A Familiar Name Appears in The Dalles’ Mayoral History
By Rodger Nichols
The headline in the newspaper read, “The People of The Dalles Win a Handsome Victory.” The story was about a man named R. Mays who had been elected mayor of The Dalles.
But this wasn’t a story in The Dalles Chronicle about current mayor Richard Mays’ first election in 2019. Instead, the headline and story appeared in The Oregonian on June 18, 1891, and reported on Robert Mays being elected mayor of The Dalles.
Though there are no streets, monuments, or school buildings named after him, Robert was an influential rancher, business owner, and politician in The Dalles, Wasco County, and Oregon in the last half of the 19th century.
Robert was born in White County, Tennessee, on October 25, 1830, the oldest of 11 children. In 1848, he married Lodenna Fowler.
4 years later, the couple— accompanied by their infant son and Robert’s parents—made the long and difficult journey to Oregon. They settled in Lane County, where Robert took up farming and stockraising. In 1858, the family moved to Wasco County.
After prospering in the Willamette Valley, Robert set up a large cattle and horse operation in Tygh Valley. He earned such a good reputation in his new home that he was elected in 1860 as Wasco County’s representative to Oregon’s first state legislative session. At the time, Wasco County covered all the land in Oregon east of the Cascades, and Robert was its sole representative.
That first session was a busy 1. The legislature had the power to create counties, apportion legislators, levy taxes, require licenses, regulate white-Native American trade, establish post offices, declare war, organize and call out the militia, regulate liquor manufacture and sales, currency and the internal police, create lower courts and pass laws for Oregonians’ general welfare.
Robert was elected as 1 of the 24 Democrats in the 34-member House. The Republican Party was new, formed in 1854 to oppose slavery.
Once the Civil War began, Robert— a strong Union sympathizer—switched parties and was identified as “a thorough and active Republican.”
Robert concentrated on his ranching business. In 1872, an item in The Albany Democrat reported, “Robert Mays of Tygh Valley has 1,200 head of cattle spread over 25 square miles.”
Robert had 1 more party switch. He successfully ran for state legislator in 1874 as an Independent. By that time, the small but sprawling Wasco County contained 2 legislative districts. The other district that year was taken by E. B. Dufur, who also ran as an Independent.
The 2 had many allies in the 1874 session. For the first and only time in the history of the Oregon House, Independents outnumbered the 2 parties. There were 14 Republicans, 19 Democrats, and 24 Independents.
The rejection of parties stemmed from multiple factors. In 1873, more than 100 banks went bankrupt. There were bitter partisan disputes over Reconstruction, and political corruption was common. A new movement, the Patrons of Husbandry—more commonly known as the Grange—united farm communities to protest tariffs. Robert was the master of The Dalles Grange, founded in 1873.
After the 1874 session, Robert returned to ranching and the Republican Party. He began using his profits to invest in numerous other ventures. He owned buildings downtown and was a founding stockholder in The Dalles Academy, the Wasco Warehouse and Milling Co. and, in 1890, The Dalles Chronicle.
The following year was busy for Robert. In January 1891, he bought the stock and business of the firm Abrams & Stewart, which The Chronicle called “1 of the largest and best-equipped hardware firms in Eastern Oregon.” He renamed it Mays & Crowe, in conjunction with his son-inlaw. L. E. Crowe later sold his portion to Edward Pease. The Pease and Mays store was a local landmark until 1912.
That same month, Robert successfully lobbied the Oregon Legislature for a bill to build a portage railroad at Cascade Locks to speed the transfer of goods between steamers operating in the lower and middle Columbia, separated by the rapids at that site. The locks that give the town its name were not completed until 1896.
The Dalles celebrated the news with a large banquet in February, at which Robert was the keynote speaker. The Chronicle quoted him as saying, “We will now grow rapidly until, instead of 3 or 4, we will have a population of thirty or forty thousand, and when the crop now growing is ripe, a line of steamers will be on the river to send it into the markets of the world.”
In June, following a dispute about water bonds, The Chronicle printed a story about a petition to nominate a slate of challengers for local offices. The petition was signed by 69 prominent local people with familiar names, such as French, Dufur, Laughlin, Hudson, and Maier. At the election 2 weeks later, Robert was elected mayor.
In September, a massive fire swept through The Dalles. In a listing of losses suffered by downtown businesses, Robert’s $9,000 loss was the greatest, equivalent to $316,000 today. Fortunately, he was insured, unlike many others.
Mayors then served 1-year terms. Robert was reelected in 1892 but declined to run again in 1893. He had recently become president of The Dalles, Astoria, and Portland Navigation Co., which successfully operated the sternwheelers Regulator and Dalles City.
But the itch for politics returned a few years later. Robert was elected Wasco County judge in 1896, serving until 1900.
Robert died in April 1902. His obituary in The Oregonian called him, “1 of the best-known pioneer residents of Oregon,” and noted, along with his political service, that at 1 time he was 1 of the largest horse ranchers in the Northwest.