Matthew Paul Deady was born in 1824 in Talbot County, Maryland. He studied law in Ohio and was admitted to the Ohio State Bar in 1847. He emigrated to Oregon in 1849, and in 1850 was elected to the Oregon territorial legislature, where he compiled the first book of Oregon laws. In 1853, he was appointed to the Oregon Territory Supreme Court. In 1857, he served as president of the Oregon Constitutional Convention. Although the territory's residents voted for Oregon to be a free state, Deady, a defender of slavery, won election to the state supreme court in 1858 on a pro-slavery ticket. He did not serve, instead accepting an appointment as Oregon's first U.S. District Court judge. He would remain in that role for more than 30 years, until his death. In the 1860 presidential election, Deady supported the ticket of John Breckenridge and Oregon Senator Joseph Lane over Abraham Lincoln, but later became a Republican during the Civil War. He never renounced his earlier stance on slavery.

In addition to his judicial career, Deady became a correspondent for the San Francisco Bulletin in 1863 to augment his income. He also helped to organize the Library Association of Portland, and was president of the University of Oregon Board of Regents for 20 years. He died on March 24, 1893.

Source: "Matthew Deady (1824-1893)," by Oliver Tatom, Oregon Encyclopedia, https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/deady_matthew_1824_1893_/