Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/758



558 THE CITY OF PORTLAND

States or England to authorize three private persons to form a private corpora- tion without special charter authority from a legislative assembly. AH this work, and a vast amount more which cannot be enumerated here, has qualified and entitled Matthew P. Deady to be regarded as the greatest man and greatest lawyer of the legal profession west of the Rocky mountains.

OTHER CODES AND BOOKS.

The next work of codifying the laws of Oregon was that of William Lair Hill. Mr. Hill is still a practicing lawyer at Oakland, in the state of California, and his code takes him out of the category of those that cannot be noticed in history until they are dead. Hill's code was commenced as an independent en- terprise of his own, but was afterward recognized, indorsed and purchased by the legislature of the state. Coming in after Justice Deady's work, and after most of the states of the union had adopted the reformed practice and had created codes of civil procedure, Mr. Hill had tlie advantage of a large body of material to draw upon in preparing his work for the Oregon legal profession. And being well equipped, both from education, literary attainment, professional study and large practice, he was enabled to and did produce a very valuable work entitled, "Hill's Annotated Statutes of Oregon," which was published in 1887. Many of the young lawyers in Oregon have started in practice without much more of a library than Hill's book, and done good work in the profession; Hill's citations being very full and always to the point. Mr. Hill's work remained the authority on statute law for about fifteen yeslrs^ and entitles the author to a high place and permanent fame among- 'th-eHa\Vgivers lof Oregon. Mr. Hill also prepared a code of the laws of the state of Washington, which was adopted by the legislature of that state, making him the only lawyer preparing codes for two separate states.

Judge Deady was succeeded on the bench by Charles Byron Bellinger, a mem- ber of the law firm of Dolph, Mallory,' Simon and Bellinger. As it was a great dignity, high honor, and life position, there was a scramble for the office among the democratic lawyers, Grover Cleveland being president. Bellinger was al- ways a protege of the banker, Asahel Bush of Salem. Bush was personally ac- quainted .with the president, and was the sort of a man that could get the presi- dential ear. So that in this contingency, Banker Bush wasted no time in making a visit to Washington to see the president and recommend a man for U. S. judge of the district of Oregon. It is also supposed that the two United States sen- ators from Oregon — Mitchell and Dolph — did not fail to support the man who was a member of the law firm they had erected. And so Mr. Bellinger was ap- pointed U. S. judge.

The most notable and useful service Judge Bellinger performed while on the bench was the preparation of a new edition or code of the laws of Oregon ; which he did prepare in connection with Attorney W. W. Cotton. This work was com- menced about the year 1898, and completed soon after; and was approved and purchased by the legislature and used by the profession and the courts. Judge Bellinger took great pride in and bestowed great labor on this work. It is very much larger than any former edition of the laws of Oregon ; and the vast number of decisions of the supreme court of the state requiring far greater time and study to apply them to the interpretation of the statutes placed upon Judge Bel- linger a load of care and labor that told heavily on his physical strength, and pos- sibly hastened the breakdown which resulted in his death May 9, 1905.

Judge Bellinger had for a short time filled the office of circuit judge for the district of Multnomah County. He was quick, bright and alert in the practice of his profession, with a great fund of humor that made him a delightful com- panion and universally popular with his professional brethren; and his demise was greatly mourned by all who knew him.

The work of Mr. W. W. Cotton on the "B & C." code as it is now cited, was very considerable. His very extensive practice, robust constitution and great