Butte County
Biographies
WILLIAM FREDERICK MATTHEWS
WILLIAM FREDERICK MATTHEWS.--A native of Butte County and the descendant of a pioneer family of California, William Frederick Matthews was born in Oroville, October 10, 1880, a son of Julius C. and Susan (Miller) Matthews. The father was born in Vermont, November 21, 1838; Grandfather Matthews, a physician, died in the South when Julius was three years old; the mother, Alpha (McClay) Matthews, was also a native of Vermont. She died when he was a babe, and Julius was raised by his grandfather and grandmother McClay. They were farmer folk, and in 1850 crossed the plains by ox team to California, settling in Santa Clara County, where they bought land, near San Jose, and engaged in farming, owning several thousand acres. Both died in Santa Clara County. Julius C. Matthews became a rancher in that county. He was married, in Stanislaus County, on the present site of Oakdale, April 14, 1865, to Miss Susan Miller, born near Frankfort, Pike County, Mo., and raised in Frankfort, a daughter of John Miller, a native of Virginia. Grandfather John Miller served in the Revolutionary War and was killed during that conflict. His wife, Mary (Richardson) Miller, came to Virginia, later moved to Missouri, and lived to the venerable age of ninety-three years. John Miller, 2nd, settled in Missouri and there his death occurred, in 1849. He married Susan Lewellen, who was born in Kentucky and came to Missouri with her parents, Samuel and Sarah (Eiler) Lewellen, they being among the earliest settlers of Pike County. Susan (Lewellen) Miller died there, in 1844. Mrs. Matthews, then Susan Miller, was raised by Grandmother Lewellen. Her oldest brother, Richard Miller, had come to California when seventeen years old, crossing the plains about 1851. He was living in Stanislaus County, engaged in stock-raising, and she came west to join him, making the journey on the steamer Illinois to Aspinwall, and crossing the Isthmus, then embarking on the steamer America for San Francisco, arriving in March, 1864. She resided with her brother in Stanislaus County until her marriage to Mr. Matthews.
After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Julius Matthews farmed in Santa Clara County until 1872, when they removed to Stanislaus County and there owned a ranch of three hundred twenty acres. When the town of Oakdale was first started, they moved there and built the third house in the new village. Mr. Matthews opened a meat market, which business he ran until 1878, when he sold it and removed to Oroville, Butte County. Here he bought a ranch and farmed and raised cattle and sheep until his death, July 15, 1895. He and his worthy wife were the parents of eight children, six of whom grew to maturity, as follows: Eudora, Mrs. Page, died at the age of twenty-six, in Oroville; Arthur, residing in Portland, Oregon; Herbert, of Oroville; Charles, of Oroville; William Frederick, of this review; Ruby, Mrs. Stout of Chico. Since 1898, the mother has resided in Chico.
“Fred” Matthews, as he is familiarly called, was reared and educated in Oroville, attending the public schools. After a year in the high school he entered the Chico State Normal and graduated with the Class of 1902. He had majored in bookkeeping, and after graduation became bookkeeper for the Sperry Flour Company and later assistant manager for that firm at Marysville. In 1908 he resigned and accepted a position as bookkeeper in the Butte County National Bank, a position which he filled with ability, and in August, 1915, was made assistant cashier of the bank.
The marriage of Mr. Matthews, which occurred in Oroville, united him with Miss Josephine Truitt, like her husband, a native of the county, bon in Chico, and educated in the public schools here, finishing with a course at the Chico State Normal, and is also a graduate of Heald’s Business College of San Francisco. She is a daughter of the late Solomon S. Truitt, whose biography is given on another page in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Matthews are the parents of one child, Marjorie Ellen.
Mr. Matthews has become favorably known throughout his home county as a man of sterling worth and a credit to his pioneer American ancestry. Fraternally, he is a member of Chico Parlor, No. 21, N. S. G. W., and is past president of that order, and also a past district deputy of same. He is active in the organization and intensely interested in preserving pioneer history and landmarks, knowing the value of such preservation to future generations.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1260-1261, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Joyce Rugeroni.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County
Biographies