HON. PAINE PAGE PRIM. – Always to be remembered along with such men as Thornton, Strong, Kelly, Lancaster and Boice, among the judiciary lights of our state, is Judge Prim. He is a Tennesseean by birth, and graduated from the law school at Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, and began his first legal practice at Sparta in White county of the same state. Like many ambitious young men of the East, he looked to the West as his best field, and came to Missouri in 1851, but arriving at Independence, joined an emigrant train and came on to Oregon. arriving in our state, he took a Donation claim eight miles from Albany, but the next year came to Jackson county, mining, and outliving all the Indian battles of 1855-56.
Falling back now upon his profession, he opened an office in the then rude town of Jacksonville, and in 1857 was elected to represent that section at the constitutional convention. After the organization of the state in 1859, he was appointed by Governor Whitaker as justice of the supreme court of Oregon, and ex officio judge of the circuit court of the first judicial district. He held that office about twenty years, serving personally on the bench all that time, and maintaining the court with dignity and ability. after his retirement, he began the practice of law in Jacksonville, which he still continues. In 1882 he was elected to the state senate, serving a full term. He is a Democrat of the old school, intelligent, honorable, and an active member of society.
He was married in 1857 to Miss Theresa M. Sterns, a cultivated lady from Vermont. They have two daughters and one son.