Alfred Evan Reames

Alfred Evan Reames (February 5, 1870 – March 4, 1943) was an American attorney and Democratic politician from the state of Oregon who served as a United States Senator from Oregon in 1938. A native Oregonian, he practiced law in Portland, Eugene, Jacksonville, and Medford and was active in both public office and private enterprise in southwestern Oregon. His service in Congress, though brief, occurred during a significant period in American history and reflected his long engagement with the legal and political life of his state.

Reames was born on February 5, 1870, in Jacksonville, Oregon, the son of Thomas G. Reames and Lucinda Williams. He received his primary education in the public schools of Jacksonville, growing up in a community that was then an important center in southern Oregon. For his higher education he first attended the University of the Pacific in California, and later returned to Oregon to study at the University of Oregon in Eugene, laying the groundwork for his subsequent legal career.

In 1891, Reames married Edith L. Tongue of Hillsboro, Oregon, the daughter of former U.S. Representative Thomas H. Tongue, thereby linking him to an established political family in the state. Seeking formal legal training, he enrolled at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, where he earned his law degree in 1893. That same year he returned to Oregon, passed the bar examination, and began the practice of law in Eugene.

Reames practiced in Eugene until 1894, when he moved to Portland, Oregon, to continue his legal career in the state’s largest city. In 1895 his wife Edith died, and he subsequently returned to his hometown of Jacksonville, where he practiced law until 1902. During this period he became increasingly involved in public service. From 1900 to 1908 he served as district attorney for Josephine, Jackson, Klamath, and Lake counties in southwestern Oregon, a broad jurisdiction in which he gained prominence as a prosecutor and public official. In 1911 he resumed private law practice in Medford, Oregon, which would remain his principal base of professional activity.

Alongside his legal work, Reames developed business interests in the region. In Medford he became a part owner of the Deep Gravel Mining Company and served as president of the Three Pines Timber Company, reflecting his engagement with the mining and timber industries that were central to the economy of southern Oregon. He was also an incorporator of the Jacksonville Electric Company and was responsible for the construction of the Jacksonville substation, contributing to the development of local infrastructure and electrification.

On February 1, 1938, Oregon Governor Charles H. Martin appointed Alfred Evan Reames to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy created when Senator Frederick Steiwer resigned from Congress. A member of the Democratic Party, Reames served as a Senator from Oregon in the United States Congress from February 1, 1938, to November 8, 1938. His tenure, lasting approximately nine months and encompassing one partial term in office, came during the later years of the New Deal era. As a member of the Senate, Alfred Evan Reames participated in the democratic process, contributed to the legislative work of the chamber, and represented the interests of his Oregon constituents. He did not run in the fall 1938 election, and Alexander G. Barry was elected to succeed him.

In his personal life, Reames remarried in 1923, wedding Lillian L. Lanning of Albany, Oregon. The couple had one son, and Reames continued to balance family life with his legal practice and business activities. After leaving Congress in 1938, he returned to private law practice in Medford, maintaining his long-standing role as a prominent attorney and civic figure in southern Oregon.

Alfred Evan Reames died on March 4, 1943, in Medford, Oregon. He was buried at Siskiyou Memorial Park in Medford. His career spanned local prosecution, regional business leadership, and service in the United States Senate, marking him as a significant figure in the legal and political history of Oregon in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.