Reuben C. Matthewson

As printed in 1881

DR. REUBEN C. MATTHEWSON. Of the prominent men of Warrick county that have passed away none covered a longer period of usefulness than Dr. Reuben Clark Matthewson, one of the pioneer physicians of Indiana and a gentleman of rare attainments, who settled in this county at a very early day. He was born October 16, 1804, in Steuben county, New York. His parents, Oliver and Agnes Mattlu w son, lived to be very old. His father died very suddenly of apoplexy at the age of eighty-two, and his mother of heart dis-

Dr. Reuben C. Matthewson. 83 ease at seventy-five years of age. His mother, whose maiden name was Clark, was a descendant of a highly intellectual family and was a lady of extraordinary intellect. It is thought that the subject of this sketch inherited from her much of the talent and ability which he displayed throughout his career from boyhood to old age. In 1817 the family moved from New York to Princeton, Gibson county, Indiana, where the parents ever afterwards lived and are now buried. Reuben was thirteen years old at this time and had attended school very little, but when quite young he evinced a love, if not a passion, for books and music, vvhi':h he maintained till old age, although averse to the wishes of his father, who wanted him to be a carpenter, the trade which he himself followed. At about this time the son was sent to school to Dr. Ira Bostwick, a gentleman of scholastic attainments and polished manners Between the two there became a warm attachment, which continued until the death of Dr. Bostwick, many years after the manhood of his pupil. At a later period in life he received tuition in Princeton from William Chittenden, a gentleman of literary attainments, and doubtless it was here that he obtained most of his education. At this time he was twenty years old, quiet and reserved, evincing a marked passion for books, and reading much in solitude.

He expressed to his father a desire to read medicine, but Mr. Matthewson tried to discourage him, telling him that he did not possess the capacity or scholarship to engage in such high notions. However, he was permitted to enter the office of Dr. Charles Fullerton, a practicing physician in Princeton of more than ordinary ability for that time and place. Dr. Fullerton was also a fine musician and a teacher of both vocal and instrumental music. Here the student of medicine spent some of his leisure tiie in learning melodics and harmonics which were of great use to him early in life. He also studied the languages, particularly

84 Warrick and its Prominent People.

Latin, French and German, and for several years he was a regular subscriber and reader of:i German newspaper.

He was licensed to practice medicine at the age of twenty-one and at once located in Boonville. This was in 1825, seven years after Boonville was laid out. It was a village of about fifty inhabitants at that time, and Dr. Matthewson was the only physician, Dr. Pasco, who came first, having died in 1824.

He was married February 16, 1828, to Lorinda Baldwin, a young lady of good family and a native of New York. Her parents were among the earliest residents of Boonville. She died August 19th, 1860, a little more than forty-eight years old, after a lingering illness, greatly lamented by all her numerous friends and relatives. Their children were five in.number, three sons and two daughters. Two of the sons died in 1847, before they had arrived at manhood. The surviving son is Mr. Charles Clark Matthewson, who resides at the old homestead and is engaged in the drug business in Boonville. He inherits to a large extent his father's love of music and books, and lives quietly in the enjoyment of his favorite pastimes. Isabella Helen, the second child and eldest daughter, was married in April, 1850, to Dr. W. G. Ralston, and now resides at Evansville. Lucy Maria, the other daughter and youngest child, the favorite of her father, and a beautiful and highly accomplished young lady, was married to John Brackenridge in April, 1876, and died two months afterwards.

In some business speculations about 1832 or 1833 r- Matthewson became much involved financially. Therefore, he relinquished his practice in Boonville and went to Bardstown, Kentucky, where he was made professor of music of the college at that place. He filled the chair with entire satisfaction for several years and then returned to his home and the practice of

Dr. Reuben C. Matthewson. 85 his profession, having made enough in the meantime to pay all his liabilities and start him anew.

Dr. Matthewson was a hard student of medicine, as his books show by their marginal annotations. He was a very skillful, successful, and, consequently, popular physician. In his diagnosis and prognosis of disease he excelled most practitioners; hence, to his opinion was given great weight in critical and doubtful cases. He was not a graduate, having attended only a partial course of lectures in the Ohio Medical College, yet he knew more about the real and scientific principles and details of medical science than very many of the professors and teachers in the medical colleges of the day. He practiced his profession in Boonville with the exception of the time he was engaged in teaching music in Bardstown College, for nearly fifty years.

He was a prudent and successful business man and was always regarded as honest and upright.

He was for many years skeptical in religious matters, but later in life he often said that his former notions had undergone a change and that he now entertained the hope and belief that the soul was immortal and would live in the future.

He was entertaining in conversation, having read almost everything that he considered worthy perusal. In physical appearance he was full and erect. His complexion was florid, and he had sparkling hazel eyes and red hair when young, which became almost white before his death. His weight was about 160 pounds and his height five feet ten inches.

In politics Dr. Matthewson was a Whig and afterwards a Republican. He was never a candidate for political favor, but he held the office of postmaster of Boonville from 1841 to 1845.

During his career of active life, covering a period of fifty years, he was identified as foremost in everything tending to the business or social advancement and improvement of his town and

80 Warrick and its Prominent People.

county. He was naturally looked upon as a leading citizen, and was held in the highest esteem by all. He was of a sociable disposition and in a quiet way was very benevolent.

During the last years of his life he was in a feeble state of health, which was doubtless a gradual softening of the brain, and on June 22, 1876, after a brief illness, supposed to be heart disease, the surroundings of his long, useful life,

" Saw, in death, his eyelids close,

Calmly, as to a night's repose,

Like flowers at set of sun."

William Scales, who was a pioneer of Indiana territory, and a man of conspicuousness in the early days of Warrick county, was born in North Carolina, in April, 1785. Early in the eighteenth century a family named Scales was banished from Scotland on account of their liberal ideas. They came to the United States, and it is probable that they settled in North Carolina. It is thought that William Scales was a descendant of this family. In 1 803 he was married to Mary Skelton, of Georgia, and during the same year they emigrated to Warren county, Kentucky. In 1807 he came to Indiana and settled in what is now Gibson county, near Princeton. The white men in this part of the country at that time were "few and far between." Settlers twenty miles apart were as neighbors. He constructed a hut of a right-angle triangular shape, with poles, bark and skins, the manner in which the houses of most pioneers were at that time built, and lived in it with his family for sometime, before the more substantial log cabin could be built. A tribe of Indians lived in close proximity to where Mr Scales had decided to settle and shortly after his arrival they came trotting over to his hut in single file to see him. One of the Indians approached

William Scales. 87 him and said,;' White man trust Indian, Indian trust white man," meaning that they would be his friend if he would trust them. They then asked that they might keep his eldest boy one day, promising io return with him when the sun went down. Afraid to refuse lest the savages should become offended he very reluctantly consented to the proposition after a consultation with his wife, and one of the Indians, taking the boy on his shoulders, they trotted away in the same direction they had come. For the father and mother alone in the wilderness, with no friend near, and wholly at the mercy of a band of savages, it was a day of painful anxiety. Now and then they shuddered with the fear that the Indians would prove treacherous, and that they would never again see their boy alive. Night was fast drawing near, and the sun was gradually sinking beneath the horizon. The father's hope began to grow weaker, and he impatiently awaited the end of the time allotted for their return. With fixed eyes he watched the sun disappear entirely in the west and he then turned in the direction the Indians had gone, ready to face any danger, but his face lighted up with a smile of sudden delight, and his heart beat fast with joy as he saw them in the distance coming with his boy. They came trotting up in the same manner they had left and deposited the son at the father's feet. The old Indian then patted the grateful parent on the shoulder, and said, "White man trust Indian; Indian white man's friend always." Forever afterward the Indians and William Scab's were good friends.

On account of the prevalence of wild animals at (hat time no stock could be raised, and hence, their meats consisted wholly of wild game, of which there was an abundance of all kinds. The manner of grinding or rather washing corn for the purpose of making bread of it, was by following out a stump in which it was mashed by a huge maul. Then the pioneers were into-

88 Warrick and its Prominent People.

[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]

In 1811 Mr. Scales enlisted as first sergeant in Captain Hargrave's company in the war of 1812, and he participated in the battle at Tippecanoe. After the close of the war he removed to what is now the northeastern part of Warrick county, settling near Selvin. His occupation was principally that of a farmer, although he taught school a great deal of the time. He was accustomed to reading, and possessed what at that time and place was a very uncommon education. Consequently, his services during the greater part of his life were of a public or official nature. He was twice assessor of Warrick county. In 1843 he was elected sheriff of the county and held the office two years. He was elected county treasurer in 1847 and was holding this office at the time of his death. He raised a family of sixteen children, nine girls and seven boys, and has a large number of descendants still living in the county.

He was a man of fine physique and a true type of the ' ' old Scotch gentleman." He was of a sociable, mirthful disposition, and possessed a fund of thrilling and amusing anecdotes of personal experience in his early settlement. He died in Boonville in 1848, at the place where Hon. B. S. Fuller now lives.

As printed in Warrick and its prominent people : a history of Warrick County, Indiana from the time of its organization and settlement, with biographical sketches of some of its prominent people of the past and pre (1881). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.