Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/325

Rh former incumbents of the federal offices were displaced except Pratt, and he was made chief justice, with Matthew P. Deady and Cyrus Olney as associates. Before the confirmation of the appointments Judge Pratt's name was withdrawn and Oregon thus lost an able and pure chief justice, and that of George H. Williams, a judge in Keokuk, Iowa, substituted.

With regard to the other judges, both residents of Oregon, it was said that Lane procured the appointment of Deady in order to have him out of his way a few months later. But Deady was well worthy of the position, and had earned it fairly. The appointments were well received in Oregon, and the judges opened courts in their respective districts under favorable circumstances, Deady in the southern, Olney in the northern, and Williams in the central counties. But in October it began to be rumored that a new appointment had been made for a judgeship in Oregon; to what place remained unknown for several weeks, when O. B. McFadden, of Pennsylvania, appeared in Oregon and claimed the 1st district, upon the ground that in making out Deady's commission a mistake in the name had been made, and that