William Langford Sketch

Below is a sketch or profile of William G. Langford, Oscar Langford's brother written in 1882, while he was still living.

Gilbert, Frank T.  "Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and
Garfield Counties, Washington Territory; and Umatilla County, Oregon." Portland,
OR: Print & Lithographing House of A.  G.  Walling, 1882.  p. a41.

W.  G.  LANGFORD'S

    parents were Charles and Fannie (Mansfield) Langford.  He was born in 1831,
in the State of Ohio and when still an infant was taken by his parents to
Chatauqua Co., N.  Y., where his mother died when he was nine years of age.  The
family then went to Jackson Co.  Iowa.  At the age of nineteen he started across
the plains, and arrived in Oregon in August 1850.  He went to work for wages,
and attended school at Forest Grove from 1854 to 1856, teaching in the
neighborhood to defray his expenses.  He commenced the study of law under Judge
E.  D.  Shattuck, served four months as a volunteer in the Indian war then
raging, and then resumed his studies.  He afterwards went to Portland and
entered the office of Judge P. A. Markquam, with whom he formed a partnership
when admitted to the bar.  He later practiced in Vancouver until the spring of
1862.  He spent that summer practicing in Florence, Idaho, and in the spring of
1863 was appointed by the Governor of Washington Prosecuting Attorney for the
First Judicial District.  He attended court at Walla Walla, spent the summer at
Warren's mines, and then settled at Walla Walla, where he was successively a
partner of Judge J.  H.  Lasater and Judge J.  D.  Mix  In 1864 was elected a
member of the Territorial Council.  In 1868 he went to the Eastern States, and
practiced law in Washington City, Mississippi and Texas, and then a year in San
Francisco.  He then returned to Washington City where he married Mrs. Emma R. L.
Norris.  A year later he removed to Lewiston, Idaho, where he was elected to the
Territorial Council, and served in the session of 1877-78.  He then returned to
Walla Walla, where his wife died in 1879.   Mr. Langford has since his last
settlement in this city been engaged in the practice of his profession with good
success.  He has been City Attorney for the past two years.  Politically he has
always been a democrat of the kind known once as a war democrat, but has become
thoroughly disgusted with politics and professional politicians.  His religious
ideas are so extremely liberal that they can find no definite platform to stand
upon.  Twenty five years of practice in so many different localities have given
Mr. Langford a fund of legal knowledge and practical experience that is highly
valuable in his profession.


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Submitted to the WA.  Bios Project in February 2007 by Diana Smith.

Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project.  Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.