Hugh O'Bryant

Background

Hugh O’Bryant was born in 1813 in Franklin County, Georgia to a missionary father. There he was raised among the Cherokee Indians due to his father’s missionary work.

Career

Hugh later moved to Arkansas where in early 1843 he set out for the Country. He arrived at City, , in October 1843 and set up shop as a merchant. After two years in City O’Bryant moved across the Willamette River to Portland, , where he remained until 1852.

In 1847, he volunteered to fight in the Cayuse War after the Whitman massacre. During 1848 he served in Second Company of the Riflemen for the Provisional Government of as a first lieutenant. In O'Bryant's only year as mayor, he missed seven out of thirty-one council meetings.

Although the council passed resolutions to build roads, build a jail, and purchase a fire engine, none of these materialized under O'Bryant's leadership. Funds for the fire engine were authorized by city-wide vote on May 26, 1851, but it was only a week before his term ended, the following March, that O'Bryant notified the council that the bills authorizing this purchase were sitting on his desk, unsigned. Later he performed justice of the peace duties, and was a gold prospector.

However, perhaps his greatest assets in Portland were his carpentry skills, which were in great demand with new immigrants flooding Portland. While in Southern O'Bryant served in the Territory’s legislature beginning in 1855. The following session he returned, again serving as a Democrat representing Douglas, Coos, Umpqua, and Curry counties in the upper chamber Council.

Then in 1857 he became the President of that chamber. In 1860, O'Bryant moved on to Walla Walla, of the Washington Territory, where he served in the territorial legislature. Later he moved to Merced County, California, where he died in 1883.

O'Bryant Square in Portland is named after O'Bryant.

Achievements

• In 1851, he won Portland's first mayoral election by a mere four votes over challenger Joseph Showalter Smith, O'Bryant's one-year reign was known for the failure of Portland's first government to effectively govern the city, leading to a new city charter in 1852.

Membership

He later served as the President of the Territory’ Council chamber of the legislature, and was a member of Washington Territory’s legislature. Lastly in 1858 he was a member of 's last Territorial Legislature as awaited statehood.