Page:Pen Pictures of Representative Men of Oregon.djvu/183



143

nent events in which he has been an actor, for these aloue will illustrate a character, solid, pure, wise and energetic. Judge Deady was born near Easton in Talbot county, Maryland, on May 12, 1S24. His parents w«'rf substantial and respectable people, his father being a teacher by profession. In 1828 the family removed to Wheeling, Virginia, where his father was em- ployed as principal of the Lancasterian Academy for some years. In ]834 he had the misfortune to lose his mother, who died on her way l)ack to Wheeling from Baltimore, where the family had gone on a visit to her father. In 1837 young Deady removed to Ohio with his father, and s[ieut a few years on a farm. He left the farm in 1841 and went to Baruesville, where for four years he wrought as an ar^isau at the anvil and attended the then somewhat famous Barnesviile Academy, working as well at the forge of thought as that of matter, hammering and shaping to his mind the ores of knowledge found in the mine of good boQks. Having completed his ap- prenticeship, young Deady listened to the promptings of a laudable ambi- tion and determined to read law — a profession that reserves its rewards and honors for those alone who combine great mental power with severe application. Supporting himself by teaching school, he began the study of the law in 1845 with the Hon. William Kenuon, of St. Clairsville, Ohit), since on the Supreme Bench t)f the State, and now deceased. In October, 1847, he was admitted to the Supreme Court of the State, and commenced the practice in St. Clairsville. He crossed the plains to Oregon in the year

1849. Here he supported himself during the winter by teaching, and in the spring of 1850 commenced the practice of his profession, and soon be- came a man of mark in the community. Such was the confidence he in- spired that he was chosen from Yamhill county at the .June election, in

1850, to the lower House of the Territorial Legislature, in which he was an active and leading member during the session of 18,% In 1851, after a severe contest, he was elected a member of the Territorial Council, from tiie same county, over Hon. David Logan, and served as Chairman of the Judi- ciary Committee of that body in the session of 1851 2, and as presiding offi- cer during the special session of July, 1852, and the regular one of 1852-3. At this early period of his career he had already won his spurs, and was generally recognized as one of the leading men of the country, both at the bar and in the Legislature. He was strongly urged, in the spring of 1853, as a candidate for Delegate to Congress, but received the appointment of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Tei-ritory, which he accepted and held, by subsequent re-appointment, until the admission of the State to the Union in February, 1859. Soon after his appointment he removed to the Southern District, then comprising the country south of the Cala- pooia mountains, and settled in the valley of the IJmpqua upon a farm, where still may be seen the fruitful orchards and vines planted and trained by his own hands during the intervals of judicial labor. Whilst occupying this position he was elected from Douglas county one of the Delegates to the Constitutional Convention, that met at Salem in 1857, and formed the present Constitution of the State. Of this body he was chosen Presitlent and took an active and influential part in its deliberations and conclusions.