local tavern. After receiving payment for his services, he sent $100 back to Ohio to Henry Kennon to pay off some debt. That summer he worked for Peter H. Burnett’s brother, Elder Glen Burnett, running his store while Burnett was in California acquiring supplies. While working at the store he sold many supplies to the local Native Americans and learned some Chinook jargon from them. On June 24, 1852, Deady married Lucy A. Henderson, with whom he had three children who survived childbirth. Lucy came to Oregon in 1846 with her parents Robert Henderson and Rhoda Holman from Kentucky. The Deady's children were three sons; Edward Nesmith (born 1853), Paul Robert (born 1856), and Henderson Brooke (born 1869). Henderson studied medicine, while Paul and Edward became attorneys like their father. Matthew Geoffrey (born 1860) and Mary (born 1866) died at birth. While practicing law at Lafayette he represented Adam Wimple of neighboring Polk County after Wimple had been charged for murdering his wife. Deady represented him at trial and was to receive as payment Wimple's land claim via his will. Wimple was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death, but was hanged only after being recaptured from a jail break. In 1852, Deady was among many legal minds and politicians in the territory such as Joseph C. Avery and Robert Moore that signed a petition asking Governor John P. Gaines to pardon Nimrod O'Kelly after O'Kelly's controversial conviction for the murder of Jeremiah Mahoney. O'Kelly was eventually spared from the gallows. Political career Deady was elected to the Oregon Territorial Legislature in 1850, where he represented Yamhill County as a Democrat in the lower chamber House of Representatives. He attended the session held in Oregon City beginning in December, where he met James W. Nesmith and Asahel Bush for the first time. Those three became influential leaders of the Democratic Party in the Oregon Territory, and later the state of Oregon. Deady was an early member of the Democratic Party in the territory. During his initial session in the territorial legislature in 1850, Deady served on the judicial committee and helped draft many of the laws in the territory. The Oregon Territory had just been created by the United States Congress in 1848, with the territorial government taking control in early 1849. Following the 1850 to 1851 session, the secretary of the territory, Edward D. Hamilton, asked Deady to