A. W. Matthews, former county official, had been active in business affairs at Washington for upwards of twenty years, and had a well established business in real estate and loans. He individually owned considerable farming property and had made all he had by close attention to business and honorable and straight-forward relations.
Mr. Matthews was born on his father’s homestead in Cloud County, Kansas, November 23, 1874. His father, W. T. Matthews, who now lives at Miltonvale, Kansas, was born in Iowa in 1848. When he was a boy his parents moved to Kirksville, Missouri. Grand-father Matthews was in business at Kirksville for a number of years and died at the age of eighty-nine. The maiden name of the grandmother was Covey. She also died at Kirksville.
W. T. Matthews grew up in Kirksville, Missouri, and though very young at the time he enlisted and served until toward the close of the Civil war and did most of his fighting against the bushwhackers. In 1873 he brought his family to Kansas, homesteading 160 acres in Cloud County. He proved up on his land, and finally established the first store at Miltonvale and was active in business as a merchant until 1909, since which date he had lived retired. He is a republican and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. W. T. Matthews married Anna Raridon, who was born is Missouri in 1857. A record of their children is as follows: V. T. Matthews, an electrical engineer living at Marengo, Iowa; A. W. Matthews; Ida, wife of Fred Kuhnle, a retired land owner at Concordia, Kansas; Olara, wife of Idan Bumgardner, a farmer near Miltonvale; Laura, wife of Thomas Watson, a farmer at Brownell, Kansas; and Blanche, wife of Ezra Huscher, manager of the Concordia Ice and Cold Storage Company.
Mr. A. W. Matthews received his early education in the public schools of Miltonvale. At the age of eighteen he began learning the butcher’s trade, was in business at Miltonvale until November, 1899, and then moved to Washington, Kansas, where he continued the retail meat business until 1908. He was then elected to the office of register of deeds, filling that with admirable competence and judgment four years and in 1912 he entered the real estate and loan business with offices in the Farmers State Bank Building. He had built up a large clientage and is respected for his thorough ability and knowledge of his work.
Mr. Matthews owned a farm of 240 acres six miles southwest of Washington, another of 160 acres 7 1/2 miles southwest of the county seat, and one of 160 acres 2 1/2 miles southwest of Greenleaf. He had his home on Third Street in Washington, where he remodeled the house into a modern residence in 1916.
Mr. Matthews is a republican, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of the Commercial Club, and is affiliated with Frontier Lodge No. 104, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Solomon Lodge No. 152, Ancient Order of United Workmen, and Waters Camp No. 759 of the Modern Woodmen of America.
In June, 1896, at Miltonvale, he married Miss Margaret Mull, who is a native of Pennsylvania. They have two children: Neil, who lives at home and is employed by the Empire Oil and Gas Company, and Margaret, now in the senior class of the Washington High School.