Mason Mathews

Mason Mathews
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates
from the Greenbrier district
In office
1859–1865
Preceded by Thomas Creigh
Succeeded by Seat abolished
Personal details
Born December 15, 1803
Lewisburg, Virginia (now West Virginia)
Died September 16, 1878 (aged 74)
Lewisburg, West Virginia
Resting place Old Stone Church, Lewisburg, West Virginia
Political party Whig
Spouse(s) Eliza Reynolds Mathews
Relations Mathews family
Occupation Merchant
Politician
Religion Presbyterian

Mason Mathews (December 15, 1803 - September 16, 1878) was an American politician. A Whig, he was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates for Greenbrier County during the American Civil War.

Raised in Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia), Mathews was a merchant by occupation. He represented Greenbrier County as its Virginia Delegate throughout secession of the American South and the American Civil War, despite it being taken into the Union on the formation of West Virginia in 1863. The seat was abolished from the House at war's end. In 1877 his son Henry M. Mathews was the first ex-Confederate elected to a governorship when he became governor of West Virginia.[1] This event represented the rise of the Bourbon Democrat.[1]

Early life

Mason Mathews was born on December 15, 1803 in Lewisburg, Virginia to Mary (née Edgar) and Joseph Mathews.[2] Archer Mathews, his father's uncle, was a founder of Lewisburg,[3] and Joseph moved his family to the city soon after its formation in 1782.[3][4][5] Mason was educated by his mother, and when his father became disabled after an injury he worked as a store clerk to support the family.[2] He married Eliza Shore Reynolds and had eight children: Mary Edgar, Sally Ann, Henry Mason, Virginia Amanda, Alexander Ferdinand, Joseph William, Eliza Thomas, and Sally Patton.[5]

He established a successful a mercantile business and sent his sons to be educated at the University of Virginia.[5][6] He was elected sheriff of Greenbrier County around 1825 and in 1830 was appointed its commissioner of the revenue.[2] He was additionally a justice of the peace for the cities of Frankford and Lewisburg.[5] In 1859 he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates for Greenbrier County as a member of the Whig Party, replacing Thomas Creigh.[7]

Wartime

Brigadier General Henry A. Wise. Mathews spent time in Wise's camp during his feud with fellow CSA general John B. Floyd.

Mathews, like many northwestern Virginians, opposed secession.[5][8] When the Ordinance of Secession passed, however, he claimed allegiance to the Confederate States of America.[5] Unionists from northwestern Virginia soon met at the Wheeling Convention to establish the Restored Government of Virginia.[8] Greenbrier County did not send a representative to the convention.[7] President Abraham Lincoln recognized the Restored Government, which encompassed Greenbrier County, as the legitimate authority for the whole of Virginia,[8] and in 1863 this area was incorporated into the new state of West Virginia.[9] Though living in the Union, Mathews traveled to Richmond, Virginia to represent his county in the Virginia House of Delegates throughout the war.[3]

On the outbreak of war, his sons volunteered for the Confederate States Army. Capt. Alexander F. Mathews was assigned as aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Henry A. Wise.[5] In summer 1861, General Wise and Brigadier General John B. Floyd began feuding over who was the superior officer in the western Virginia region. At the height of the feud, Floyd blamed Wise for the Confederate loss at the Battle of Carnifex Ferry. Wise placed the blame of Floyd, and threatened to withhold troops and supplies from Floyd.[10] Mason Mathews spent several days in the camps of both Wise and Floyd and afterward wrote to President Jefferson Davis urging that both men be removed, stating, "I am fully satisfied that each of them would be highly gratified to see the other annihilated."[11][12] Davis subsequently removed Wise from his command of the western Virginia region.[10]

He spent most of wartime in the Confederate capital of Richmond. At home in Lewisburg, his property was raided during the 1863 Union Army occupation. In a letter to a son he recalled, "[t]hey appropriated everything they wished when they went, many fared worse than I did."[5]

Postbellum

When the Confederacy dissolved, the Greenbrier County seat in the Virginia House of Delegates was abolished. Mathews, along with all Confederate soldiers and office holders, was barred from holding state office.[1]

In 1871, state rights were returned to former Confederates, allowing the Democratic party to gain control of the West Virginia legislature. Henry M. Mathews was sent as a delegate to the 1872 Constitutional Convention to overhaul the Republican-drafted 1863 West Virginia State Constitution.[13] In 1876 he was elected 5th governor of West Virginia from the Democratic Party. He was the first ex-Confederate elected to a governorship, and his election represented the beginning of the quarter-century era of the Bourbon Democrat.[1]

Mathews died of pneumonia in Lewisburg in 1878 and was buried at the Old Stone Church in Lewisburg, West Virginia.[5] West Virginia Governor George W. Atkinson, in Prominent Men of West Virginia (1890), said of him:

"In addition to being elected to numerous subordinate county positions, Mason Mathews was an efficient representative of Greenbrier County in the Legislature of Virginia. His many virtues and deserving qualities as a man both in public and private life caused him to be held in high esteem by his fellow citizens up to the time of his death."

 — George Wesley Atkinson, Prominent Men of West Virginia (1890).[14]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Addkison-Simmons, D. (2010) "Henry Mason Mathews". e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 11, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 "Mathews Family of Greenbrier". from "The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. (Chicago and New York:)", vol 2: pp. 7-9. Retrieved 2012-10-19
  3. 1 2 3 Rice, Otis K. 1986. A History of Greenbrier County. Greenbrier Historical Society, p. 132
  4. ↑ "The Credit of the County". Historical Booklet, Greenbrier Co., 1938. Retrieved 2012-10-19
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Combs, James Thurl (1987). "Greenbrier, C.S.A. Wartime Letters of Mason Mathews to his son Captain Joseph William Mathews, C.S.A." The Journal of the Greenbrier Historical Society (Parsons, West Virginia: Greenbrier Historical Society) V (1): 5-44.
  6. ↑ Riley, T. and Rucker, E. (1876). Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, Volume 7. Tribune Company Press: Harvard University. Retrieved December 28, 2012.
  7. 1 2 Leonard, Cynthia Miller 1978. The General Assembly of Virginia, July 30, 1619-January 11, 1978: a bicentennial register of members. Virginia State Library., pp 105, 109.
  8. 1 2 3 "VIRGINIA.; The Restored Government of Virginia--History of the New State of Things". The New York Times. June 26, 1864.
  9. ↑ A State of Convenience:The Creation of West Virginia. West Virginia Archives & History. Retrieved November 12, 2014.
  10. 1 2 "Confederate General Henry Wise Relieved of Duty; 'Contraband' Allowed in Navy". Civil War Daily Gazette. Retrieved November 21, 2012.
  11. ↑ Rice, Otis K. 1986. A History of Greenbrier County. Greenbrier Historical Society, p. 264
  12. ↑ Cowles, Calvin Duvall (1897). "The War of Rebellion: A compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Series 1 Volume 5. Government Print Office: 1897. Retrieved November 12, 2014.
  13. ↑ Stealey III, J. E. (2010). Constitutional Convention of 1872. e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 11, 2012.
  14. ↑ Atkinson, George Wesley (1928). "Prominent Men of West Virginia: Biographical Sketches...". W. L. Callin. West Virginia 1890. p 229. Retrieved November 12, 2014.
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