Joseph N. Dolph

Joseph Norton Dolph (* October 19, 1835 in Dolphsburg, Tompkins County, New York, † March 10, 1897 in Portland, Oregon ) was an American politician ( Republican), who represented the state of Oregon in the U.S. Senate.

Joseph Dolph attended public and private schools in New York State and the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, a theological seminary of the Methodist Church in Lima. He then studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1861, after which he began practicing in Schuyler County. He also worked as a teacher.

After he had read books about the western United States, he decided in 1862, seek even there. He and his younger brother Cyrus, who later became a successful entrepreneur in the railway sector has been to the Oregon Trail joined and participated in the Oregon Escort, a protection force for defense against Indian attacks on the settlers. Finally Dolph settled permanently in Portland, where he again ran a law firm. From 1864 to 1865 he was a trial lawyer of the city, then after that until 1868 the Federal Attorney for the District of Oregon. In 1864 he married Augusta Mulkey, with whom he had six children.

In 1866, Dolph was first elected as a representative of the Multnomah County in the Senate of Oregon; 1872 and 1874 he succeeded each return to this chamber of parliament. Finally, he was in 1882 elected by the members of the Oregon Legislative Assembly in the U.S. Senate, which was a surprise inasmuch as he had initially not counted as a candidate circle. As members of Parliament, however, did not express other candidates, increasingly Dolph's name was mentioned, which could eventually unite a majority support. He sat from March 4, 1883 and took over Congress, among others, the chair of the Committee on Coast Defenses and the Committee on Public Lands. In 1888 he succeeded in re-election, which he missed six years later, after he had to leave on March 3, 1895 the Senate.

As a result, Joseph Dolph worked as a lawyer in Portland again. For his firm worked among others Joseph Simon, John H. Mitchell and Rufus Mallory, who also sat for Oregon in Congress. To clients, for example, was one of Henry Villard, president of the Northern Pacific Railway; he also represented the interests of Oregon and California Railroad. Dolph Joseph died in 1897 in Portland and was also buried there. The city Dolph in Tillamook County bears his name. His nephew Frederick W. Mulkey was also a U.S. Senator for Oregon.