Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/162

144 Matthew Paul Deady was born in Talbot co., Md, May 12, 1824, of Irish and English ancestry. His father, Daniel Deady, was a native of Kanturk, Ireland, and was a teacher by profession. When a young man he came to Baltimore, Md, where he soon married. After a few years' residence in the city he removed to Wheeling, Va, and again in 1837 to Belmont co., Ohio. Here the son worked on a farm until 1841. For four years afterward he learned blacksmithing, and attended school at the Barnesville academy. From 1845 to 1848 he taught school and read law with Judge William Kennon, of St Clairsville, where he was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of Ohio, Oct. 26, 1847. In 1849 he came to Oregon, settling at Lafayette, in Yamhill co., and teaching school until the spring of 1850, when he commenced the practice of the law, and in June of the same year was elected a member of the legislature, and served on the judiciary committee. In 1851 he was elected to the council for two years, serving as chairman of the judiciary committee and president of the council. In 1853 he was appointed judge of the territorial supreme court, and held the position until Oregon was admitted into the Union, February 14, 1859, and in the mean time performed the duties of district judge in the southern district. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1857, being president of that body. His influence was strongly felt in forming the constitution, some of its marked features being chiefly his work; while in preventing the adoption of other measures he was equally serviceable. On the admission of Oregon to statehood he was elected a judge of the supreme court from the southern district without opposition, and also received the appointment of U. S. district judge. He accepted the latter position and removed to Portland, where he has resided down to the present time, enjoying the confidence and respect paid to integrity and ability in office.

During the years 1862–4, Judge Deady prepared the codes of civil and criminal procedure and the penal code, and procured their passage by the legislature as they came from his hand, besides much other legislation, including the general incorporation act of 1862, which for the first time in the U. S. made incorporation free to any three or more persons wishing to engage in any lawful enterprise or occupation. In 1864 and 1874 he made and published a general compilations of the laws of Oregon.

He was one of the organizers of the University of Oregon, and for over twelve years has been an active member of the board of regents and president of that body. For twenty years he has been president of the Library Association of Portland, which under his fostering care has grown to be one of the moot creditable institutions of the state.

On various occasions Judge Deady has sat in the U. S. circuit court in San Francisco, where he has given judgment in some celebrated cases; among them are McCall v. McDowell, 1 Deady, 233, in which he held that the president could not suspend the habeas corpus act, the power to do so being vested in congress; Martinetti v. McGuire, 1 Deady, 216, commonly called the Black Crook case, in which he held that this spectacular exhibition was not a dramatic composition, and therefore not entitled to copyright; Woodruff v. N. B. Gravel Co., 9 Sawyer, 441, commonly called the Debris case, in which it was held that the hydraulic miners had no right to deposit the waste of the mines in the watercourses of the state to the injury of the riparian owners; and Sharon v. Hill, 11 Sawyer, 290, in which it was determined that the so-called marriage contract between these parties was a forgery.

On the 24th of June, 1852, Judge Deady was married to Miss Lucy A. Henderson, a daughter of Robert and Rhoda Henderson, of Yamhill co., who came to Oregon by the southern route in 1846. Mr Henderson was born in Green co., Tenn., Feb. 14, 1809, and removed to Kentucky in 1831, and to Missouri in 1834. Mrs Deady is possessed of many charms of person and character, and is distinguished for that tact which renders her at ease in all stations of life. Her children are three sons, Edward Nesmith, Paul Robert, and Henderson Brooke. The first two have been admitted to the bar, the third is a physician. the joint legislature he read a message of considerable length and no great interest, except as to some items