district attorney, he entered federal service abroad as a special agent of the U.S. Treasury Department in Singapore, then part of British Malaya. After completing his assignment, he traveled around the world, returning to Portland in 78 days, and there resumed his legal career. In November 1883 he joined the prominent Portland law firm of Dolph, Bellinger, Mallory & Simon.

In addition to his legal and political work, Mallory became active in Portland’s business and civic development. In 1887 he was one of the incorporators of the Willamette Bridge Railway Company. The company built and operated a steam-powered streetcar line across the first Morrison Street Bridge, completed in April 1887, and expanded service into the Sunnyside neighborhood in 1888 and to Mount Tabor in 1889. In 1890 Mallory was among the founding members of the Oregon Bar Association, reflecting his standing in the state’s legal community. In Portland he also commissioned the construction of the Hotel Mallory, completed in 1912. The hotel later was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 and, after extensive renovation, reopened as the Hotel deLuxe in 2006. The city further honored his legacy through the naming of Mallory Avenue in the Albina District.

Rufus Mallory died in Portland on April 30, 1914, at the age of 83. His cremated remains were placed in the vaults of the Portland Cremation Association. His long career as an educator, attorney, legislator, congressman, federal official, and civic leader left a lasting imprint on Oregon’s legal and political institutions and on the physical and civic landscape of Portland.