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Matthew Paul Deady Papers, 1850-1923

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Deady, Matthew Paul (1824-1893)
Title
Matthew Paul Deady Papers
Dates
1850-1923 (inclusive)
Quantity
13 document cases
1 volume
Collection Number
Mss 48 (collection)
Summary
Papers of Matthew Deady, U.S. District Judge for Oregon and prominent figure in territorial and early state affairs. The collection consists of letters written to Deady from friends and political correspondents, including many of Oregon's leading state and national politicians in the late nineteenth century. Influential forces in the state such as Jesse Applegate and Asahel Bush are voluminously represented, as are U.S. senators Joseph Lane, James W. Nesmith, Henry W. Corbett, George Williams, Lafayette Grover and Cyrus Dolph. Complementing these is a small collection of letters written by Deady to several of the same persons. Also included are Deady's personal journals and family materials.
Repository
Oregon Historical Society Research Library
1200 SW Park Avenue
Portland, OR
97205
Telephone: 503-306-5240
Fax: 503-219-2040
libreference@ohs.org
Access Restrictions

The collection is open to the public.

Additional Reference Guides

A card index of correspondents is available in the reading room of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library. The index provides abstracts of each letter.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Biographical Note

Matthew Paul Deady, son of Daniel and Mary Ann (McSweeny) Deady, was born near Easton in Talbot County, Maryland on May 12, 1824. The Deady family worked a farm first in Maryland and, after 1828, in Wheeling, Virginia. Deady received his early education from his father and later at Wheeling's Lancasterian Academy. In 1837, three years after Mary Ann Deady's death, the family moved to Ohio. From 1841 to 1845 Deady was apprenticed to a blacksmith and, at the same time, attended Barnesville Academy, studying law under Judge Kennon of St. Clairsville, Ohio. Following his course work he taught school in Ohio for about two years at which point he was admitted to the bar.

In 1849 Deady made his way to Oregon, settling in Lafayette and teaching school for a few months during the winter of 1849-50. In March 1850 he established a law practice in Lafayette and shortly thereafter was elected a representative to the Oregon Territorial house of representatives. He served three sessions, and in 1853 was appointed an associate justice for the Oregon Supreme Court's southwest district, based in the Umpqua valley. He was elected Lincoln County delegate to the Oregon Constitutional Convention in 1857 and ultimately presided over that body. Upon Oregon's admission to the union in 1859, Deady was appointed U. S. District Judge for the district of Oregon by President James Buchanan.

Deady held this position, based in Portland, for the rest of his life. He was an active participant in politics and civic life and was a confidant to many of Oregon's leading political figures, including Joseph Lane, Asahel Bush, James Nesmith and many of Oregon's U. S. Senators. He devoted his personal efforts toward building and supporting many educational and community endeavors. As well as being a founder of the Portland Library Association and the Portland Law School, Deady was a regent of Stanford University and president of University of Oregon's board of regents from 1873 to his death.

Shortly after he had moved to Oregon in 1849, Deady met Lucy Ann Henderson, an Oregon pioneer of 1846 from Missouri. They married in Lafayette on June 24, 1852 and had three sons. Two of them, Paul R. Deady and Edward N. Deady, became lawyers while the third, Henderson B. Deady studied medicine. Matthew's health failed steadily after 1889 as he suffered from spinal troubles and Bright's disease. His lower limbs were partially paralyzed by a stroke in late 1892 and six months later, on March 24, 1893 he died in Portland.

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Content Description

The bulk of the Deady collection consists of letters written to him from friends and political correspondents, including many of Oregon's leading state and national politicians in the late nineteenth century. Influential forces in the state such as Jesse Applegate and Asahel Bush are voluminously represented, as are U.S. senators Joseph Lane, James W. Nesmith, Henry W. Corbett, George Williams, Lafayette Grover and Cyrus Dolph. Also included are substantial files of letters from Judge O.C. Pratt of San Francisco and Judge Stephen Field of the U.S. Supreme Court. Complementing these is a small collection of letters written by Deady to several of the same persons.

Deady also kept a personal journal which, comprising several volumes, recorded his own thoughts and activities during the last twenty-five years of his life and provided a unique account of Portland life and society. Also included are several folders of receipts from taxes and normal nineteenth century living expenses, cards and invitations collected over several years, and texts of speeches Deady gave in the 1870s and 1880s.

The collection is completed by several documents generated and added after Deady's death by his wife Lucy Ann Deady. Many of these are Lucy Deady's letters and items relating to the Deady family. Perhaps most significant of these is her autobiographical narrative describing her family's trek from Missouri to Oregon in 1846.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

The Oregon Historical Society is the owner of the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from the Research Library prior to any use of reproductions. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use of reproductions may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners.

Preferred Citation

Matthew Paul Deady papers, Mss 48, Oregon Historical Society Research Library

Alternative Forms Available

Transcriptions of the journals and diaries have been published as Pharisee among the Philistines : the diary of Judge Matthew P. Deady, 1871-1892, Malcolm Clark, Jr., ed. (Portland : Oregon Historical Society, c1975). Complete typescript transcriptions are included in the present collection.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into the following series

  • Series A: Lucy Deady letters, 1863-1923
  • Series B: Letters to Matthew P. Deady, circa 1850-1893
  • Series C: Letters from Deady and personal documents, circa 1854-1891
  • Series D: Journals of Matthew P. Deady, 1871-1892

Acquisition Information

Gift of Mrs. Matthew P. Deady, Dec. 1919.

Processing Note

At one time, most of the letters in the collection were given item numbers consisting of the first letter of the correspondent's surname followed by a serial number, such as "H195" (a letter from John Hughes). An earlier numbering system was abandoned, but those numbers still appear on each item along with the more recent numbers. The recent numbers gererally follow an alphabetical arrangement, however some items are not filed in alphabetical order. In addition, letters written by Deady were all designated "DD" followed by a serial number, such as "DD35." The present arrangement of the letters follows the item numbering system, although some numbers are missing from the sequence.

Separated Materials

A silk sash, worn by Matthew Deady at celebrations marking the arrival of the first transcontinental train to Portland, 1883, is located in the Artifact Collection of the Oregon Historical Society.

Bibliography

Malcolm Clark, Jr., ed. Pharisee among the Philistines : the diary of Judge Matthew P. Deady, 1871-1892 (Portland, Or. : The Oregon Historical Society, c1975)

Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of the life of Matthew P. Deady (San Francisco : The History Company, 1890)

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Contents List

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

Personal Names

Corporate Names

Geographical Names

Form or Genre Terms

Collection processed by James Labosier, Sept. 1996.
1996

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