COMPASSIONATE MAYOR ELMO SMITH
Jul
19
Voters in Ontario elected Smith mayor in 1940, and returned him to office for a second term in 1942. He resigned in 1943 in order to enlist in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War. Upon returning to Ontario, its citizens returned Smith to the mayor's office.
Growing up in the Treasure Valley of Western Idaho and Eastern Oregon and graduating from Ontario High School, my Aunt Ethel told me this story with emphasis about how grateful she and the community felt about Mayor Elmo Smith.
When Executive Order 9066 was signed in 1942, unlike the Governor of Idaho and mayors of the other small towns nearby, Mayor Smith declared, “If it’s necessary to remove those of Japanese heritage from the West Coast for security reasons, they have to have a place to go.” And he welcomed Japanese to Ontario.
Ontario, Oregon, is a small area of Eastern Oregon, on the Snake River that divides Idaho and Oregon, not far from Boise, Idaho. Smith, orphaned at age 13, grew up with an uncle near Wilder. He supported himself financially and graduated from the College of Idaho. He founded the Ontario Observer newspaper in 1936 before he was elected Mayor of Ontario in 1940.
Ninety miles north of Ontario, Baker City Japanese were forced to leave and many of them moved to the Ontario area. Aunt Ethel’s family was one of those Baker City Japanese families. Ontario area Japanese were also considered for removal, but Aunt Ethel again explained, “Mayor Elmo Smith stood up for them.”
When the incarceration camps like Minidoka, in Idaho, closed in 1945; Ontario was where many started over. My Grandpa K, his sons, Ben and Frank, with Uncle Ted started a grocery business, Ontario Fish Market, in 1945 with delivery services out a 50-mile radius of the Treasure Valley. When Uncle Ted died in his crushed van in 1947, my dad became the FISH MAN out of ONTARIO MARKET.
The 1949 Ontario High School Annual shows that 15% of the students have Japanese names. Ontario population at that time was around 4500. Also, I counted the Ontario Evergreen Cemetery names in 1995 and found 10% of the names were Japanese.
As I research the Japanese Experience in the Pacific Northwest and visit small towns, it is clear that most first generation Japanese immigrants who stayed in America were very entrepreneurial. Valuing American freedom, most immigrant farmers were from established families in Japan where getting along, culture and education were high priorities. Getting to know the mayor and chief of police is characteristic of most of the stories I am hearing.
Ontario Citizens were drawn to this Eastern Oregon community from Canada, Spain, Mexico, Japan - the Japanese because the Owyhee Dam, completed around 1930, provided irrigation for row crop farming. My family moved to the area in October 1937. Maybe there is something in Ontario air and water, but a surprising number have gone back out to the world, becoming major contributors.
Elmo Smith later became Governor of Oregon. Our 1956 Class President Loren Cox was head of Asia and Africa with Peace Corp. Calvin Tanabe was one of Portland’s leading Neurosurgeons. Ray Dickerson escorted Colin Powell around Saudi Arabia. From Ontario are two Washington State Senators, Jim Honeyford and Steve Conway. Marvin Harada, Bishop of Buddhist Churches of America, says he was born in Ontario.
What a heritage example of “doing the right thing” people like Elmo Smith provides for today’s communities, a mantra we can pass on to future generations.
