Binger Hermann

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Binger Hermann (February 19, 1843 – April 15, 1926) was an American lawyer and Republican politician from Oregon. He was born in Lonaconing, Maryland, and moved to the Oregon Territory with his family as part of the Baltimore Colony. He helped start a school in the Coquille Valley, studied law, and was admitted to the Oregon bar in 1866.

Hermann served in Oregon’s state government, first in the House of Representatives (1866–1868) and then in the Senate (1868–1870). He held several local and federal roles, including deputy collector of internal revenue and receiver of public money at the Roseburg land office, and he was a colonel in the Oregon State Militia (1882–1884).

In 1884 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives representing Oregon’s at-large district, and he won reelection in 1890. When Oregon created a new district, he represented Oregon’s 1st congressional district from 1893 to 1897. He did not seek reelection in 1896 and was appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office (GLO) in 1897, serving until 1903. As GLO commissioner, his policy on how mining surveys were tied to patent descriptions led to widespread surveying problems known as cadastral mayhem.

In 1903, after his successor died, Hermann resigned to run for Tongue’s seat in a special election and won, returning to Congress and serving again until 1907. He faced accusations in the Oregon land fraud scandal, including charges of destroying public documents, but was acquitted of destroying documents in 1907, and a 1910 trial on other charges ended in a hung jury. In 1932, Interior Secretary Harold Ickes exonerated him of wrongdoing.

Hermann returned to Roseburg, where he practiced law and wrote. He died in 1926 at age 83. In 1943, a Liberty ship was named the Binger Hermann in his honor.