Los Angeles County
Biographies
LEE D. MATHEWS
Lee D. Mathews is well known and successful attorney of Los Angeles, where he has resided continuously during the past three decades and has figured prominently in the fraternal and civic affairs aside from his professional activities. Born in Iola, Kansas, July 5, 1887, a son of Louis D. and Adelaide (Marley) Mathews, he spent his boyhood days in the Sunflower state, and graduated from high school at the age of seventeen years and afterward studied law in his father’s offices for a year and a half. In 1905 he came to California, taking up his permanent abode in Los Angeles, where in the following year he entered the employ of the Los Angeles Railway Company, with which he was connected until 1915. In the latter year he took a position with the school department, resumed the study of law through special courses in the University of Southern California and private instructions and in 1918 was admitted to practice in all the courts of California upon first examination. His clientage is extensive and his name has figured prominently in connection with many important cases which have established his reputation as a leading member of the Los Angeles Bar. His offices are in the Walter P Story building at 610 South Broadway.
In 1910 Mr. Mathews was united in marriage to Lillian Robertson, born in Michigan, and they are the parents of six children: Thelma L., June K., Betty A., Jean A., Virginia Lee, and Joan.
In fraternal circles Mr. Mathews is widely known. He joined the Knights of Pythias in 1919 and the following year served the local lodge as chancellor commander or presiding officer. He served for four years as president of the Bureau of Relief of the Knights of Pythias of the City of Los Angeles and for three years as district deputy grand chancellor of District 30, comprising all the lodges of Los Angeles County. Thereafter he was elected grand prelate of the state and served in that capacity for one year. He served for one year as grand vice-chancellor and for a similar period as grand chancellor of the State of California. He made personal contacts and gained many friends in the two hundred and twenty-five distinct communities in the state, and in May 1931, he was selected supreme lodge, and also was special deputy supreme chancellor for California, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. While grand chancellor, in 1930, Mr. Mathews instrumental in organizing the California State Fraternal Congress, comprising twenty-six fraternal organizations, representing four hundred fifty thousand fraternalists in California; this organization is still progressively active. He also has membership in the Independent order of Odd Fellows, Moneta Lodge No. 405 Free and Accepted Masons and in the Eastern Star. Mr. Mathews is a member of the State Bar of California.
Always active in civic affairs, Mr. Mathews was president of the Southwest Improvement Association for five years and also served as president of the Southwest Radiant Club. In 1922 he assisted in the incorporation of the Los Angeles Joint Fraternal Association and the Los Angeles Fraternal Free Employment Association, and he is still active in the interest of the unemployed. Strong in his individuality, he never lacks the courage of his convictions, but there are as dominating elements in his individuality a lively human sympathy and an abiding charity, which, as taken in connection with the sterling integrity and honor of his character, have naturally gained him with respect and confidence of men.
Transcribed
By: Michele Y. Larsen on November 30, 2012.
Source:
California of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty,
Pages 518-520, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis.
1933.
© 2012 Michele
Y. Larsen.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES