Alexander Phimister Proctor Visits Salem after Roosevelt Statue Dedicated in 1922

The sculptor with the funniest name came to town in November of 1922.

Contemporaries weren't chuckling at the name, though. They took him very seriously.

Alexander Phimister Proctor came to Oregon to dedicate the equestrian statute of Theodore Roosevelt on the Park Blocks in Portland near what is now the Portland Art Museum.

Oregonian, November 12th, 1922

The ceremony was on Armistice Day. Though the Rough Rider always seemed more interested in starting wars than ending them, this did not seem to occasion any sense of dissonance.

Here was neither the statesman nor the president, but the character that most endeared itself to America, as expressive of Roosevelt the man who led a certain famous regiment, athletes, adventurers, cow punchers, prospectors, patriots and sportsmen all, to certain famous fields of Cuba - where Bucky O'Neill got his at Kettle hill. And it seemed most fitting, since children will have their heroes, and he among them, that the gift of the bronze rider should be to the boys and girls of all America.

The unveiling and dedication of the statue of Theodore Roosevelt marked the climax of a memorable Armistice day, when the veterans of three wars paraded through the applauding streets and the city gave itself to proud memories of a very gallant past. The great processional itself, bright with steel and gay brassards and medals shining from tunics, passed and repassed the flag shrouded rider and came at length to rest in the south park blocks near the heroic statue. [O'Neill was killed in action, link added]

Oregonian, November 12th, 1922

The statue is in storage now, in a sense even is in hiding, after it was damaged in the protests of 2020.

Certainly as Rough Rider, Roosevelt needs more context. If we are going to remember him in positive ways in public memory, the statue is not at all appropriate. There are other aspects to his personality, force, and accomplishments more worthy of commemoration.

The morning paper here mentioned him as "exemplar of civic virtues," but the Rough Rider is not about that.

Nov. 12th, 1922

The news about the statue was on the front page. On an interior page was news that Proctor was coming to Salem to speak at the Library.

Nov. 12th, 1922

After the talk, the report led not with the Rough Rider, but with the pioneer myth and Proctor's local statutes - and with a certain swagger.

Knowing the life of the western pioneer, the hardships which of necessity he had to endure, A. Phiminster Proctor, internationally known sculptor, created the figure of "The Pioneer" which is at the University of Oregon campus and the statue re-presenting the "Circuit Rider" which will rest on the state house grounds after next April.

Born and reared in Denver "where they shot a man every morning for breakfast," Mr. Proctor said he knew the hardships which the circuit rider faced and had tried to put into his statue all the characteristics which he felt these men had.

November 14th, 1922

The next day Proctor was guest at the Kiwanis club. He spoke briefly, but the main talk was on "government" by the Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court. At least indirectly this aligned the aesthetics and ideology of the Proctor statutes with notions of good government and those "civic virtues."

Nov. 15th, 1922

The Circuit Rider, October 1962 after the storm
(Salem Library Historic Photos)

See also on other local statues by Proctor and the patrons who commissioned them:

• "Eugene's Pioneer Mother Statue, Burt Brown Barker, and the Problem of Genealogy"
• "Circuit Rider and Lumber King: Two Generations of Robert Booth at the Capitol"

And also:

• A brief note on the Columbus Day Storm and the iconography and encoded nostalgia in the toppled Circuit Rider.
  
• The Oregon Encyclopedia piece describes "the two-man, two-horse monument to Robert E. Lee" as one of Proctor's two "supreme accomplishments," but does not note the ideological valence of Lee, nor that Dallas decommissioned and removed the statue in 2017. Our discussions of Proctor have some catching up to do.