Richard M. Matson and Gertrude Haines

---

---

Husband Richard M. Matson ^{1 2}

---

           Born: 1845 - Brookville, Jefferson Co, PA 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

---

         Father: Uriah Matson (      -1895) 3 4
         Mother: Minerva Reynolds (Abt 1827-1847) 1 5

---

       Marriage: 

---

   Other Spouse: Elsie Busby (      -1908) 1 6 - 1866 6

---

---

Wife Gertrude Haines ⁶

---

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

---

         Father: Eli Haines (      -      ) 6
         Mother: 

---

---

Children

---

---

General Notes: Husband - Richard M. Matson

---

As he was but two years old when his mother died, he went to live with his grandparents on the old Matson homestead in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, where he remained up to the age of fifteen, meantime receiving excellent educational advantages. After completing the course in the Brookville schools he attended Beaver Academy for one year, and then began his business training as clerk in his father's store. In his youth he also devoted himself earnestly to the study of law, to such good purpose that he was admitted to the bar in 1866, the year he attained his majority, and he gave considerable time to the practice of law until 1884, meeting with gratifying success in that line. He had the confidence of the community to such an extent even then that he was a candidate for the office of district attorney in the year 1867, and was defeated by only a small majority. His business interests having attained such proportions that they needed more attention, he gave up the law in 1884, and thereafter was occupied with commercial affairs of various kinds. In 1884 he bought an interest in a lumber establishment in Forest County, Pennsylvania, and during the four and a half years following spent practically all his time in the woods there, acquiring a familiarity with the business. Returning to Brookville at the end of that time he took charge of his father's business there, and thereafter had valuable mercantile and lumbering interests there. In 1891, associated with his sons, he established a brickyard at Falls Creek, Jefferson County, under the firm name of R. M. Matson, Sons & Co. His son Uriah J. Matson had charge of that plant for a number of years, until it was sold out in 1912. The capacity was forty thousand brick daily, and employment was given to about thirty men. The product included drain tile, water table, window caps, hollow building brick, and various other useful articles.
In August, 1894, the lumber firm of Heidrick, Matson & Co. was organized to purchase and exploit the Litch lands in Jefferson county, for which they paid $135,000. Their development was begun immediately, the mill and stream being changed to meet the requirements of modern lumbering, and $12,000 was laid out in the construction of a railroad to connect the mill and yards with the main line of the Allegheny Valley road. Up-to-date machinery was installed in the mill and its capacity brought up to 100,000 feet daily, making it one of the best plants of the kind in western Pennsylvania. In the winter of 1895 the company extended its operations, taking a contract from Truman, Henderson & Co., owners of a large tract of lumber in Polk township, Jefferson county, to saw and deliver on the tracks of the Allegheny Valley road at Brookville all the lumber on their lands, estimated at from sixty million to seventy million feet. To carry out this contract it was necessary to lay fourteen miles of railroad, which was built and equipped in the summer of 1896 at a cost of over $100,000. The firm made a number of smaller purchases of timber besides the original investment, in order to provide work for the mill, and continued to do a heavy business for several years. However, they sold their local interests in 1898, but Mr. Heidrick and Mr. Matson were associated in a number of big enterprises of a similar nature later. In 1899 they engaged in the lumber business at Westboro, Taylor County, Wisconsin, and about the same time organized the Leather Wood Lumber Company, in West Virginia. In 1907 they organized and purchased the Black Warrior Lumber Company at Demopolis, Alabama, Mr. Matson having responsible executive duties in connection with all, as president for many years of the Leather Wood Company and as vice president of the other two companies.
In 1903 he was one of the organizers of the Brookville Title & Trust Company, of which he was the first president, filling the office about eight years, until he resigned; he did not withdraw from participation in the conduct of the bank, however, for he was a director, and was chairman of the board.
With all his private interests, Mr. Matson found time for public affairs also. He served on the Brookville council when the paving, sewage and lighting systems were being introduced. In 1914 he was a candidate for the position of Congressman from the 27th Pennsylvania district, comprising the counties of Armstrong, Clarion, Indiana and Jefferson, and though defeated by a small vote had the satisfaction of carrying his home county, the first time in forty years that a Democrat succeeded in doing so; furthermore, he carried Polk township, being the first Democrat who ever polled a winning vote there. The Democratic party always received his hearty support, and he was a warm admirer of William Jennings Bryan, for whom he stumped the state in 1896, and he was a delegate to the National convention of the party held in 1908 at Denver, when Bryan received the presidential nomination. Mr. Matson's religious connection was with the Methodist Episcopal Church. [HJC 1817 II, 22]

1 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion. (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1898), Pg 1276.

2 —, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 21.

3 —, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 22.

4 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion. (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1898), Pg 1093, 1276.

5 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 371.

6 —, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 23.