Alameda
County
Biographies
ANTOINE
MATTY
ANTOINE MATTY. That the pent-up enthusiasm of men born under
hampering monarchial conditions is largely responsible for the development of
this great continent, finds ample confirmation in almost any populous district
between the two oceans. A capacity for
infinite painstaking, healthy satisfaction in moderate advancement, and
avoidance of purely speculative enterprises, combined with the zest imparted by
greater liberty under the Stars and Stripes, produces a working force equaled
but rarely by the American born. An
instance at hand is the career of Antoine Matty,
owner of almost all of the public buildings of Wrights, and from his advent
here in 1888, until 1901, a thorough-going and particularly successful hotel
man. Mr. Matty
is a long way from the surroundings of his youth, yet in many respects he is
able to realize the advantages of his Mediterranean washed home in Marseilles,
France, the climate being similar, although the international stir and bustle
of the greatest seaport town of France is wanting. He was born April 20, 1840, and is the
third of the seven children born to Francis Matty,
who during his active life, was a cabinet-maker in his
native city of Marseilles. Francis Matty never knew any other home than Marseilles, and he
died there at the age of sixty-seven, having been born in 1800. His ancestors were thrifty tradespeople, but
through his marriage with Teressa Columbet
he became allied with a family of scholars.
His wife was born in a little village in the Alps, sixty miles from
Nice, and her father was not only a highly educated man, but his brother
possessed sufficient learning to become tutor of the children of the Prince of
Italy. Teressa
Matty died four years before her husband, in
1863.
Antoine Matty
attributes much of his success in life to the influence and help of his
mother’s family. When he was thirteen
years old his uncle, Joseph Columbet, brought him to
New York City, arriving in May, 1853, and going from there to Missouri the same
summer. There the uncle purchased a
drove of cattle, and with the assistance of his nephew
drove the same to California, locating on a ranch near the Mission San Jose in
Alameda county, in October, 1853. In
1855 Antoine Matty left his uncle’s employ and with another
uncle, Peter Columbet, built the Warm Springs resort,
afterwards justly famous, and now the property of Mrs. Leland
Stanford. His experience at the resort
proving both congenial and successful, he went to the mines of Virginia City
and started a hotel, expecting a long era of prosperity. Failing health necessitated the disposal of
the hotel at the end of six months, and after a short sojourn in San Francisco
he returned to the Warm Springs resort.
In 1860 he became part owner with his uncle, Clement Columbet,
of a ranch in Tulare county, and in 1861 started a
hotel on Market street in San Jose, which he operated for two years. The following eight years were devoted to a
grocery business on Market street, San Jose, and in
1868 he started a pork-packing business in the same town. His success was not such, however, as to
justify a continuation of the enterprise after the first train ran over the
Union Pacific from Chicago, loaded with ham, bacon, lard and provisions. Subsequently, for a short time he was
associated with the wholesale meat concern of A. C. Ham &
Company, of San Jose.
Mr. Matty’s
active association with Wrights began in the spring of 1888, his success and
business ability preceding him, and making him a welcome adjunct to the town’s
affairs. Foreseeing the advantages of
location, soil and climate, he has unreservedly invested in real estate, and
to-day is the largest taxpayer within the corporation. In 1903 he erected one of the substantial
residences in the town, which is noted for its hospitality and good cheer, and
the simplicity and elegance of its furnishings.
In 1865 Mr. Matty married Sarah Sloaman, who was born in Ireland, and died in Wrights
November 26, 1903. Of the six
children of this family Teressa, namesake of
Mr. Matty’s mother, is deceased; Frank is a
business man of Wrights; Louis is deceased; Thomas is a resident of Wrights;
Anna Josephine and Alice reside at home.
Mr. Matty is a stanch[sic]
adherent of Democratic principles, and served as school trustee of East San
Jose for one term. He is prominent
fraternally, and one of the honored members of Mount Hamilton Lodge
No. 43, A.O.U.W., of San Jose. With
his family he is a member of the Catholic Church.
Transcribed by Donna Toole.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 481-482. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Donna Toole.
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