LOT LIVERMORE. – Mr. Livermore is one of the best-known residents of Eastern Oregon, and, as a business man, from the earliest times has been highly instrumental in developing the country.
He was born in Marietta, Ohio, in 1835, but the year following came with his parents to Illinois, and in 1851 crossed the plains to Oregon, finding a home in Polk county. Some of the experiences on the plains were exciting, such as a fight of an hour and a half with the Snake Indians on the Snake River. It was the Harpole company with which they came.
In 1866 Mr. Livermore came to Umatilla Landing, and for three years operated in general merchandise in the firm of Bushee Livermore & Co. In 1869 he removed to Pendleton, Oregon, engaging in merchandising under his own name until 1878, when he accepted the office of postmaster, and also became Wells, Fargo & Co’s agent and stage dispatcher. In 1886 he entered into the general merchandise business with Mr. Morehouse, but has now made arrangements to retire from active operations.
The high esteem in which he is held by the people of Umatilla county and of Pendleton is indicated by his political career. He is a Republican; and, as the community has usually been Democratic, this fact was much against him. Nevertheless, he was elected county treasurer by a majority of one hundred and fifty-nine, turning by so much the ordinary Democratic majority of two hundred and fifty. He was elected the first mayor of Pendleton, and was re-elected, running both times against very popular men, and in the latter case turning a usual Democratic majority of fifty to a majority of nineteen for himself, and his opponent was a man who had, in a previous election, received as candidate for councilman every vote in the city except one.
Mr. Livermore was married at Umatilla in 1869, and has two children, Bushee and Della. He was married secondly at Pendleton to Mrs. Ellen Switzler, a pioneer of this country, and who was born at Vancouver in 1852. They have one child, Lotta.
Since he first arrived in the Inland Empire, its advance has been so marked as to impress Mr. Livermore profoundly with its inevitably great future; and to this consummation he looks with a personal interest, as to a certain extent embodying his own hopes and the product of his own labors.