Biographical Sketch of Benjamin Matchett Jr.

The subject of this sketch was born in Essex County, England, on the 3d of December, 1840, and continued to reside there till his fourteenth year, when his parents immigrated to America, bringing him with them. They landed in New York, but soon went to Cornwall, Canada. The father took a contract of track-laying on the Grand Trunk Railroad, in Canada, and Benjamin was his time-keeper. From there the latter went to Indiana, where he finished his education in a select school under John Loyd. In August, 1861, he enlisted, for national preservation, in Company C, of the Twenty-ninth Indiana … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Benjamin Matchett Sr.

Benjamin Matchett was born in Stickney, England, May 24, 1812. He grew up and was educated in his native country, and began life as a railroad contractor, and assisted in building several roads in England. In 1855 he left the country of his birth and came to America, landing in New York. From there he went to Cornwall, Canada West, where he took a contract for laying track on the Grand Trunk Railway. In July, 1856, he went to LaPorte, Indiana, where he began farming, continuing there till the spring of 1868, and then coming to Missouri. He settled in … Read more

Biography of J. T. Matchett

J. T. Matchett, the subject of this sketch was born in Halifax, Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, March 5, 1838. His father, George Matchett, was a native of Ireland, and his mother, Mary Matchett, was born in the Keystone State. At the age of twenty years our subject migrated to Ohio and settled in Muskingum county, where he lived until 1862. In September of that year he enlisted in Company A, Seventy-eighth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Capt. T. P. Wilson and Col. M. D. Leggett. After a three months’ stay in camp near Zanesville, the regiment reported ready for duty, and … Read more